I have some strategy thoughts:
- companies can't trace through hubs owned by other companies. so box those bot-owned companies in hard
- use nat 1s when possible to get out of situations where you can't do what you want to do and timing is important
- use nat 6s when possible to do things you usually can't do; city bypasses and extra presidential bonuses for the right companies are pretty necessary
- capital resources are best saved for the final turns of the last round to avoid double pass situations that could end the game too early for you to catch up
- and ofc watching map control points and stock ownership fights, which feel like they're probably normal 18xx concerns
Those nat 1s and 6s are incredible tools.