Your turf: I’m the boss around here!

“You wanna be a gangster, kid? Go be a gangster. But if you want to be a gangster in my town, then you’ll pay me for the privilege.”

Your map, and your territory, is made up of “corners”. Hopefully most of the corners will have businesses on them, because if they don’t, they’ll cost you money to expand into, but they won’t generate any money for your fronts.

Businesses

“Should I be concerned that there’s blood on some of these crates?”
“Not unless it’s yours.”

Businesses are there for you to buy things from, such as production ingredients or building materials, or you can sell things to them – primarily booze. There are a few different other materials you can sell, but they’re sadly very limited in number.

To trade with a business you’ll need to have a good relationship with them. If you don’t, and your score is negative, they’ll tell you to go away – they don’t do business with the likes of you. (Playing as an Italian with The Italian Outfit DLC makes this process a lot smoother.) To get the relationship level up, you can use up a Favor to have someone that knows them put in a good word for you, or simply give it time.

A low (but not negative) relationship score can usually improve if you buy something from them. It doesn’t necessarily move the relationship higher to buy more than once during the same turn, so it’s often better to buy a little from them during consecutive turns instead.

Killing one of their family members? Nothing will sour your relationship with them quicker – and you will not be able to recover from it before Prohibition ends, not even if the killing happened really early in the game. Family members do not forgive and forget.

You can see what each business wants to sell or buy by hovering your mouse pointer over the shop. If you only see and “there’s not much here, is there?” in the dialogue then it means you need to use up a Favor with another business they know in order to get an introduction, and/or you haven’t unlocked that type of booze yet.

Businesses are the ones you can accrue Favors with, and they’re the people you seek out to hire new crew, learn new skills to open new backroom operations, go on missions for, ask to be your fronts, and extort money from.

Special buildings

Some types of businesses are worth noting because they fulfill specific legacy goals.

Hotels

When you come across a hotel, and there are two different kinds (note the color of its bell symbol), you’ll need someone to introduce you. They can’t sell you anything, but they buy T4 alcohol, and plenty of it.

To fulfill the luxury hotel “tied house” legacy goal, you need to have a luxury hotel in your territory and pay to have an exclusive deal with them. They don’t have to be front.

Longshoremen’s Hall

The longshoremen has no specific function other than being a feather in your cap at the end of the game. Contrary to the name, they don’t have to be found anywhere near water. They’re a labor union.

Since they sell nothing, you need someone to introduce you to do business. Spoiler: They only buy T3 alcohol barrels, but they pay well. When you get a barrel in your possession, whether it’s brandy, rum, vodka or whiskey, selling the longshoremen one barrel at any point will fulfill the condition for the legacy goal at the end of the game to have done business with them at least once.

Safe Houses

If you find a safe house in someone else’s territory, there’s nothing you can do with it unless the hooligan or last person in a rival outfit in charge of it have been taken down. It then turns red, to show that it’s abandoned.

The safe house will remain in place until you’ve looted it, so you can take your time to get a few people in place before you all descend on it, because you need everyone to be there in the same turn. If you start looting and then wait for someone else to join in the looting next turn, it’s too late. It will have disappeared from the map.

As long as the safe house is untouched, the enemy territory remains on the map. The turn after you [start to] loot the safe house, the the territory reverts to neutral.

Your own safe house doesn’t have a specific marker. It’s the building you start the game with. It’s where you need to have the money available to pay families of fallen crew members, and money/goods for schemes. It’s also where newly recruited corner hooligans arrive in their cars, and any cars or trucks you buy.

Train Stations

There are two kinds of train stations you can come across in the game: passenger and cargo. They don’t have to be immediately on a railway line, but will usually be found somewhere near the end of one.

When you find a passenger station and add it to your territory, all your crew members get +1 Action (+1 Movement on Epic). A freight station adds +2 Movement. Having two of the same kind of station doesn’t get you additional AP/MP, because they don’t stack.

To utilize a train station’s functions you need someone to introduce you to the station manager. Check who they know and who you have a Favor with. You then need to have paid off the local precinct cop before the person will talk business with you. When the cops are paid off, you get a Mission to get the station manager $2000 to pay off the transport cops. Once that’s done, they’re open for business.

	Passenger train station schedule
January to April	Raid the railway police armory to get weapons for -$500 per raid, which normally gives you a choice of 5 pistols, possibly Winchester rifles depending on how many you already have. This is one way to get guns, as you can’t buy them anywhere.
May to August	Imports T1+T2 alcohol from the countryside for -$500 per import. If you have unlocked the skill Booze Barrels, you instead import T3 barrels (choose between 5 Brandy, 6 Rum, 6 Vodka, or 3 Whiskey) for -$1500 per import.
September to December	Export T1+T2 surplus alcohol for cash.

The May to August mission can sometimes go away. A probable cause for this is if you have productions that make booze barrels for you.

	Freight train station schedule (early game)	Freight train station schedule (later in game)
January to April	Give -$500 and exchange T1 alcohol crocks for T2 alcohol bottles, e.g. hand in 45 Brick Wine and receive 80 Counterfeit Wine in return, or hand in 45 Homemade Beer and receive 80 Backroom Beer.	For 10 Bottles and -$1000, you receive T3 alcohol, depending on month: Jan: 150 Bottled Whiskey. Feb: 150 Bottled Brandy. Mar: 150 Bottled Whiskey. Apr: 150 Bottled Brandy.
May to August	Same mission as previous period.	Same cost as previous period. May: 150 Bottled Whiskey. Jun: 150 Bottled Brandy. Jul: 150 Bottled Whiskey. Aug: 150 Bottled Rum.
September to December	Same mission as previous period.	Same cost as previous period. Sep: 150 Bottled Rum. Oct: 150 Bottled Rum. Nov: 150 Bottled Vodka. Dec: 150 Bottled Vodka.

The later in-game importing has been known to stop working. Presumably when you make T3 booze yourself in some capacity.