Somewhere on the Northwest Frontier - Armored train ambush

[mikos khan]

Last Friday at our usual hangout (Great Escape Games in Sacramento) we put on a train ambush game using a recently completed armored train (built/converted from a box of old Lionel train cars).  The scenario was that a British armored train carrying a "rescued" Afghan princess and a recently recovered army payroll were ambushed by a coalition of Northwest Frontier tribes (Pashtuns, Afghanis etc).  A turn by turn account of the action was provided by Leadfool and is included below. 

  Turn 1. Speed”, lost 2 inches movement.  4 Arabs and 1 Brit killed.  2 Arab units pinned.

Turn 2 train speed 7 slowed to 5 inches.  7 Arabs killed including 3 camel 🐪 riders.

Turn 3 Train slow again by 2” but the Brits got 1 inch back.  7 Arabs killed, caboose boarded.  Armored car enters table.

Turn 4, train lost 1” speed, Engine boarded, caboose fight, Brits on Hopper car pinned.  3Turks on the mag crew killed.  7 Arabs killed 1 Brit killed by rifle fire.  Melee in caboose a tie with 1 dead each.

Turn 5, Engine captured.  train speed to stop next turn.  2Brits killed by Turk mmg.  Affability regular heavy weapons squad, kills 2 Brits and then is destroyed by British.

Turn 6 train stopped.  4 Arabs die attempting to board train.  The remainder of the unit dies in Melee.  New Train arrives catching up with armored train.  Pin on squad in hopper car.  Melee in Box car,  Sophia screams!

Turn 7, train stopped.  Tank car captured, caboose melee again.  Attacking Tuaregs unit losses 1/2 strength and is pinned from combined rifle and Mmg fire.  Unit in building now below 50 percent.

Turn 8 some more shooting and “Game over dude” called.

Due to the numbers of photos taken I am omitting my usual game commentary but I will try to keep the pics in some semblance of order so you can follow the action.  Photos below. 

[mikos khan]

The train

[mikos khan]

The Arabs attack

[mikos khan]

The caboose is attacked

[mikos khan]

Still in pursuit. 

[mikos khan]

Attacking the engine

[mikos khan]

Machine gun attack

[mikos khan]

Defending the train

[mikos khan]

The attack continues.

[mikos khan]

A train captured by the Arabs arrives with reinforcements. 

[mikos khan]

The Arabs board the passenger car but are unable to rescue the Emir's concubine. 

[mikos khan]

Arabs make a final unsuccessful attack on the train - game is called. 

[scotty]

Great looking game

[leadfool]

The game twist we used was having the train stay stationary and having the terrain move.  That gave the impression of the train moving.  The train is almost 6 feet long.  Engine, Coal tender, tank car, hopper box car, second hopper and caboose.  There were medium machineguns (mmg) on the box car, a turret on the "Tank Car" a mmg turret on the caboose and each hopper car had a light gun and a light machinegun (lmg) or mmg on it.  The hopper cars were considered lightly armored.  But both sides had a negative shooting modifier while the train was moving.  the Arabs could attempt to board the train from horse back or from terrain that was near the tracks.  Sometimes that went well for them other times not so much.   When the train was stopped, or if the horses were going the exact same speed as the train, there was only a 10 percent chance of failure.  That was when the Arabs managed to roll a natural "1" on their dice 4 times and lose most of a squad attempting to board. 

The Arabs had a gun in support, two mmgs with Turkish crews and an Afghani regular heavy weapons squad.  A small unit of camel riders, that had a better chance of boarding the train, 4 units of cavalry that could recycle, and lots of infantry.  We had rider less horses showed where the cavalry boarded the train. 

The Arabs could throw up track blocks, to slow the train by d3 inches.  The train could attempt to regain that speed by rolling to throw extra coal on the fire. 

The Indigenous squad that managed to leap on to the tender from a hill outcropping was crucial.  Despite a 50% chance of failure, 7 of ten got on the train.  They managed to force the engineer to stop the train, and then start attacking the cars from the front end. 

If we do this again, we may have the armored train start a little faster and make slowing it down more difficult. 

[Vynnie]

I’m now looking for a game where you get critical hits by rolling 1s on a handful of D10. Because apparently I have a talent ….