Last Train Home

I haven't posted on this topic in a while because there isn't much to report. I play the Red army camp scenario. I get my
a** kicked. Rinse and repeat. There. You are up to date. I think I just took my 7th straight defeat.
However...I have an excuse. I finally figured out what's happened. At one point I trigger enemy reinforcements. About 8-9
of them. Not a problem. However, after that firefight it triggers more reinforcements, about 8-10. I should be able to handle
them as well, but.... they have a Red Officer with them. As soon as he sees any of my troops big red circles start to appear over
my positions. And then just a few seconds later...INCOMING! Arty rounds land all over me and kill everyone regardless as to
the state of cover they may be in. It took me a while to understand what was going on as the defeats piled up. At least now I
know and my last couple of efforts have been close.
What is odd is sometimes that 2nd wave of reinforcements doesn't show up at all (You Tube vids). Other times they will walk
into prepared ambushes. I cannot seem to trigger them to continue down the road to my MGs. They get bored and turn around
and walk back the way they came. The mission requires I kill the officer so I have to move out of my defenses and go chase
him which is a terrible idea.
Anyway, I still have ideas how to deal with this and think #8 will be the charm.
 
I played the camp in the demo and managed to win it after just one defeat - which was caused by a Maxim machinegun and me assuming that I can kill it by shooting the crate with explosives placed next to it. Oops - not quite. The squad got gunned down.
The final two waves just walked into the MG trap and died. The officer fought with his pistol.
Maybe it helped that I destroyed the two guns first. Or was the artillery coming from off-map?

I found the rationale for this mission ("We want to stay neutral, but let's attack this training camp and help the poor villagers by killing the poor villagers who agreed to enlist in the Red Army") as well as the villagers' reaction after the successful completion (won't spoil that for you) utterly absurd. I wouldn't attack the camp at all in the same situation and just continue on my way. I did attack in the game because it is game content and I want to play the game, of course.
 
Well the Camp seemed like a good objective for XP and resources and it was. Was just hoping for a bit
more.
Last attempt succeeded although not entirely sure what was the direct cause of taking the Ofc down.
I had a couple of MGs firing on the large column and flanking fire from a couple riflemen w/a grenadier
tossing some HE. The Ofc seems to be acting as an F.O. for arty or mortars. Whatever it is it arrives too
damned quickly for realism sake. Besides radios weren't a "thing" back then so no idea how the whole
process is supposedly working. Don't care as me and my train are now on the outskirts of Penza. It "only"
has a threat level of L2 so hoping to avoid the Reds performing beyond their pay grade again. The Camp
was an L3 and Moscow was an L4.
I really hope that this arty issue is not going to be a common occurrence for the AI to level the playing
field..no pun intended.
 
Drifter Man said:
I found the rationale for this mission ("We want to stay neutral, but let's attack this training camp and help the poor villagers by killing the poor villagers who agreed to enlist in the Red Army") as well as the villagers' reaction after the successful completion (won't spoil that for you) utterly absurd. I wouldn't attack the camp at all in the same situation and just continue on my way. I did attack in the game because it is game content and I want to play the game, of course.
Click to expand...

I haven't played it, but the whole game seems a bit like that to me. From the Steam page:

"BASED ON HISTORICAL EVENTS: Last Train Home, is a compelling narrative that portrays the experiences of the Czechoslovak Legion and their valiant fight on behalf of the Entente powers during World War I"

In actuality it's focused on the evacuation, not the offensives against the Central Powers... So their "valiant fight" in this case was an armed revolt that would not have occurred had they not attacked Hungarian prisoners of war in a nationalist rage, refused to disarm themselves against the orders of their own National Council, and attacked the Bolsheviks :unsure:
 
Yeah, I would also focus more on the gameplay and less on the narrative.
I just wanted to point out that in this mission it is particularly weak.
 
Finally caught my last train home... tickets are on sale now by the way, though it ends soon.

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We have completed the tutorial and left Moscow, where the game actually starts. With 18 soldiers on board, low on morale and supplies. One is injured and will need treatment soon. Coal seems particularly concerning but I'm sure the game will throw some at me sooner or later.
First stops are at nearby points of interest. We buy three apple pies for vodka - both items improve morale but apple pies have no side effects. During the stop we upgrade the storage car with the help of some timber collected in nearby woods. We clean the train because of scabies, which mysteriously improves morale but leaves everyone tired. Good news: by the time we reach the station at Kolomna, the injured Pvt Kopecky has somehow healed himself, saving us expenses for the doctor.

Speaking of side effects, I reorganized the duties from the default. Pvt Dvorsky is an alcoholic and really shouldn't be driving the train. I'd rather have alcoholic rifleman than alcoholic train driver. I picked up two less capable soldiers and turned them into stokers. Overall, I want to have a strong force of riflemen and scouts and not more grenadiers and medics than necessary... and no more gunners than I have ammunition for.

At Kolomna we can buy ammunition but it is expensive. We can only get about 7 MG rounds for a bottle of vodka. We'll have to borrow ammo from the Reds. I say borrow because it will be returned.

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We reached Ryazhsk on the way to Penza with our coal meter flashing red. Fortunately, there was a village nearby that needed help. Our brave and resilient soldiers saved the village from the Reds and while they were at it, they raided it for supplies. The grateful villagers certainly won't miss 100 units of coal during the coming winter. We also brought back a ton of cloth that will be used to insulate the train cars. Finally, we confiscated some rifle ammo and grenades, presumably kept by the villagers for the end of the year fireworks.

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Kopecký found a way to get hurt again, this time wrestling with a wolf.
 
This game has been kicking my butt. Even when my guys have the benefit of "hard cover" I'm still getting shot to pieces.
Soo... have dropped the difficulty level to <moron> hoping for a bit better overall experience. We'll see.
I desperately need another train car to set up as a hospital car, but no where near the $ to come even close to buying one and
I don't feel like spending a lot of time on YT trying to figure out how to go about that. Frankly, starting to lose interest in this one.
It's entering the "grind" zone.
Also it is hard to play when I'm losing power 2-4 days at a time over every little rain storm that comes along. :oops:
 
So far the game is actually much more stealth than combat. And that stealth does get grindy. Each mission is a bit of a puzzle, you aren't supposed to go with the Reds toe to toe but knife them from behind one by one. In the right order.
No rain storms yet, we've only just cleared Penza. Unfortunately, we had to leave one guy behind - not enough space. We only had material for one upgrade - three beds - and found 4 guys. Now the train is still in Penza and now, after the mission, we have the materials, but the game won't let me upgrade and get the guy back.
We got a free workshop car but otherwise the cars are so expensive that I don't see either how on earth we will ever be able to afford them. Maybe if we find that Russian gold treasure :)
Now heading up north to Kazan, to meet the White Army. We've just been introduced to the Red threat meter, I'll keep an eye on it for sure.
Supplies are looking ok, more coal than needed to get to Kazan, morale is also up, but I'm noticing that we are finding less ammo than I'm spending. Rifle ammo in particular. This could become an issue later on.

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I savescummed twice during the training camp mission. The first time due to an unintuitive mechanic, a soldier on stealth drew attention of the surrounding Reds just by stepping onto a cap circle. The second time I ordered the squad to destroy some red boxes next to which they were standing, thinking that it was something we had to destroy to win the mission. It was explosives. The squad obliged and blew themselves up. I hope I won't have to abuse the reload button too much.
 
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Doing OK approaching Yekaterinburg. We picked up a lot of people between Kazan and here, many of them are more or less passengers eating food but it's good to have backup when someone gets overrun by a wild boar or gets hit by woodchips. Still, I did not argue with two people when they asked for permission to desert due to some nobler causes than defending the new republic. Finding food for 30 folks is no easy task.

The newcomers brought in a lot of surplus weapons and ammunition. I also have surplus medical kits and no use for herbs without a kitchen car. So, I've been selling them off to merchants along the way and raised enough cash for a train car. Not sure which one but hospital seems to be the first on everyone's wish list, so I may go with that as well.

Metal is my current bottleneck, it's needed for durability repairs, upgrades, research... can't find enough metal.

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I completed the Omsk mission and closed Chapter 4. The missions seem to get more and more grindy. Throw stone, stealth kill. Throw stone, stealth kill. It's fine in small missions and when there is some combat involved (e.g. the Reds attack, or stealth is impossible). Not fine if I have to do it 30 times in a row.
The Omsk mission is actually more fun when you round the town counterclockwise rather than clockwise - I came across some interesting hardware that could be put to use against the Reds.

The White Army hasn't been helpful, they're just asking for help and resources.

We've got the hospital car and it is helping. Severely injured soldiers return to duty fast, I'd say too fast - it takes just a few hours. I also test-purchased the kitchen car but I don't see much use in that. It just turns food into other food. I find it hard to justify buying and maintaining a train car like that. So, I'll keep my money and be looking out for the artillery car.

We have enough metal now, but the food situation is bad and getting worse. No food to be found in missions, no food in lakes and forests. Just a few bits in abandoned villages. I've put about 10-12 people off duty on half rations, but we will run out of food in 2-3 days unless the situation changes.
 
I agree... it's a solid game but the tactical part of it is rather dull.
I've just completed a mission in which the squad fired 2 rifle shots and 6 pistol shots. The rifle shots were fired by mistake - I forgot to tell my sniper to hide. The pistol shots were fired at the end to knock out a pair of howitzers - that was our mission. The rest was just silent knife action.
There should be fewer enemies and more direct combat. The combat AI is solid.
 
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