The game has been on hiatus for a few weeks. Sent the following to my brother by email for him to ponder. The train element is borrowed directly from the Going Home adventure module.

 

Before Maks and team depart Krakow for Silesia, Elizka reports by radio from Warsaw. Things are quiet. And a promising development…

The Train

Back in Warsaw. While carousing, Privates Denzel Smith & Kevin Nguyen meet Jan Straczynski, an elderly train engineer.

Straczynski regales the two Americans with stories of steam locomotives. Turns out the old man volunteered at the Stacja Muzeum, Warsaw’s railway collection. Smith and Nguyen take Jan Straczynski and his son, Casimir to the site.

Stacja Muzeum

The train museum itself is damaged, but not catastrophically. There are numerous lines of track leading west out of the city, most deep under debris or rusting rail stock.

Bottom line: A working train is recoverable. A steam engine, tender, passenger car, 3 boxcars, three flatcars (rails/steel parts; timbers, and one for general use), 1 work car, 1 utility rail vehicle, and 2 pedal-powered track bikes.

Casimir is a naturalized American citizen. His father is not, but Casimir “found” a passport for his father. He wants to take what’s left of his family to America. They don’t care whether they go out through Germany (MilGov) or Yugoslavia (CivGov). The old man says that they can use most track in Europe (even in Warsaw Pact territory), but not Soviet track (wrong gauge).

A very handy vehicle card for the train by Ranting Savant

I’ve got the fuel consumption, armor profile, and other working info on the locomotive in a later blog post.

  • A box car can carry 40 people in spartan comfort. More box cars (than mentioned above) could be recovered at 100 labor hours each.

  • A track heading out of Warsaw could be cleared after 1000 labor hours.

  • Soviet 10th Guards Tank Division comprises 300 foot soldiers… and no tanks.

  • The train information is probably secret for now.

  • Johnstone’s plan calls for linking up with CivGov-loyal US forces in the port city Rjeka, Croatia, Yugoslavia. He’s real vague on what’s there, except that they are military assets in contact with the capital at Omaha, Nebraska. Johnstone intends to leave in Spring 2001, but it’s entirely possible he’d leave now if the 10th GTD wasn’t on foot all the way to the Balkans.