Baltic Bob’s armored train game was first played back in December 2019 at the Gritty Goblin. So we thought it was time to do another one at Lastner Meadows airfield (his house) with his favorite Lithuanian theme with minor adjustments to his original rules.
Post-WW1, the Lithuanians are sending a captured armored train to Vilnus to help alleviate the siege of their capital. Enroute, the train is attacked by three rogue aircraft of the German militia forces aka the Baltic Landwehr. A Lithuanian LVG CVI two-seater is flying escort for the train.
Victory Conditions:
• Train: Fight off the German aircraft (cause more point damage then they suffer excluding LVG damage) and reach Vilnus
• Baltic Landwehr: Destroy/significantly damage train (cause more points than incurred)
Armored Train Rules:
The train is composed of four cars plus an engine/coal car. The lead car and the last car are armored machine gun cars. The middle car is the engine/coal car. The two cars each sandwiched between the engine and the machine gun cars are unarmored troop cars. Each car has a value. They are:
Unarmored troop car – 5 points each
Armored machine gun car – 10 points each
Armored engine/coal car – 20 points
The train moves at a speed of one card length per maneuver phase. Train speed is reduced to ½
card if the engine suffers 10 or more points of damage.
Each troop car has no weapons. Each armored machine gun car contains an anti-aircraft machine gun. The engine/coal car has no weapons.
The anti-aircraft machine gun in the two mobile Artillery cars can:
1) Has a 360 degree field of fire
2) Fire with a “B” damage card
3) The machine gun can jam
4) Special damages – only gun jam
German aircraft can attack the train with machine guns per normal game rules. To attack, the
aircraft must draw a fire line from the aircraft peg to the red dot on top of the target train car.
To attack the troop cars, the aircraft only needs to draw a line from the aircraft peg to any part of the troop car. Damage cards of 1 or 2 are ignored by Armored train cars. Boom cards cause 50% of original damage.
Air combat between the Lithuanian and the Germans airplanes are per the standard rules.
Initial deployment with the Landwehr aircraft on the left: Robert (RJG) in a Rumpler C.IV, Wrong Way in a yellow and green camo Ufag CI and I’m in a red-speckled Albatros D.III. The train is coming down the middle of the mat.
Baltic Bob is to the right in his newly completed LVG CVI.
Baltic closes on the Rumpler while the Ufag heads for the train.
First round of fire from the Ufag is totally ineffective.
However the next round is huge. The Ufag lands a Boom card on the engine. We decided that like our previous games, a Boom card equals half of the original damage so the engine still functions but at half speed and has racked up 14 damage points. Guess who was laughing now? But not for long. The return fire from the train armored cars sets the Ufag on fire!!
As the Ufag flies off with gun jams, the Rumpler is engaged with the LVG and the armored train machine guns. A double pilot hit takes down the Rumpler but not before it punishes the engine with another 3 damage points. However, Robert forgot that he was flying a two-seater and could test to see which crew member(s) were hit. The heat of battle does that!
The Albatros closes on the train but can’t fire on the engine so fires on the lead armored car who returns the favor.
The Ufag finally succumbs to fire damage.
Doing its best to stop the train, the Albatros gets caught in a crossfire between the train and Baltic Bob’s LVG.
And another Boom card sends the red-speckled Albatros to the turf!
So the final tally has the train suffering 22 damage points to the German Landwehr’s 42 damage points (Ufag’s 18, the Rumpler’s 8 & the Albatros’16). More important the train pulls into Vilnus albeit at half-speed. A decisive victory for the Lithuanians.
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