Armoured trains

[narwan]

A number of new ways to use waypoints have been developed recently (by Pyros in particular; see the Kalpaki scenario for example) which MAY allow units under AI control to follow fixed movement paths. There's plenty of room though for the movement to veer off course somewhat so it will be tricky (and maybe impossible) to keep the 'train' moving solely on the railway tracks.
It will need a lot of work (testing in particular) for this to work in a scenario. If someone wants to put the effort in and try to find ways to make it work (which isn't garantueed to succeed btw) for a specific scenario it would be very interesting indeed.
But don't expect trains to make an appearance as regular features of the game. There are simply too many obstacles to overcome within the existing limitations of the code.

For PBEM games it can work, except off course when movement is under AI control, for example when a unit retreats due to suppression. The train could then move off the tracks. You can minimise this risk by making sure that the railway runs straight east to west; that'll increase the chance that the train will retreat along the path of the railway track but it is still possible it'll retreat in another direction (especially with multiple enemy units nearby).

Another trick would be to put impassable terrain along the railway track so the train can't move into those hexes. Unfortunately the same will apply to most other units too (vehicles especially) so this will limit the trick to use for set-ups and scenario's with infantry and few vehicles.

Narwan