Armoured Trains - More Thoughts
While armoured trains will probably have been used in the Twilight War, it's my belief they won't be seen in wide use until a bit later after the war itself dies down and the industrial base builds up again. This is based on why they arose and why they declined historically.
Most people would assume that armoured trains declined because they were restricted to the railway lines, the armoured train had unparalleled mobility in some ways and massively restricted mobility in others. But this is not why they declined. During The Great War, the Russian Civil War and the concurrent wars in Eastern Europe and The Warlord Era in China armoured trains maintained their dominance even after tanks and especially armoured cars (and some armoured cars of the era such as the Garford-Putilov were a match for tanks in combat). It is mainly to do with the military objectives of the time, and these were invariably the capture of the railway lines themselves.
At a time of limited manufacturing ability damage to the fabric of the railways was avoided. Marshalling yards, stations and the lines themselves were prizes and something not easily repaired. Rolling stock was immensely valuable and only slowly replaced. All this meant that the trains were sitting on infrastructure the enemy were trying to avoid damaging. It was The Second World War when railways could easily be replaced along with its rolling stock and in this time strategic strikes were mounted against the railways in massive amounts.
You'd think this period might suit the time the players are in but not really. The lines are already smashed in the Twilight War and need rebuilding. Realistically NATO is no longer interested in Poland so large scale incursions will be rare. Yes, the MSRs bringing materiel and livestock from the remaining industrial centres will be used but these won't be used the same way armoured trains are properly used (as a massive force multiplier). They will be security elements and will be more likely armoured rail cars utilising LAV chassis with the occasional MBT chassis mounted in support. These vehicles will frequently need to leave the lines as the infrastructure was heavily targeted during the war.
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