Video Game / Last Train Home

Bring them home

"The Great War is over. All we want is to return home, to the new republic born in the heart of Europe..."

— Captain Frantisek Langer

Last Train Home is a survival Real-Time Strategy game developed by Ashborne Games and published by THQ Nordic.

In the closing months of 1918, The Great War has come to an end. Following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the new First Czechoslovak Republic rises from the ashes after declaring its independence, and weary of the trenches and battles they fought, the Czechoslovak Legionnaires long to return to their homes and celebrate the founding of their country. Under the command of The Major, the Legionnaires board the last of the armored trains set to carry them across the vast expanse of Russia and Central Europe, but their hopes to see their families and homes again soon become dashed as Russia's political situation quickly devolves into an outright civil war that grows increasingly bloodier by the day. With most of the violence occurring in the west, the Legionnaires are forced to go east, and push on through the frozen tundra of Siberia along the Trans-Siberian railway, along the way finding themselves increasingly forced to choose sides between the White Monarchists and the Red Communists among countless other hardships they will have to endure that will push them to their limits. All in the hopes that the last armored train will see them home...

Set in the backdrop of real historical events, the player must manage the Legionnaires and the resources needed to arm, feed, and keep them warm as the environment and enemies grow more and more hostile. Upgrading the train and its many cars from the infantry cars, kitchen, hospital, and artillery will be key to the survival of the train and the troops it carries, but doing so presents its own dangers, as remaining in one spot for too long risks the train being discovered, damaged, and even possibly destroyed.

A demo for the game was available on October 9th,2023, and the game was fully released for PC on November 28th, 2023.

Unrelated to the 2009 documentary of the same name.

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This game provides examples of:

• Artistic License – History: In real life, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed mere days before the Legion reached them.
• A Tasteof Power: The opening chapter of the game sees your train equipped with fully upgraded Hospital and Artillery Cars in order to introduce those gameplay systems, only for Morozov's ambush in Moscow to send you right back to square one.
• Big Bad: General Morozov is about the closest one to a true antagonist that the game has.
• Bittersweet Ending: By the end of the Legion's journey, some of the Legionnaires were lost in the fighting, and many of the survivors were changed by their experiences. The Russia they leave behind is a ravaged, war-torn country still in the throes of revolution, and while the Reds are slowly gaining ground, many of the country's people, both innocent civilian and soldier, are left dead in their wake. And, as noted in Foregone Conclusion below, the worst is yet to come. But thanks to Langer securing the ships sailing in to pick them up, while the Major captures Vladivostok to ensure the ships could safely make it to port, most of the Legion makes it out of Russia. Though the journey home was a long one, the soldiers are filled with renewed desire to live out the new civilian lives they fought hard to achieve, and the moment they set foot in their newly founded Republic, their loved ones rush out to tearfully meet them.
• Boring, but Practical: Some of the most useful abilities and upgrades you can employ throughout the game are often the most basic. To writ:
  • The humble Back Stab will be your tool of choice throughout most of the game; it's an instant kill against an unaware enemy, costs no ammunition, and so long as you're playing it safe, it's entirely possible to clear entire areas of enemies without triggering an alarm or provoking a firefight that could risk the lives of your soldiers and deplete your ammo.
  • The Scout's basic ability, "Recon", lets you reveal a portion of the map, and is both permanent (so long as the Scout is staying still), and has zero cooldown. Have fun peeking out every nook and cranny resource drops could be hiding in, or providing overwatch over an enemy outpost your other troops are stealthy clearing
  • Likewise, the Scout's "Critical Shot" ability is a one-hit kill against any infantry unit, even behind hard cover. Not only does it make hit-and-run tactics much more viable, but now you can instantly take out any pesky enemy Machine Gunners or Grenadiers before they become a problem.
  • Making soup in the Kitchen Car is a quick and efficient way of boosting your Food reserves, all for some Herbs you'll probably have more than you know to do with
  • Getting a fourth Infantry Car and second Storage Car might not have the same appeal on paper as the Death from Above offered by the Artillery Car, but on the whole are far more practical. The former boosts the number of soldiers you can carry, ensuring you'll never have to leave anyone behind, while the latter helps keep the train from becoming overburdened
• Cool Train: Naturally, the armored train itself is one.
• Death from Above: In addition to the Artillery Car, field howitzers and other artillery emplacements can be found in the tactical missions, many of which can be seized and operated by your own soldiers
• Dirty Communists: The Red Army serves as the main antagonist throughout the game
• Escort Mission: Chapter 6 in particular involves the Legion safeguarding Tsar Nicholas II and his family and delivering them to a city held by White Monarchists.
• Field Promotion: The Major starts off as a captain during the first few missions before Major Gazdik's execution forces the then newly formed Czechoslovakia Provincial Government to promote them in his place.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Regardless of any aid the Legionnaires give to the Whites, by June of 1923 the Reds will emerge as the dominant power in Russia.
  • The First Czechoslovak Republic eventually cedes parts of its territory to Nazi Germany and Hungary, effectively ending the Republic itself in 1938. By March 1939, and six months into the reign of the Second Republic, Nazi Germany will fully annex the rest of the country.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation
  • At various points throughout the story, Captain Langer will note how supplies are stretched thin and morale among the Legion is pretty low. Even in spite of the fact that the train could still be in good condition, while soldier morale is actually pretty high and the storage car is bursting at the seems with food, ammunition, upgrade material, and fuel.
  • Characters with the "Pacifist" or "Faint-Hearted" traits, which prevents them from taking on a Combat Role, can still operate the deadly weaponry aboard the Artillery Car as Workers.
• General Ripper: General Morozov, who is so hellbent on destroying both the Whites and Czech Legion he forces his men to try and take an airfield controlled by both the Czech Legion and Whites at gunpoint, knowing full well the Legion is commanding several machine gun nests and artillery that would make very short work of the Reds attempting to charge them. He will even shoot his own men if they retreat.
• Grim Up North: The game is set in the middle of the Siberian winter, so naturally this applies. As the journey progresses, the cold will become an increasingly important factor, bringing with it the risk of illness and, at higher levels, even preventing your soldiers from recovering their health and stamina. Upgrading your train cars with stoves and insulation will be a necessity, with the former costing Fuel to operate.
• Hold the Line: A common mission objective throughout the game, most notably in the finale, which sees the Legion capturing a Red-controlled sea fort in Vladivostok and holding out against a massive counterattack long enough for their ship to arrive.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Captain Langer plays it straight in Chapter 8 when he urges the Major to aid the garrison of young Whites, in the hopes that they might save some of the younger soldiers, even as the already shaky alliance between the Provincial Government and the Whites was collapsing and the Whites were beginning to turn on the Legionnaires.
  • Played With in Chapters 5 and 6, depending on the Major's choices. In the former, the Major can hand over the fairly substantial resources the Whites asked for, even if they only have barely enough to cover it, and in the latter, the Major can send off the Romanov family with an armed escort before reaching the intended destination where the Major is supposed to release them to the Whites. The major can also refuse the former, and hand over the family as ordered in the latter.
  • Played With as well regarding random events could occur where the Major and/or the other Legionnaires feel compelled to aid one of the locals, usually children, by staying behind to protect them or give them food, clothing, or other resources, despite the fact that they're in the middle of hostile territory being torn apart by a bloody civil war and need every bit of resource and manpower they can get to escape it.
• Historical Domain Character:
  • František Langer, your advisor, was a veteran of the Legion who served as chief physician for the 1st Rifle Regiment. After the war, he become a novelist and playwright, and was one of the foremost contributors to "Legion literature".
  • A woman strongly implied to be Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Tsar Nicholas II, plays a minor role in Chapter 6.
• Job System: Rather than conventional fixed classes, each of your soldiers can unlock multiple roles as they level up, each with its own XP bar, and many perks between them can be mixed-and-matched. Moreover, with a few exceptions, your soldiers can have both Combat Roles that allow them to fight in tactical missions and Job Roles that let them work on the train; your Cook can moonlight as a Machine Gunner, for example.
• Modular Difficulty: Overlapping with Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels, there is...
  • Road Trip, where both combat and resource management are at their easiest.
  • Tactician, which makes the battles harder while maintaining the ease of running the train.
  • Quartermaster, the opposite of Tactician; battle difficulty is eased while the survival management aspects are emphasized.
  • Commander, which combines the difficulty of both halves of the gameplay.
  • Custom, which naturally allows the player to tweak the difficulty more precisely.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Despite everything the Legionnaires have done to help the Whites, by Chapter 9 the Whites will be under orders to shoot and kill any Legionnaire they find. Captain Langer even notes this verbatim earlier in Chapter 8, after the Legion helping the young regiment of Whites results in the train getting shot at by the Whites themselves.
• Nonstandard Game Over: If the Major commands less than six Legionnaires, the smallest number required for a combat mission, the journey ends in their immediate surrender to the Reds and execution.
• Neutrality Backlash: Initially, the Legion tries to stay neutral as the Russian Civil War heats up, though it doesn't take long before the Legionnaires are forced to confront the Bolsheviks and eventually, the Whites.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The Major is generally encouraged to be one. The morale and traits of the Legionnaires will effect their capacity to fight in combat missions, and random events and sidequests will often happen that positively or negatively affect them one way or another. Some of these events might involve the soldiers getting drunk and putting themselves in a dangerous situation forcing the Major to put their foot down on alcohol consumption, where others might involve the Major agreeing to help local villagers or militia against the nearby regiment of Reds bullying them.
• Sadistic Choice: In Chapter 7, one of the Legionnaires contracts tuberculosis, forcing the Major to decide either to abandon them, where they will certainly freeze to death alone in enemy territory, or risk the health of everyone else on the train by letting the infected Legionnaire continue on with them.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: General Aleks Korolov of the White movement, in the final assault of Vladivostok, defies his orders to shoot the Legionnaires on sight and instead assigns them some of his men to help secure their voyage home.
  General Korolov: "Legionnaires helped us in our hour of need! Let us help them in theirs!"
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • If the Legion's morale gets too low, the soldiers will desert the train.
  • The game's entire premise revolves around the Legion's journey to Vladivostok. It's made clear that just about everyone wants to go home and make it out of a rapidly deteriorating Russia alive.
• Shout-Out: Several of the missions and achievements are shout-outs to different movies and Internet memes.
  • Going on a mission without a medic grants you the "I Also Like To Live Dangerously" achievement.
  • A fully upgraded locomotive rewards you with the "Fast and Furious" achievement.
  • Completing a mission with an all-female squad results in the "Ride of the Valkyries" achievement.
• Track Trouble: Averted as long as the Major keeps their locomotive in working condition and successfully deals with the multitudes of blockades and rail sabotage attempts they will encounter on their journey. Played Straight with the remains of multiple derailed and destroyed trains they'll pass along the way.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Bolshevik Revolution does not come across well here. More than one mission sees the Legion stepping in to defend a nearby village from the latest band of Red bullies seeking to "liberate" them, with looting, repression and outright massacres commonplace in areas of the country they control
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: More accurately, the game is rather inspired by the true stories of the Siberian Anabasis, including the real Frantisek Langer and the accounts of the real battles the Czech Legion did fight against the Reds and Whites in the crossing.
• War Is Hell: In Chapter 8, Captain Langer all but states the sentiment word for word when he asks the Major to aid a regiment of young Russian soldiers, fighting for the White Monarchists, knowing full well what the fighting has ultimately cost the Legion and knowing what it will cost the suicidally overconfident Whites if they charge in without the help of the veteran Legionnaires.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Major Gazdik serves as the train's commander for the duration of the tutorial missions, after which he is summarily executed by Morozov when the general has the Legionnaire's train derailed and destroyed in a collision with a Russian train.