Introduction Burma, 1942. Captured at Singapore, you are a British colonel incarcerated with 450 of your men in a POW camp along the route of the proposed Burma-Siam railway. You’ve been ordered by the Japanese to lead your men in the construction of a part of the line. You have ten weeks to complete your allotted task, or you and the men under your command will face an unspecified but no-doubt unpleasant fate. The Game The game lasts up to ten turns. Each turn represents one week. There are 8 sections to this stretch of the railway. All sections must be built for the railway to be complete. The player begins the game with 7 Workforce points (WP) and 2 Sick points (SP). Each point represents about 50 men. Each turn the player may choose one of three courses of action: Strike - refuse to do any work at all. This will result in the workforce not being fed and the sick being denied medical aid. Uncooperative work - The railway may progress, but deliberately shoddy workmanship may wreck part of the work. The workforce will be fed badly and the sick will receive some attention. Co-operative work - The railway may progress, even at an accelerated rate. The workforce and the sick will receive their Red Cross parcels. Rolls may then be required to determine the effects of the action. Action Railway Progress roll Workforce Health roll Sick roll Strike No Progress Roll d6. 1 or 2, no effect 3, 4, 5 reduce WP by one, increase SP by one; 6 reduce WP by two, increase SP by two. Reduce SP by one Uncooperative Work Roll 2d6; if = or under current WP, 1 section is complete, over current WP, no effect. If a natural double (2 1’s, 2 2’s etc.). 1 section is destroyed Roll 2d6. = or under current WP, no effect over current WP, reduce WP by one, increase SP by one. Roll d6, reduce SP by one on a roll of 5 or 6 Co-operative Work Roll 2d6; if = or under current WP, 1 section is complete, over current WP, no effect. If a natural double (2 1’s, 2 2’s etc.). 2 section’s built Roll d6. 1 to 5, no effect 6, reduce WP by one, increase SP by one. Roll d6, reduce SP by one on a roll of 6 Strike Reaction Each turn the Colonel calls a strike, roll d6 and add the number of turns, including the current one, for which a strike has been called. If the rolled number equals or exceeds 6, the Colonel has been executed by the Japanese, and replaced by a more co-operative subordinate. For you, the war is over. Call Out the Sick On any turn the Colonel may call out the sick. Any number of SP may be used to increase WP by the same amount for one turn only. All called out SP are lost at the end of that turn. If less than 4 sections of the railway are completed by the end of turn 5, the Japanese will automatically call out all available sick on each subsequent turn. “Winning” They aren’t any formal victory conditions for Death Railway. As you’ve probably gathered it’s not really that sort of game. As the colonel, you are responsible for the lives of the men under your command, equally questions will be asked if you aid the enemy. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #140 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com