What cars should I get?

[silencer4]

I've currently ended chapter 2. Got "fully" upgraded Cargo car, 2 infantry cars, the third one is 1/4th upgraded (resting bonus + 1 crew size bonus) and workshop car with 2 places to work.

Now I've got that doctor lady, and since she can't do anything other than heal and cook I'm thinking about Infirmary car, but since I'm not getting that injured I'm not sure if I buy it or second cargo car.

By fully upgraded I mean all the esentials (bonus to resting, crew size and passive insulation), while for cargo car all the storage upgrade + anti roden traps.

[Draco Pendragon©]

If you want you could go for the Kitchen Car.
Because your cooks can make soup which will make 10 food and 20 herbs into 20 Food which is really nice.
Upgrade the car for that you will return some of the spended resources and you can make a good amount of food of it.

This and the Workshop where you can craft Ammo and upgrade the weapons, and some other cool stuff.

Thats how i have it at the moment, 3 Infa cars, 1 Workshop and 1 Kitchen (with storage ofcorse) And now im going for Infirmary just to be safe and then artillery ofcorse :D

[Hassohappa]

You get the option for three different locomotives, one that can pull a max of 7 cars (but is the fastest/most fuel efficient), one that can pull 8 that is a middle ground (the one you start with), and one that can pull 9 that is the least efficient and slowest.

The workshop car is fairly important for the permanent upgrades it provides. I don't think there's much need to craft more ammo or explosives, your mileage may vary based on how you play. It's nice to get those upgrades early as they improve your weapons and provide your squads with protections from the cold when they are deployed. It is possible to get the upgrades you care about and then sell the car later to make space for another.

The kitchen car is probably the least helpful. You can make soup to turn the herbs into more food and make the consumable food items that aren't really anything to write home about. The most useful aspect of the car is that you can train chefs on it. This is another car that you could plan to have temporarily, focus on leveling up as many chefs as you can until you've gotten the stat bonuses on the units that you want them on, and then sell the car off later.

The hospital car is not really that necessary early on, there isn't much cold to make your soldiers sick and the fighting is infrequent enough that you have plenty of time to heal up the few soldiers who get injured. Once you have the hospital car though you'll be amazed how rapidly your health goes up compared to toughing it out in an infantry car. Being able to train doctors to get access to those stats is another nice upside.

You also get access to the artillery car like you had in the first chapter at some point. That's a car that comes in very useful to crush through hardpoints of enemy defense, otherwise you have to get a lot more creative. Not necessary but nice.

You need four infantry cars to carry all the soldiers you will come across in a playthrough.

So, for the Towing Bull (9 car max) you can do 4 infantry, 1 storage, 1 kitchen, 1 hospital, 1 workshop, and 1 artillery car and have everything on the train.

For the Grandpa (8 car max) I would take the workshop early, focus on upgrades you want from it, and then swap it out for the hospital car around chapter 6 and otherwise have all the other cars mentioned for the Bull.

For the Hound (7 car max) I would do the same thing as the Grandpa and either forgo the kitchen car entirely or, if you want access to that sweet sweet dex, try to get the kitchen car pretty early as well and get as many chefs leveled as you can as quickly as you can. Then in chapter 6 I would swap out the kitchen car for a fourth infantry car.

Getting a second storage car I don't think is that necessary. You can spend your resources on upgrades and if you find yourself getting full remember that any gear equipped on a squad that has been formed doesn't count against your storage. So you can form more squads just to reduce storage strain temporarily to give you time to sell it off or use it.

[Robert]

My train consists of Towing Bull, Artillery, 2 storage cars, Workshop, Infirmary, Kitchen and 3 Infantry
I picked up the second storage as my first was close to being full
If we need 4 Infantry cars, I will swap it out
It all really depends on how you are playing
If your soldiers are getting injured quite often, do keep the Infirmary car as it speeds up healing

[Mesond]

I search every location with the right skills (and I mean every location). What I can get short on is ammo. Food to a lesser extent, though I never rationed it.

An extra infantry car will be needed for more troops. Possibly two.

Workshop car makes ammo. And upgrades your troops. Don't know if research remains applied when not having a workshop car. If it does you can swap it out later. Making ammo costs about 10-20 metal and 10-20 gunpowder. Gets about 100 ammo.

Kitchen car I have't used but it makes food of course.

A hospital car is a must. Injured troops means inactive troops. It's that or rely on train stations for doctors. Which doesn't happen at every station.

Arty car is late game. Can be useful for taking out tanks. I try to find other ways. Like landmines. If you need a panic button though then there it is.

I take two storage cars because I loot everything. If you plan ahead and know what upgrades need what, then you can sell more and get away with one.

Later in the game cold is an issue. Make sure you upgrade the heating in the infantry and hospital cars. I start with cloth upgrades because it doesn't use fuel for stoves. At some point though the stoves get upgraded.

[LahnaMan]

How did you even get enough money for new train cars? So far I've relied on whatever cars I've started with or gotten free.

[Hassohappa]

Originally posted by LahnaMan:

How did you even get enough money for new train cars? So far I've relied on whatever cars I've started with or gotten free.

Money is tight at the start but if you are sending people to all the POI that match up the traits needed you'll eventually find yourself with an abundance of funds and running out of storage space.

[silencer4]

Originally posted by LahnaMan:

How did you even get enough money for new train cars? So far I've relied on whatever cars I've started with or gotten free.

Since I'm doing my fighting 95% sneaking, I don't need ammo. I've sold all my pistols and selling pistol ammo constantly. I've reached Samara and have 23k in pocket.

Someone in the guide said, do not use Kitchen car ever, as it's a money sink, and yet I see you people using it. So is it really that hard on food later on? Considering that more legioneres will be rescued that means more mouths to feed.

[Captain T1]

Originally posted by silencer4:

Originally posted by LahnaMan:

How did you even get enough money for new train cars? So far I've relied on whatever cars I've started with or gotten free.

Since I'm doing my fighting 95% sneaking, I don't need ammo. I've sold all my pistols and selling pistol ammo constantly. I've reached Samara and have 23k in pocket.

Someone in the guide said, do not use Kitchen car ever, as it's a money sink, and yet I see you people using it. So is it really that hard on food later on? Considering that more legioneres will be rescued that means more mouths to feed.

Food becomes scarce and harder to acquire during winter, although you can reduce the rations to compensate.

[GeneralGonzo]

4 passenger cars (to collect all refugees), cook, working, storage, artillery......

[ARFett]

As for me halfway through now in chapter 5 the sequence I bought them since beginning of chapter 2 :

Another Crew wagon for a total of 3 constantly upgraded to get all the crew so far.

Med wagon.

Cooking wagon.

Playing on normal difficulty without any adjustment.

Wagons are expensive as hell.

:-/

The third crew wagon because I upgraded crew space to take on ALL legionaries found so far.

:-)

Then the Med wagon as the mission get harder and you get wounded much.

So I traded in the free cooking wagon for a med wagon.

Did not regret that.

And then later the food wagon as beginning chapter 3 the food is scarcer to get and the random "no food" for the foraging gets more frequent.

Also the "the bear ate everything up" (rolls eyes) gets like a constant repeat.

That helps stretching the food supplies.

Do NOT buy any locomotive as you get a option to choose between the slow strong train and the fast train.

Or stay with your normal train.

I personally took the strongest and slowest train as having as much wagons is definitely appreciated.

II am chapter five and still do not have the construction train.

With finding enough ammunition loot and the things you get on missions and clearing out each last bit of the mission areas I was good so far with ammunition and explosives, mines etc.

Also the cannon car is not to be had so far.

Plus I often did not buy another wagon due to getting better weapons which is the second money burner.

Beginning chapter 4 the conquered supplies get plentiful so I am saving up things in chapter 5 for maybe another wagon.

But better weapons might still convince me not to invest like 12k for a construction wagon when I find plenty things in mission and not feeling the need for producing.

[PDX MM]

My first buy was a med wagon but if I could redo that choice I would go with a second storage car as space becomes tight pretty quickly. Still having that healing ability has saved me money cause the train station docs services are not cheap. I do remember the advisor mentions that if you pick to go a certain way in act 2 or 3 that there is a chance to find abandoned cars so I am hoping that is true and I can get one of these for free. Haven't seen any yet so hope that wasn't just bad intel.

[Vicious]

What's with the cooking wagon anyway? I choose it at the start of the journey and it was so superfluous. I would rather advice to get the med wagon. As for the train, i choose the fast one later one an upgraded it to pull one more wagon.

Ended up with the following wagons "mech-med-troop1,2,3,4-locomotive-storage" (the latter one as battering ram).

Couldn't buy the artillery wagon because the locomotive was maxed out, but I never really had the urge to use it anyways. Fighting tanks might have been bit easier with that, but it worked out fine.

[Fortune]

Originally posted by silencer4:

Someone in the guide said, do not use Kitchen car ever, as it's a money sink, and yet I see you people using it. So is it really that hard on food later on? Considering that more legioneres will be rescued that means more mouths to feed.

It was not my intention to imply that the kitchen car is useless. It's simply not the first car to pick up.

The kitchen car solves the issue of food by making soup. The consumables can also come in handy. Plus, it lets you use the cooking task, which grants stat bonuses to soldiers as they level up.

If some people are struggling with money, they should check out my guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3103842151

[Killer29687]

On ch 6, really do wish they told us about the max car thing as I’m stuck with only 7 cars and struggling… I don’t recall seeing any places except that first one where I could swap out my locomotive

[Mother_Bear]

hello, just like that, I had enough resources but not too much money, so I made apple pies which I resold and rifle bullets.. all the wagons are essential towards the end