Highway Slugfest

We played a highway attack scenario the other day. Four cars attempt to immobilize a bus and it's two escort vehicles. It's easy to see why highway duels are so deadly. It's easy to hit when you are travelling at the same speed going in the same direction. Also, travelling at speeds around 80 mph make manuevers difficult, at that speed you can't go much lower than 0 HC without rolling on the control table.

The attackers:
Conestoga, Timeshifter, Pisces, and Bombardier

The Rabbits:
Joseph Special, Pirahna, Slugfest

The attackers fall upon the bus and escorts from the rear.

The Bombadier and Pisces quickly engage the Slugfest on its right side, the Timeshifter and Connestoga move to attack the Joseph Special. The Bombardiers large antitank gun soon rips a hole in the Slugfests side hitting the engine, but the Bombardier doesn't last long at that close range and its driver is killed from RR fire.

The Slugfest after taking evasive actions and using HD smoke on auto to protect its right side. The Pisces has to shift to the Slugfests left which hasn't been touched. With dual mg's the Pisces starts to work on the Slugfests left armor, but is taking heavy fire.

The Pisces takes damage to its engine and catches on fire. It driver has only seconds to live. It then hits spikes, looses two tires, and spins while the driver burns to death

"The Rubberway Arena" at Milleniumcon

One of our local gaming conventions just came and went. I ran another Car Wars event which turned out quite well. I made a miniature version of the Akron Ohio "Rubberway" arena. I like the theme I have created the last two years, both years I have done 3D versions of actual arenas listed in official Car Wars books. I keep thinking about doing the Armadillo, but it seems daunting, maybe next year.

Lots of Car Wars Gaming

Arthur made it to Austin and he and Phillipe and I got together a couple of days and managed to get in 5 games of Car Wars. We did four arena events and one raid on a big rig.

Three people playing Car Wars is a good number. I've never controlled more than one car at a time, but since we were all fairly experienced players we controlled two or three in all games. I like the feel of this as you are always in the action.

This ended up being an all time favorite weekend of Car Wars gaming for me. I got to try a highway scenario, had my first event in the Double Drum, saw how cycles work, and Arthur gave me a few maps that he created. I will post on the maps coming up, these things are incredible.

Below is a link to the Arthur's writeup of our Double Drum arena event.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/584113/lothariochimaera-team-event-at-double-drum

Here's a shot if the Double Drum:

Dungeons & Dragons Battlesystem

These pictures were taken about 8 years ago and this was my first project after a long hiatus from gaming. In the 80's in Maine at a local convention someone use to run massive fantasy battles using mostly Ral Partha figures. His games were probably three or four times the size of the one in the pictures below. Fielding my own game like this had always been a dream of mine, and when I started to get back into gaming the first thing I did was hit Ebay and buy quite a few old Ral Partha figures. I began collected them for years and these pictures show probably half my of what I have collected. I have to salute Ral Patha for what they did for gaming. They had some excellent sculptures and to this day I think their 80's fantasy line captures my picture of a fantasy world filled with goblins and orcs better than much of what is out today.

This battle was held when I was living in San Franciso. The game took place at Jon and Warwick's apartment named Game Central. I had been painting these troops for a few years and this was the second time the majority of them hit the table. They haven't been used since and have been in storage for about 7 years.

The game rules we used were TSR's Dungeons & Dragons Battlesystem. I have no idea why these rules didn't manage to capture gamers attention longer. The second edition rules streamlined the combat. The morale and movement and much else just worked with no suprises and I think you got out of them what you would expect.

First Austin Monthly Car Wars Meeting

We had the first of what I hope will be an ongoing monthly meeting of Car Wars here in Austin.

The event was held in the Ohio Rubberway arena.

The car used was the "Swagger"

20F, 20L/R, 22B, 6T, 12B, HD tires, Super Power Plant, 10 acl, 3 HC, RR Front with extra mag, med rocket L/R, paint discharger L/R, Spear 1000 md Back.

This was a pretty good match. The Rubberway's ramps make choke points for tailing and the severity of the md 1000 made tailing attempts difficult. Two early tails were thwarted by the driver laying mines coming off a ramp.

The map I made out of contruction paper and tape. I then had it laminated. I'm not all that happy with the results. It kind of looks nice, but I don't like the glare when taking pictures and counters slide a little more than just the paper. But it is more stable than the paper maps and it will be hard to damage it due to the lamination. I'm still thinking that mounting the counters on metal bases and using sheet magnet is the way to go.

Here is the write up:

At the start of the game all 5 contestants converged on the west raised bunker from three different ramps and across the pass. The first pass saw a lot of action as the contestents exchange rockets and recoiless rifle fire. On the first pass four of the autoduelists dropped spear 1000 mines with one duelist setting it to auto. Two of the drivers lost control and skidded toward the edge of the roof, Dolf gained his control back just in time, but Elvis trying to miss a mine trail wasn't as quick at the wheel and skidded over the edge of the roof ending his match.
The duelist then paired off with Dolf giving chase after John, and Dennis pursuing Steel. Both the chasing cars were soon thrown off their tail by defensively laid mine strips.
All drivers then disengaged trying to recover from the climatic pass and then began to look for an opening on another driver. John and Steel picked up speed and circled around the buildings while Dolf and Dennis slowed down waiting for a shot and tailing opportunities. Steel and John met while circling and exchanged accurate RR file on each others front. Just after the exchange Dennis took pop shots at the speeding Steel while Dolf managed to get a tail position on John. Frantically John tried to shake Dolf but could not, Dolfs withering fire soon blasted through killing Johns back armor killing the driver and sending the car into a wall at 50mph destroying the car.
Steel took a long loop to get back into the action while Dennis and Dolf met up for some rocket and RR fire exchange. After the first pass both attempted a boot legger for a finishing shot. Dolf pulled out the manuaver while Dennis ended up rolling his car taking him out of the action.
As soon as the dust had seem to settle the speeding Steel made a pass at Dolf. Both did extreme damage to each others front armor on the pass and they set up to do it again. Another pass at each other yeilded the same result with both cars starting to show holes in the front armor. Neither car could take another hit and both decided that it was suicide to take another pass and retired from the event to prove their skills another day.

Austin Millennium Con Convention

At last weekends Millennium Con in Austin ,Texas I ran two Car Wars events. I've been gearing up for this for a while.

Austin has a large gaming population and Car Wars creator Steve Jackson Games is located here, so I had hoped that I'd get more than a few people interested in playing and reminiscing about Car Wars, and I did.

I set up the game about an hour before my starting time and laid out a few of the old rulebooks and expansions such as the first Pocket Box(which people just love seeing), the deluxe rules, the Armadillo Arena, the AADA auto guide, and some others. I wish I counted, but I probably had more than 30 people come talk to me and tell me their story about Car Wars. All of them talked about the game with fondness. By the end of the day I knew exactly how each person would start their story. It would begin by the person coming up and eyeing the game board, then they would drift over to where I laid out the older Car Wars material. I would say "Are you familiar with Car Wars?" And everyone's first reply would be "I use to play, but I haven't played in years". And they would enficize "years".

I got to talk to quite a few people about Car Wars, some would bring up scenarios they remembered, many would tell me they still have all their Car Wars material, some talked about using Micro Machines, more than a few times taking on big rigs with cycles was mentioned. One teenager told me that Car Wars is legendary in their house hold. Apparantly, one of his parents first games together before they were married was Car Wars, during that game the Father had scored a kill vs soon to be Mom, and till this day the Father has never beaten (or dared to beat) Mom again in any boardgame. But, it sounds like they are still together, so maybe there is something to learn there.
I can definetly say, there are lots of gamers that still have a place in their heart for Car Wars, and I fully enjoyed talking to them about it.

For me this will go down as one of my best experiences hosting a game at a convention. Giving people a chance to revive the excitement of this classic game was worth all the effort. Something else I thought was very interesting was that I had a younger player play, a kid probably a few years away from his teens and he had a great time playing the game. He was right into it the whole way through. I'm glad to know that this game can still capture the minds of kids nowadays. So, with all that said, I am very happy I ran this game and had a great group of players join in.

I was only signed up to run one session at the convention, but I ran into a few people that couldn't join in the that game and wanted to play, so I agreed to run a consecutive game. Quickly we had a couple more people join in and I ended up running two 6 player games in a row.

I used the same scenario for both games, so it was the same arena and cars. Both games had a different feel, the first being more of a tactical game, the second being more of a run and gun and reckless affair. It was interesting to notice the different styles of play and was definetly due to the players personality.

The cars we used had 20 armor on all sides, a vulcan machine gun in the front, two linked medium rockets on both sides, a spike dropper in the back, and one heavy rocket in the back, the vulcan and the spike dropped was linked. It was a car with many weapon options, which I thought was a good idea to keep people always into the game.

It was a standard duel, drivers that survived could salvage their kills, gates would open after 30 seconds and you could escape if you need to at that time. But neither game lasted that long.


This is the info I gave to the players about the game:

Arena info: The Portland Car Arena
The “Portland Car Arena” located in Portland, Maine is an AADA sanctioned arena on the Atlantic Armor Circuit. While not an extremely popular arena most of the year, during November while the city of Portland holds its renowned literary festival, the arena takes the spotlight. During the festival period, crowds from around the country attend and many of the duels are televised internationally. Grudge matches and challenge matches are popular during the festival, and many companies strive to get their cars and equipment into the festival dueling events as they are widely broadcasted.


Vehicle Maker Info: Steinberg & Ewing Motors
“Steinberg & Ewing Motors” is a newly established company formed by the former ace autoduelist Mike Steinberg, and the genius engineering mind of Tony Ewing. The company’s first vehicle produced was marketed as a transport, and had little success due to light rear protection. But the company hopes to make a splash into the autoduelling circuit with their new sedan named the “Front Runner”. “Steinberg & Ewing Motors” have generously offered to supply enough “Front Runners” for the third amateur duel of the festival.

The "Portland Car Arena"

The Contestants

Beginnning of Game 1

Game 2 Beginning: Everyone dropped thier spokes quickly in this game. And they all converged in one corner.

And did you ever wonder who was driving the purple van in the picture on the back of the original pocket box version? Well, here he is. I beleive his name is Mike and I know he was a good sport about playing the celebrity bit. Thanks for the picture.

Car Wars After Action Reports

The guys in North Carolina have been doing quite a bit of Car Wars gaming, and then writing about it. Check out some of the after action reports here on Boardgame Geek.

Grenadier Motors Sorte Trials

Retama Duel Center Hosts Team Amatuer Night

Armadillo Arena

Here are some picts from another Caw Wars gaming group in Minnesota.

Choatic Systems Pictures