Starter Car (for OrcaCon)

[Magesmiley]

I'm getting ready to run my annual Car Wars tournament at OrcaCon in a few weeks, and I thought that I'd run the design I'm using for the initial rounds by people here for comments.

The "qualifier" games all use the same vehicle (with up to 8 players) in the KEAR Coliseum (Warrior Stadium).

2068 OrcaCon Avenger -- Compact, Heavy chassis, Heavy suspension, Large power plant, 4 Solid Radial tires, Driver w/TC and BA and PFE, Light Laser in Turret, Recoilless Rifle Front w/10 shots HEAT, Plastic Armor: F22, L17, R17, B17, T16, U4, Gear Allocation: [72 lbs. @ Accel 5/Top Speed 117.5], Acceleration 10, Top Speed 120, HC 4, 3998 lbs., $16834

Obviously, this isn't the nastiest or best design that can be had for the budget. That's not the intent. The intent is to have a vehicle which gives players a good taste of the game, minimizes the rules needed to know/explain, gives the players options on what to do, and which still gets the game done in a timely fashion.

That's a big list. I've been using variations on this design for a few years, with this being the latest version (the big changes from the last event were moving the car back to 2/3 DM, changing from SB PRs to solid radials, and dropping a few points armor).

I wanted to see what everyone else's thoughts were. Please keep in mind the goals and that this is often being given to players who have never played Car Wars before.

[Blue Ghost]

Where is Orcacon?

[Magesmiley]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

Where is Orcacon?

Bellevue, Washington this year. (About a 20 minute drive east of Seattle.) The event is listed in the MiB Demo Events board.

The folks at OrcaCon have been very supportive of the Car Wars tournament I might add - it had a large table right by the main ballroom entrance all day on Saturday last year, and it looks like it'll get the same this year too.

But this thread is mainly about feedback and suggestions for the design I'm using. :)

[LokRobster]

I think it’s a great design for your target.

The turret will let there almost always something to shoot. The armor is strong enough that one round of lucky hits will still let the car survive, but on on average 3 rounds of hits on the same side by the RR, damage will start going internal.
No dropped weapons means less to track, acceleration and HC are high enough to keep things moving.

Should be a good beginning and intro to CW in a con setting.

[ckosacranoid]

very basic and somes with a turret and a front gun. seems to be the right mix if nothing else.

[Lindmark71]

Feedback:
Accel 10 is great. It makes movement easier. HTMs are an easier way to achieve that.

Having two different weapon systems leads to less than the full capability of the car to be used.

Staying away from dropped weapons for demo games is a good call. It helps to simplify the game.

Suggestions:
Add HTMs
Upgrade chassis
Add armor

Have a great time.

Drive offensively

Curt

[juris]

Agree. HT motors are too fiddly for beginners. I’d just add that there should be a non combat way to win - like hitting a big bouncing ball 3 times - to encourage speed (and vaulting - everyone loves a good vault) :)

Originally Posted by LokRobster

I think it’s a great design for your target.

The turret will let there almost always something to shoot. The armor is strong enough that one round of lucky hits will still let the car survive, but on on average 3 rounds of hits on the same side by the RR, damage will start going internal.
No dropped weapons means less to track, acceleration and HC are high enough to keep things moving.

Should be a good beginning and intro to CW in a con setting.

[Blue Ghost]

Originally Posted by Magesmiley

Bellevue, Washington this year. (About a 20 minute drive east of Seattle.) The event is listed in the MiB Demo Events board.

The folks at OrcaCon have been very supportive of the Car Wars tournament I might add - it had a large table right by the main ballroom entrance all day on Saturday last year, and it looks like it'll get the same this year too.

But this thread is mainly about feedback and suggestions for the design I'm using. :)

Very tempted to go, but I need to lose weight. Post the tourney results here if you can. I'm very interested.

[Magesmiley]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

Very tempted to go, but I need to lose weight. Post the tourney results here if you can. I'm very interested.

Too bad you didn't make it.

I'm still gathering up pictures and whatnot, but here are some initial crunchy numbers:

28 of the 32 tournament seats were filled (with 24 unique players and 4 seats taken by non-advancing players from earlier rounds that wanted to play again), plus the 8-player final game. The game averaged 2-3 spectators just standing and watching on a nearly constant basis, usually for 5-10 minutes each.

The convention had around 1200 attendees from the organizers' early estimates, so about 2% of the attendees played Car Wars for a couple of hours (the number stopping to watch is much higher).

Also, for comparison, the Catan National Qualifier (which included a trip to Origins for the victor) being held at the same time garnered 17 players.

[josephrey]

So rad. I can't wait for the new version to gather even more players!