Autoduelling Stories

[Old Man]

It's been many years since I played CW, but this thread is slow and I'm bored. Which games do you remember best? Here's a couple of mine:

--Midville free-for-all. I'm driving my Heavy Metal Masher, a fairly conventional pickup with a huge gas engine, front-mounted ram plate, enough metal armor to stop an average ATG hit, and no weapons to speak of. I'm doing really well--I confetti a mid-size with a CA frame, and somehow manage to catch a motorcycle. I find myself in pursuit of a compact with a turret-mounted Vulcan, and for several turns the chase is on while she fires at my steel-belted solid tires. And then... she drops a grenade.

The timing of this grenade could not have been more perfect. We're hurtling through Midville at around 75, the grenade is in the middle of an intersection that's otherwise blocked with mines and other garbage, and (unbeknownst to my erstwhile victim) any blast damage is certain to take out one of the front tires. My only option is to stomp on the brakes and pull a U-turn. I look at the control chart... yes, it can be done. If I'm lucky.

The foot comes down hard on the brake pedal; the brake rotors glow white hot as three tons of steel decelerates 20 MPH in one second. No roll yet. Deftly I crank the wheel hard right, and three tons of steel turns ninety degrees in an instant. I roll for control, and make it easily. But now my steed is pointed squarely at an adjacent building. I have no choice and continue the turn, another D6 maneuver that I will only make half the time. Well, 50% is better than certain impact, right? I throw the dice, and... fail. In half a second, three tons of steel crashes into many tons of concrete, and does so with its very flimsily armored roof. So much for the driver.

That's when one of my friends asked, "Why didn't you just drive through the building with your ram plate?"

[Old Man]

Next story: Another free-for-all, this time in a custom arena that's full of regularly-spaced 1" rectangular concrete blocks. I've had advance notice of the arena choice, however, and realize that there's nothing stopping someone from driving around the edge of the arena, shooting into the middle. I construct my vehicle accordingly, a lux with three gauss guns and plenty of armor facing right, and stripped-down armor facing left. Bwahaha!

The duel commences, and lo and behold, one of my opponents had the exact same idea I did...only his car is designed to shoot left. The flag goes up, and instantly we're each flying down opposite sides of the map, firing at each other with computer-aided, gunner-aimed gauss guns, and we just can't hit each other at all. Finally we reach the end of the arena. Now, we can each turn and drive at each other in a high-stakes game of chicken, where whoever gets behind the other will have a point-blank shot at a lightly armored side with three gauss guns. Um, no. Instead, we both slam on the brakes. Hard. My opponent fails his control roll, by one, and slides into the wall. He's done. I make my control roll and stop with my front bumper just touching the wall. I spend the rest of the game doing a three-point turn and get taken out by a ram car while still accelerating. Hmm... maybe a less specialized car next time.

[C. J. Burke]

My most memorable game would probably be the one posted on the "What the heck is going on ..." thread. Message #27, I believe.

No point in reposting it. If I think of other good ones, I'll tack 'em on here.

[Piecemaker]

One of my funnest memories was a game in colorado.

The ruleset was longer than my arm, and was convoluted and involved. It was a Death Race, with all sorts of wacky rules.

Anyway, it was Division 30. So I had to decide between a racecar, or a duelcar.

I picked a gunboat. (Is anyone surprised? Hmm. Speed, or Death-dealing? Hard decision!)

MANY years ago, I had my arse thoroughly kicked (burned actually) by Mr. Ben Ellinger, who simply hit me repeatedly with a flamethrower until I was aflame. It was a good strategy, so I copied it.

I built a lux with two HDFT's out one side. IIRC, I used blow through concealment (the BEST element in Car Wars!) The rest of the design is irrelevant.

Turn one, everyone starts out in a figure eight pattern. I am one of the slowest cars on the map, and people start passing me. One does so, quite close. I fire. And hit with both flamethrowers. Being the clever guy I am, one was loaded with HT fuel, and the other with standard. IIRC, this meant he had to roll higher than a ten to avoid a fire.

Well, my opponent had metal armor, and stated that it was fireproof. I noted that I had punctured through his metal with both FT's (Why anyone would put six points of metal in Div 30 and expect it to be effective is beyond me!) and asked if the plastic underneath was Fireproof. It was not.

We then had a ten minute argument over the fact that although metal armor "is inherently fireproof" any other components can and WILL burn.

He lost, when everyone at the table agreed with my assessment of the rules.

So next turn he rolls: And explodes.

It was great- the rest of the game was a blur, but this guy whined and squealed the entire time. It was my first game back into Car Wars in like ten years, and I had a kill three turns in. Reminded me why I loved it, and listening to a forty year old whine like a four year cemented why I'd left it.

All said, it was easily one of my finest moments in Car Wars. I loved the random nature of the game, and how not bringing a fire extinguisher could wreck your day, even if you did accelarate 20 miles an hour.