Best Expansions for Car Wars Classic?

[frieque]

I'm venturing back in to Car Wars for the first time in two decades with the purchase of Car Wars Classic, and would like to purchase electronic versions of some of the supplements. I'm finding that it's a bit confusing to sort through the many supplements, some of which seem to contain overlapping contents, and it's not entirely clear which edition some are compatible with. Can anyone offer any advice, or maybe a "top 10" list of products that best complement CW Classic?

[Chris Goodwin]

I would say it depends on what you want. For probably minimum overlap:

Truck Stop and Crash City. The old standbys. These will get you West Midville and the big rigs rules, along with the truck stop map and all the needed counters.

If you already have the big rigs rules (like, let's say you still have your old Truck Stop booklet but none of the counters or mapsheets), then instead of the above you could get the Deluxe Car Wars Compendium Upgrade which would get you West Midville, plus the truck stop, plus the Double Drum arena, plus a huge load of counters, plus a bunch of road sections. And some counters you won't be able to use (helicopters).

Instead of all of the above, you could get the full Deluxe Car Wars which includes everything in the upgrade, plus the Car Wars Compendium PDF which includes the helicopters rules, plus gas engines, plus boats and hovercraft. That would fully overlap with Car Wars Classic, though.

Midville Includes the East Midville and North Midville maps, but (I don't have it so someone can correct me if I'm wrong) not the original (west) Midville maps. Fully overlaps Expansion Set 3 (East Midville). Includes some counters you won't be able to use (helicopters) unless you get the Compendium or the Deluxe Edition.

[brionl]

If you want the most bang for your buck, you should just get the Deluxe Car Wars set. If you have that, you won't need Boat Wars, or Truck Stop, or Aero Wars, or Duel Track or several other things.

Stuff that isn't overlapped would be the Crash City, Midville, or Arena Book sets.

If you are planning on printing out stuff to race upon, I'd consider the Deluxe Road Section sets. They are slightly overlapped with the Deluxe, but there is a wider variety, and a lot of misc counters, like more debris and obstacles, and various roadside objects.

The PDF sale ends and the end of the month, right? Might as well pick them up now.

[frieque]

Thanks. I'm starting from scratch, as all my old Car Wars stuff disappeared at some point during more than a dozen moves.

The PDF sale is what convinced me to buy now. I'm definitely planning to print stuff out, as I have access to a plotter for the larger maps. Maps are at least as important as vehicle rules, as I don't have a ton of interest in things like boats and helicopters, though I do love off road battles.

[Chris Goodwin]

If you were to get the full Deluxe, you would -- I'm pretty sure -- have everything you'd get in Crash City, and almost everything you'd get in Truck Stop (you'd be missing the CB lingo sheet). Add the Midville set and you'd have all of Midville, and not need Expansion 3.

I actually did pick up a bunch of the expansions on PDF, so I've got a good bit of overlap. I'm not sad that I did.

[Magesmiley]

From the in print or PDF available stuff that I'm aware of (doing this from memory, so please correct if you see something wrong):

Car Wars Classic: Rules are present in Car Wars Compendium. Design stats are present in UACFH. Counters are present in Deluxe Car Wars and Expansion Set 2 (not sure if the turn key in the expansion is the old or current one). Printed counters in Car Wars Classic Counter Set are the same.
Car Wars Compendium: Includes rules from Car Wars Classic, Crash City, Truck Stop, Boat Wars, same Helicopter rules as Aeroduel. Design rules and gear are present in UACFH.
Deluxe Car Wars: Include Compendium (so overlap from that applies here too). Jumping and Falling rules sheet is the same as rules in UACFH. Counters are the same as Car Wars Classic, Truck Stop, Crash City, (or Expansion Set 2), Road Sections are similar to those in Expansion Set 1 and Deluxe Road Sections 1 and Dueltrack. Map are the same as Crash City and Truck Stop.
Crash City: Rules are present in Car Wars Compendium, some rules in Car Wars Classic. Gear is present in UACFH. Map and counters present in Deluxe Edition set and in Expansion Set 2.
Truck Stop: Rules are present in the Car Wars Compendium. Design stats and gear are present in UACFH. Counters are present in Deluxe Car Wars and Expansion Set 2. Map is present in Deluxe Car Wars.
Expansion Set 1: The road sections (but not counters) are also present in Deluxe Road Sections Set 1, Deluxe Edition, and Dueltrack.
Expansion Set 2: Counters are the same as Car Wars Classic and Deluxe Edition.
Expansion Set 3 East Midville: Rules are also in Midville. Counters are in Midville and Expansion Set 10.
Expansion Set 4 Armadillo Autoduel Arena: Counters are in Expansion Set 10
Expansion Set 5 Double Arena: Counters are in Expansion Set 10
Expansion Set 6 The AADA Vehicle Guide Counters: A few of the counters are on the sheets with road sections in Deluxe Car Wars.
Expansion Set 7 Off-Road Duelling: Counters are in Expansion Set 10
Expansion Set 8 Chopper Challenge: Counters are in Expansion Set 10
Expansion Set 9 Muskogee Fairgrounds & Family Emporium: Rules and map are in Muskogee Mayhem
Expansion Set 10: Counters are the same ones as Expansion Set 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Midville also contains some of the counters. Dueltrack contains one of the same counter sheets also.
Dueltrack: Rules are in Car Wars Compendium. Design rules and gear are in UACFH. Counters are in Expansion Set 10. Road sections (but not necessarily counters on road sections) are also in Deluxe Edition, Expansion Set 1, and Deluxe Road Sections 1
Midville: Some of the counters and rules from this set are present in Expansion Set 3.
Muskogee Mayhem: Some of the rules and the maps are present in Expansion Set 9.
Uncle Albert's Catalogs (2035, 2036, 2038, 2039) and Calendar: All gear present in UACFH. Some gear present in Car Wars Classic and some present in Car Wars Compendium
Aeroduel: The helicopter rules are also in the Car Wars Compendium. Design rules and gear are in UACFH.
Boat Wars: The rules are also in the Car Wars Compendium. Design rules and gear are in UACFH.
Tanks: Design rules and gear are in UACFH.
Deluxe Road Sections 1: The roads (but not counters) are the same as those in the Deluxe Edition, Dueltrack, and Expansion Set 1. Some of the roads are the same Deluxe Road Sections 2 and 3
Deluxe Road Sections 2: Some of the roads (but not counters) are the same as those in the Deluxe Edition, Dueltrack, Expansion Set 1, and Deluxe Road Sections 1 and 3
Deluxe Road Sections 3: The roads (but not counters) are the same as those in the Deluxe Edition, Dueltrack, Expansion Set 1, and Deluxe Road Sections 1 and 2
UACFH: Design rules and gear from everything EXCEPT ADQ 10/4 and Pyramid articles. Also has the jumping/falling rules that are present in the Deluxe Edition.
Arena Book: The PDF version of the Deluxe Edition contains the Double Drum map also.
I didn't include ADQ in the above, I also didn't include some of the out of print stuff not available as a pdf (Pocket Box, old Deluxe Edition book, etc.).

I think that's it.

[Magesmiley]

In hindsight, I probably should've moved that list to a new thread and asked Scott to sticky it.

[swordtart]

I would have said that it would have been nice if the descriptions of the products could be updated to show they are CW Classic compatible.

I am minded though that the reason for CW Classic was to strip out all the guff and bring the game back to what it was when it was fun. Adding the guff back in by buying supplements seems counter productive.

[Chris Goodwin]

Originally Posted by swordtart

I would have said that it would have been nice if the descriptions of the products could be updated to show they are CW Classic compatible.

I am minded though that the reason for CW Classic was to strip out all the guff and bring the game back to what it was when it was fun. Adding the guff back in by buying supplements seems counter productive.

Which is why they're supplements and not part of the base game. :)

[Magesmiley]

Originally Posted by KevinR

What I would have found really useful (and still would) would be a clear list of which expansions were released with which versions of the core rules. Especially with Classic in print, it seems like it might be really useful to have a list of expansions that were of that time, and not of an earlier time.

Reviewing the list of everything, for example, the 13xx products seem to be expansions of Deluxe (1301), but Classic (1400) is alone. 5e is 10xx, 11xx, and 12xx (print) and 40xx (digital). There are a bunch of 71xx products, but most of those seem to be earlier (Compendium is 7142). And where do the 74xx products fit?

Items that are from 5th edition are not compatible with other editions (with the possible exception of the arena book). All other items are compatible to one degree or another. All of the counters are, for example, as are the maps, for the most part (there might be rules missing for some maps, such as stairwells).

The place where things get murky is when you get into the rulebooks.

This is how I see the editions of the game (this is a division along where the really important differences in the rules are, rather than any publishing date that some might use):

1st Edition: Pocket Box edition of Car Wars (including the ziplock edition). Also includes Truck Stop, Crash City (or Sunday Drivers if you have an older copy), and Autoduel Champions. AADA Vehicle Guide Volume 1. Space Gamer articles generally fall here.

2nd Edition: Deluxe Car Wars (with the old black and white rulebook). Dueltrack and both Boat Wars sets land here. Combat Showcase, AADA Vehicle Guide Volume 2

3rd Edition: Car Wars Compendium (blue cover, 1st Edition).

4th Edition: Car Wars Compendium Second Edition (blue Cover and black cover). The blue small box Car Wars set that came out in the 90s also part of this. As is Car Wars Classic. Aeroduel and Tanks are also part of this edition. AADA Vehicle Guide Volume 3. UACFH was one of the last big items. This is the rule set that most people play currently. Later versions of the Deluxe Edition (including the pdfs) replaced the older black and white DCW rulebook with the Compendium. Articles from Pyramid are for 4th edition.

5th Edition: Small book sets (Division 5/10/15 Set 1/2/3, Division 5 Vehicle Guide, And the 5th edition Arena Book).

Varies (1st-4th): ADQ spans the breadth of 1st-4th editions and it touches on a variety of rules sets. You can use most of it, but you need to be aware that there are differences.

Anywhere (1st-4th): The expansion sets (1-10), Midville, Muskogee Mayhem, the various Uncle Albert's Catalogs, Deluxe Road Sections, the Arena Book, l'Outrance, are pretty much usable everywhere.

So, for Classic, I'd recommend anything on the 4th edition list (keeping in mind you should get the Compendium if you want the full rules set), plus the items from the usable anywhere list. The later ADQs, probably from about 7/1 on, should be fairly compatible. Other items from 1st-3rd edition and earlier ADQs are generally usable, but you need to watch for differences in the rules. 5th edition is mostly incompatible.