The Unoffial 2056 Vehicle Guide

[swordtart]

For many reasons, I am not convinced that Aeroduel is actually compatible with Car Wars.

It may work fine for air to air combat, but the interaction with ground vehicles and some of the implications forced into the main Car Wars product by decisions made within it creates imbalance in my opinion.

For that reason whilst I have read it, other than for designing sir-craft for NPC activity (Balloon watch points on fortress town, Zeppelin trade runs and distant auto-gyros dogging the convoy), we never really used it in our games.

We use Tanks even less for similar reasons (though we did plunder it for spotting rules, telescopic sights etc.)

Hmm. Apparently Aeroduel uses different physics to the rest of the universe.

Consider our hang glider having just deployed at 10" travelling at 20. According to p17 it will lose 1/4" per turn when not climbing or diving. After 40 seconds of straight line flight it will land (or at least glide into the ground) still doing 20 if my reading is correct.

As it climbs like a micro-plane, it can instead climb up to 1/2" per turn as a normal climb. It travels only 1" forward. According to p20 its speed immediately becomes 10 (and it immediately stalls), but according to the words and worked example on p21 it doesn't loose any speed (as it has climbed less than 1"). I am inclined to believe the second part as the first part could simply refer to the forward element of speed (and which phases you would move your forward component).

If the above is true then a hang glider can climb indefinitely (gaining potential energy from nowhere). All this without considering up-drafts and thermals (the usual way for hang gliders to gain potential energy).

[juris]

All I know is it's pretty hard to run a 120 mph strafe on a convoy on regular CW scale. When the plane banks away it ends up in other room. You pretty much need a separate map with a different scale to run the combat.

Originally Posted by swordtart

For many reasons, I am not convinced that Aeroduel is actually compatible with Car Wars.

.

[Racer]

Actually the ½" Inch climbing rate is a typo . Original Microplanes article in ADQ 7/1 it's ¼" Inch height gained for each 1" Inch of Forward Movement sacrificed .
A Certain Someone mixed up the Helicopter Climbing Rules with the Fixed Wing ones ... We had to go through the whole of Areoduel & pencil in the corrections . I 'think' this mistake was mentioned in ADQ Driver's Seat page ? Or perhaps elsewhere ? I'll have a look when I get home .

So many mistakes , typos , rules contradictions , emissions & silliness in that Rules book , we've had to pencil in so much stuff & add additional pages for things like Fuel Consumption/Per Jet Engine Space etc .
The book needs to have about 50% more pages .

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Racer

So many mistakes , typos , rules contradictions , emissions & silliness in that Rules book , we've had to pencil in so much stuff & add additional pages for things like Fuel Consumption/Per Jet Engine Space etc .
The book needs to have about 50% more pages .

A decent editing pass, and it would likely have 50% *fewer* pages.

The helicopter climb rate is a little high, but not ludicrously so; it's not totally out-of-line for fixed-wings to use it. (I'd have to go deep-diving into my pilot-training materials to be able to give a full dissertation on How Flying Machines Climb and Dive, and even I'm not willing to read all that here. :) )

On the Design End: I note that it's still not possible for Helicopters to have Wheeled Landing Gear, which would come as a shock to pilots of just about any Russian helicopter.... :) (To that end: Wheeled LG for 'copters is a zero-cost, -weight, and -space option; the removal of the skids and struts is countered by the addition of the wheel struts, so one need only add the cost of tires, and wheelguards [fairings] if so inclined.)

[Racer]

Found it ! ADQ 7/2 Page 2 , The Driver's Seat : Oops at Twelve O'Clock High .

We allow Helicopters to swap out their Landing Skids for 3 HD Car Tires , 4 HD Car Tires at +40lbs & more robust Tires at appropriate weight & cost gain .
Three Tires can either be in the Tricycle position or Tailwheel position at -20lbs .

Heavy Lift Helicopters from NOVA Pages can use Oversized HD Tires & their Retractable Landing Gear takes up 3 Spaces like larger Airplanes .
( In line with CWC2.5 , we allow RLG on Transport Helicopters to only take up 2 Spaces despite the frame being 24+17 Spaces . As Copters aren't subject to high speed landings , we've agreed that this fudge won't have any real impact on gameplay . )

[swordtart]

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

On the Design End: I note that it's still not possible for Helicopters to have Wheeled Landing Gear

Retractable wheeled landing gear is a standard option in 2.5.

Are you talking about non-retractable wheeled landing gear?

[Racer]

That's what I took to be what he meant .
T-Rex , Spad & myself spent some time writing notes on the varied wheel configurations for the various Air Vehicles .
Also did a cross reference chart to show which Wing Types can & cannot be mixed together - as well as tweaking some contradictions in the Aeroduel text .

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by Racer

A Certain Someone

Chuckled out loud at that one.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Racer

Found it ! ADQ 7/2 Page 2 , The Driver's Seat : Oops at Twelve O'Clock High .

Had forgotten about that one; need to remember it for the Great Edit....

Originally Posted by Racer

Heavy Lift Helicopters from NOVA Pages can use Oversized HD Tires & their Retractable Landing Gear takes up 3 Spaces like larger Airplanes .

Yeah, I'm familiar with that one.... ;)

Originally Posted by Racer

( In line with CWC2.5 , we allow RLG on Transport Helicopters to only take up 2 Spaces despite the frame being 24+17 Spaces . As Copters aren't subject to high speed landings , we've agreed that this fudge won't have any real impact on gameplay . )

RLG space and weight is *way* off, in most applications. For ex.: The infamous BD-5 kitplane, which at worst would be a Medium Microplane, has RLG -- which is essentially a set of tubes attached to a lever in the cockpit. If one has ever seen the gear-retraction on the "Microjet", the speed with which it goes up or down results from the retraction lever being directly attached to the gear itself.... (Can't find any good pics or vids of same.) RLG ought to be proportional to the size of the unit it's attached to.

As to "helicopters not making hard landings": A bunch of the current- and ex-mil types I know would like to discuss this with you.... >;)

[Racer]

Oh I agree . It's just that the Helicopters in Car Wars very rarely make hard landings in our experiences .

The classic example I can recall , is a Leviathan Transport Copter (VG1) had it's Stabilizing Rotor fried by multiple Laser hits . This was back in the 1980's before Rotor Armour & it dropped 1¾ Inches Autorotating onto it's skids .
Most of the other 'landings' have actually been crashes & non survivable anyway ... Landing Gears wouldn't make any difference in those cases ...

I suppose a Copter fitted with 'Heavy Dudy Landing Gear' - a bit like the Westland Wasp Naval Helicopter - would take less damage from rough landings etc ?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Wasp

Would love to use something like a Mil Mi-10 in game : Max Take Off Weight in 84,000lbs-96,000lbs range !!! 8-D

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-10

Or a e Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey for that matter ...