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Old 02-05-2019, 12:12 PM   #21
Blue Ghost
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spinward Marches
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

Quote:
Originally Posted by owenmp View Post
After having several excellent conversations with new Car Wars player industrialchild, I thought starting this thread might be helpful.

If you are a new Car Wars player . . .

What aspects of the game are difficult for you?

What types of games do like to play most often (arenas, highway duels, mini-scenarios, adventures, multi-session campaigns, etc.)?

What types of play-aids do you need to understand the game better and make it easier to play?
I think the best way to learn is to just do as the rules recommend. Start off with the first basic road scenario, and build from there to familiarize yourself with the rules. It's what we did.
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Old 02-05-2019, 12:31 PM   #22
TheAmishStig
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Lancaster, PA
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

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Originally Posted by Blue Ghost View Post
I think the best way to learn is to just do as the rules recommend. Start off with the first basic road scenario, and build from there to familiarize yourself with the rules. It's what we did.
Agreed. Kind of like Battletech, there are so many layers to Car Wars that if you try to go too deep too fast, it's going to be a super-frustrating experience. Do a basic highway scenario, take a couple premades into an arena [though I tend to prefer something a step up from Killer Kart...a front-mounted gun exclusively means lots of opportunities for a player to become disinterested while they spend turn after turn trying to line up a shot]

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Originally Posted by Magesmiley View Post
Rainbow Bay has the problem with turn keys big time. I don't even put them out, and instead just use the sticks I've made up. I've been considering another solution though to the tight corner problem: in theory, it should be possible to make some sticks to work with the outside edge of a turning car.

It's also worth noting that the upcoming 6th edition's turn gages work differently than the keys. Based on my understanding, they'll perform in tight spaces like the sticks that Andy and I use. They might be a bit better though - I *think* though that they could be used in a two-step process on the outside of the car to do turns.

(And keep in mind that with the Classic game, it's still possible to make maneuvers without a key too.)
Could I bug you for pictures of your current sticks? Here, e-mail, wherever. The ones I used in the fall are technically outside-edge sticks...they work rather nicely, but because I did 'front end here, then back end here' (instead of back-end here, then front end there), they were a little small. The 15 degree especially proved to be kind of a pain to hold still while repositioning the car, but the nice thing is with a slight modification they'll prove really easy to 'read'.
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Old 02-05-2019, 12:36 PM   #23
owenmp
 
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Location: Bellevue, WA, USA
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

TheAmishStig,

I have several photos of MageSmiley's Car Wars Tournaments at Dragonflight and OrcaCon, including photos of the Turning Keys and "Angle Sticks." (Each time I take photos of those events I give my photos to MageSmiley after the tournaments.) I can e-mail them to you. Send me your e-mail address in a private message.

Update: I have two photos of the "Angle Sticks" or "Angle Keys" from Dragonflight 2018 ready for you.
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Last edited by owenmp; 02-05-2019 at 12:46 PM.
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Old 02-05-2019, 01:15 PM   #24
TheAmishStig
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Lancaster, PA
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

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Originally Posted by owenmp View Post
TheAmishStig,

I have several photos of MageSmiley's Car Wars Tournaments at Dragonflight and OrcaCon, including photos of the Turning Keys and "Angle Sticks." (Each time I take photos of those events I give my photos to MageSmiley after the tournaments.) I can e-mail them to you. Send me your e-mail address in a private message.

Update: I have two photos of the "Angle Sticks" or "Angle Keys" from Dragonflight 2018 ready for you.
Done and done. Thanks much!
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Old 02-05-2019, 02:24 PM   #25
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

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Originally Posted by TheAmishStig View Post
Do a basic highway scenario, take a couple premades into an arena [though I tend to prefer something a step up from Killer Kart...a front-mounted gun exclusively means lots of opportunities for a player to become disinterested while they spend turn after turn trying to line up a shot]
This is where having the really rare products like _Autoventures_ comes in handy; a Div. 5 light-chassis-and-suspension Compact with an RL and OJ offers a bit more variety than a _Killer Kart_ (not to mention opportunities for High Comedy when a HC1 car with a D-0 drivers hits an oil slick... :) ).
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Old 02-05-2019, 08:09 PM   #26
TheAmishStig
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Lancaster, PA
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

Quote:
Originally Posted by owenmp View Post
TheAmishStig,

I have several photos of MageSmiley's Car Wars Tournaments at Dragonflight and OrcaCon, including photos of the Turning Keys and "Angle Sticks." (Each time I take photos of those events I give my photos to MageSmiley after the tournaments.) I can e-mail them to you. Send me your e-mail address in a private message.

Update: I have two photos of the "Angle Sticks" or "Angle Keys" from Dragonflight 2018 ready for you.
Pictures received. Thanks much!

Those are very similar to what I ended up making a couple years ago...the big difference is that on those the inner and outer edges aren't parallel, and because mine are made for 2X they're a good deal smaller. I don't use the inside often, but it's nice to have for those situations where the stick will only fit after the forward part of movement (make a move straight ahead, rest the stick against the rear edge, then spin the car until the side edge makes contact)...or for fishtails, starting with the nose in contact instead.

I'd also sketched out but not had time to cut a 'Spinout' guide, shaped like an F if the lower bar was facing the wrong way.
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Last edited by TheAmishStig; 02-06-2019 at 11:45 AM.
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Old 12-06-2019, 12:34 PM   #27
High Tyrol
 
Join Date: Dec 2019
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

I am a new car wars player only discovered and read through the car wars classic rules last week. I have played 2 games so far. Both were with my 10-year old little brother. I turned to it because I had an idea for running a roleplaying game about mountain pass racing wizards and stumbled across car wars. I think that I need to play a lot of games before I can run something like that.

What aspects of the game are difficult to me?

Collisions are difficult to resolve. If my car skids the rules don't say what direction. Also I don't understand conforming that well. If two identical cars sideswipe at the same speed which car conforms?

The biggest misunderstanding I had was how handling class worked. I thought handling class was the highest handling status a car could get. I also ran both my games where only 1 handling class was restored a second because I misread the rules the first time through.

What type of games do I like to play most often? The only type of game I have played was a 1v1 race starting side by side at 0mph with killer karts on a two car width wide track with 5 right angle turns and 3 U-turns.

I am planning on more races and a few Amateur night games over Christmas. I also found a few people who were interested in playing next semester. I made a few courses fairly quickly and I am hoping to translate some real mountain roads to 1 inch scale.

What types of play aids do I need to understand the game better and make it easier to play?
I printed out the tables and car options in Car Wars Classic. I also have some turning keys. I don't really know what other aids would be useful yet.
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Old 12-06-2019, 02:17 PM   #28
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

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Originally Posted by High Tyrol View Post
Collisions are difficult to resolve. If my car skids the rules don't say what direction.
One skids in the direction one was going *before* one maneuvered. Yes, this does mean one has to remember what direction one was going before maneuvering; but one can use markers for that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by High Tyrol View Post
Also I don't understand conforming that well. If two identical cars sideswipe at the same speed which car conforms?
Not sure what Official Ruling was (if any); back-when, if cars of equal mass hit, we "split the difference" between what each of them did. (I think there's a _Mythbusters_ episode out there with a live demonstration of what happens in sideswipes, but I'd have to find it.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by High Tyrol View Post
The biggest misunderstanding I had was how handling class worked. I thought handling class was the highest handling status a car could get.
This is correct -- if one's HC is 3 (after all modifiers), that is the highest it can go; so if one is at HC 1, and recovers 4 HC points/turn, one only recovers 2 HC points, to HC 3; the remaining 2 HC points are lost.
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Old 12-09-2019, 12:32 AM   #29
swordtart
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Default Re: Starting to Play Car Wars

In movement the fastest car moves first.

In order to resolve ties we also ruled that in the event cars were moving at exactly the same speed, cars moved in reverse order of reflexes. This means the driver with higher reflexes gets to see what the other car is going to do before declaring his move.

If it is still a tie, roll a dice.

There are still occasions where you need to make a judgement call. We had a car sideswipe a fixed obstacle and another car at the same time. The difficulty was the moving car had a lower DM than the stationary car and didn't have enough damage to breach the fixed obstacle. The rules at this point were contradictory.

In the last case the best thing to do is have each player in the collision put forward their case and discuss it. If you can't reach an agreement after 2 minutes roll a dice to see which interpretation you use.
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