Car Wars 5e Vehicle Design

[Guntruck40]

I actually think they killed themselves by not pushing/alluding/partenring with the Hotwheels/matchbox ( Before Mattel bought it and executed it) /Corgi scale cars and trucks
D&D became the Gold Standard because of 3d Figures. Warhammer is currently on top because of 3d Figures. Historical wargaming never dies because of HG Wells and 3d Figures.

What did they not get after 30 years in the business?

EDIT

I'm sorry, that came off as a rant. Wasn't supposed to be a rant. All those years in college and I wanted to do a RPG/Road game with highspeed cars. All my freinds worships at the altar of D&D so I was stuck. I envisioned Carwars with hotwheels 3 days after I bought the game in 85. Never did anything about it because all my gamer freind were to concerned about their 99th level Paladin Elf magic User. Meh.


They should have pushed the cars.

[owenmp]

Matchbox released two lines of automotive combat vehicles.

The Flash Force 2000 line was produced in the early 1980s. Permanent weapons were part of each car's frame.

A 16-car set of RoadBlasters, based on the RoadBlasters arcade game from Atari, was released in 1988. Each car or truck had snap-on plastic weapons and armor.

Mattel released a line of automotive combat vehicles called "Road Wars" in the early 1990s. The cars came with large snap-on melee weapons.

All three of these vehicle lines were not successful in stores. These vehicles, especially the RoadBlasters, are great for 3X Car Wars games.

The 1:64 Battle Machines by Jada Toys are beautiful, violent works of art, however most are now out of print.

The Games Workshop miniatures game Dark Future had plastic cars with interchangeable plastic weapons. A separate set of cars and weapons called Battlecars was produced for Dark Future. All of the Dark Future components were in 3X Car Wars scale.

The idea of upscaling Car Wars to enable use of Matchbox and Hot Wheels miniatures was discussed in a 1984 issue of Autoduel Quarterly.

Upscaling Car Wars, or You've Got to Think Big. Autoduel Quarterly. Vol. 2, No. 3. Fall 2034.
http://www.sjgames.com/car-wars/adq/2/3
http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG30-8707

Two helpful Web sites discussing autoduelling conversions of 1:64 die-cast cars are listed below.

Michael Casavant's Car Wars Page
http://gaming.thecasavants.com/CW/index.htm
http://gaming.thecasavants.com/CW/modeling.htm
http://gaming.thecasavants.com/Terrain/cw.htm

Military Miniatures Magazine - Roadwarriors: War on the Autobahn
http://www.figuras.miniatures.de/roadwarriors.html

I saved the 3X Car Wars Web site before it was removed from the Internet. I am planning to upload a copy to my Web site this spring. The 3X Car Wars Web site had several helpful articles on conversions, and a nice photo gallery.

[The Horn'd One]

Just one question (since I am re-aquainting myself with Car Wars): What is a "Confetti Number"?

[Parody]

Originally Posted by The Horn'd One

Just one question (since I am re-aquainting myself with Car Wars): What is a "Confetti Number"?

If you take that much or more damage in a single attack, your vehicle turns into confetti. (A pile of debris and obstacle counters.)

A full description is included in the CW5 rules.

[The Horn'd One]

Ah, OK. Thanks.

[thudthwacker]

Originally Posted by Guntruck40

I actually think they killed themselves by not pushing/alluding/partenring with the Hotwheels/matchbox ( Before Mattel bought it and executed it)

I was thinking that just today when I picked up a couple of Hot Wheels "HW Video Game Heroes" cars. Nice cars, with weapons, for $.79 each. It would have been magnificent if SJG and Hot Wheels partnered up for at least a couple of the pairs of the 5e starter set cars. I would think it would be a pretty attractive idea to both companies; all SJG gives up is some space in the sets to mention the existence of the cars and include a Hot Wheels logo, and in return they get lots of people in lots of toy stores hearing about their game. Mattel would be giving SJG some free advertising, yeah, but they'd get some nifty concept art to base cars on (saving them the trouble of doing that part themselves), and they'd get business from teens/adults who might otherwise not be in the market for their products. And they clearly make that kind of car anyway (witness the two gun-bedecked cars sitting on the table next to me), so it's not as if it would be territory they normally avoid.

But, then, I don't work in the game industry, and there's probably a bit more to this sort of arrangement than a couple of guys saying "hey, it would be cool to work together."

[swordtart]

I think the progress blocker you allude to is commonly known as...

A LAWYER

;)

[thudthwacker]

Originally Posted by swordtart

I think the progress blocker you allude to is commonly known as...

A LAWYER

;)

Yeah, I imagine. It's unlikely that there's any such thing as a simple business arrangement at the scale Mattel and SJG work. SJG would probably need some assurance that the cars Mattel produced were suitable for use as miniatures (that is, the concept art they provided wasn't changed to the point that it didn't match the car's equipment according to the book), and once there's anything like that I imagine the legal aggravation becomes untenable unless it's going to be slam-dunk profitable for both companies.

Still darned unfortunate. I'd love to be able to pick up some cars from the starter sets.

[thudthwacker]

Likely dumb question: do turrets take up room in the car body, or do they provide space that's external to the body? That is, if I have a turret-mounted recoilless rifle, does it take up *no* spaces from the body or 4 (two for the gun, two for the turret)?

[Jeffr0]

Originally Posted by thudthwacker

Likely dumb question: do turrets take up room in the car body, or do they provide space that's external to the body? That is, if I have a turret-mounted recoilless rifle, does it take up *no* spaces from the body or 4 (two for the gun, two for the turret)?

Small 1 and 2 space turrets take up as much internal space as they give inside the turret itself. 3 and 4 space turrets take up only 2 internal spaces.