6e Car Wars, what do you want to see

[adm]

Having played both Car Wars an SFB for most of their existence, I have never thought of Car Wars as complex.

[Jeffr0]

Originally Posted by adm

Having played both Car Wars an SFB for most of their existence, I have never thought of Caw Wars as complex.

Mastering SFB took me a long time. Years. The tactics involved with the game are a few orders of magnitude more nuanced than CAR WARS as well.

Session reports from the 80's for CAR WARS basically consist of "Mike Montgomery used the following design loopholes to destroy his competition and win the championship." The victory at Origins articles in Captains Log reveal a game that requires the equivalent of a CA R WARS vehicle design concept on almost every turn via energy allocation!

[Fred Skin]

1/64th scale
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Cars should be more useful for day-to-day survival instead of arena-only designs.

My first experience with CW was the Pocket Box and I totally loved it. As a teenager I wanted more and more content but I quickly got bogged down with so many options, counters, huge maps, etc. I liked the 5th ed. rules, but hated the execution. I would like a box set a bit bigger than Car Wars Classic with 1/64th scale counters, possibly a few plastic cars, with poster board road sections/city blocks. I've never liked the idea of arena combat, because I've more of a Mad Max vision of the Car Wars future than a Rollerball vision (even though I love both.)

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by adm

I have never thought of Caw Wars as complex.

Caw Wars - isn't that the game of armed crows? ;)

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by Fred Skin

1/64th scale

I would like a box set a bit bigger than Car Wars Classic with 1/64th scale counters, possibly a few plastic cars

IMHO, if you are going to go with 1/64 scale (Hot Wheels/Matchbox), there really is no need to include the cars as this is a HUGE expense compared to the poster board road sections/counters you mentioned.

However, I could see including plastic weapons that can be attached to the HW/M cars.

[swordtart]

It seems to me that whatever you come up with will not appeal to a broad range of CW fans as we all want different and often mutually exclusive things.

Many of us old-timers have by now modified the rules to suit our own ideas and anyone else's version would be less than ideal (though we all accept that some ideas other people have are meritorious).

We already have a wealth of product to work through and I'd like to see some new stuff rather than a continual retreading of the basics. I own every major edition of the game and most of the suppliments. I really dont need another version that makes all that redundant or is redundant if you own all the other stuff (even if it is in glorious true colour, 3D, 1:1 scale and comes with a free Als Gal).

I am sure a simple rehash wouldn't be that satisfying for the designers either.

Of course I am a CW fan and that hole in my collection will nag at me until I cave in and buy it anyway. I would rather not be disspointed.

[Jeffr0]

Originally Posted by swordtart

I am sure a simple rehash wouldn't be that satisfying for the designers either.

Assuming they go with up-scaled plastic toys and either $50 or $100 for the box... including a single countersheet and cars & cycles rulebook of "classic" CAR WARS as a stretch goal would be pretty reasonable. Putting the question of "more plastic" vs. "more maps & counters" up to a vote would be... interesting.

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by swordtart

I am sure a simple rehash wouldn't be that satisfying for the designers either.

Hopefully.

The difference between Ogre and Car Wars is that the rules for Ogre are pretty good as is. Sure, they can clean them up a bit and they can mesh the Ogre rules and GEV rules into one (which I'm not sure they are doing anyway). The Designer Edition of Ogre is "more stuff" - 3D Ogres/Buildings, larger better color maps, more counters, etc.

Car Wars needs a complete overhaul of the rules. There was so much stuff pasted on over the years resulting in rules bloat and contradictions. They need to do a rewrite from the ground up, keeping the stuff that works (like the design rules) and getting rid of the stuff that doesn't work.

The new edition can have plastic cars, full-color thick counters, constructible arenas, etc., but if the rules remain the same, all you've got is eye candy.

I don't mind a 2' x 3' x 1' box-o-goodies - however the core has to be a ruleset that is going to make sense and is fun to play.

[davester64]

I'd like to see a history of available weapons that can be used by year.

Remember those few weapons in the pocket box? And when the Vulcan came along, how happy we were?

Well, maybe it was just me. But I'd like a breakdown of eras where available weapons were used/created, whatever you want to call it.

And I would like some sort of 3D vehicles. And design rules (of course!)

And maybe change the history to get rid of the Grain Blight/algae based food background history.

[DSumner]

Originally Posted by davester64

I'd like to see a history of available weapons that can be used by year.

Remember those few weapons in the pocket box? And when the Vulcan came along, how happy we were?

Well, maybe it was just me. But I'd like a breakdown of eras where available weapons were used/created, whatever you want to call it.

So maybe something like they did with Battletech, were you could only get certain weapons during certain eras?