The Unoffial 2056 Vehicle Guide

[Racer]

Hard Target 2068 : Light Trike , Extra Heavy Chassis , Heavy Suspension , Medium Cycle Power Plant w/10pts Component Armour , 3 Motorcycle OR PR Tires , Cyclist w/SWC & 10pts Component Armour , MG Left w/20 Shots HD Ammo & 10pts Component Armour , Sloped Plastic Armour : F32 , L38 , R24 , B30 , T11 , U12 , 1-6pt CWG Front , 2-5pt Wheel Guards Back , Acceleration 5mph , Top Speed 90mph , HC 2 ( HC 2 Offroad ) , 1,800lbs , $7,359 .
From Spike Trikes .

Road Brick Lt.Trike with some Offroad capability . Original mounted a HMG Left , but as loaded weight of HMG is an unresolved rules question , have gone for a HD MG instead .
Easily upgradable & can be made fully Offroad with at low cost . Best to carry a PFE in case of incendiary attacks .
-3 To Hit from Side & -4 from Front & Back makes it extremely hard to target - thus the name . Even at Point Blank Range VMGs & Lasers have been known to miss this design ! Backed up with extensive Component Armour , makes for an excellent defensive One Man Personal Transport - unlikely to start any Combats , but likely to survive or run away Offroad to fight another day if fight gose against it .
A very popular vehicle for newer players to use in Road Combat Scenarios , as it's survivability makes for longer duels & better teaching examples .

( Drop 1pt of Armour & take a PFE for Div 7.5 . Probably won't win but might get or share a Mobility Kill . Really annoys Players with RL Cycles , as they can never seem to hit it ;-) ... )

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Racer

Original mounted a HMG Left , but as loaded weight of HMG is an unresolved rules question , have gone for a HD MG instead

What's "unresolved" about it? It's 350 lbs. -- 250 for the weapon proper; 20 5-lb. shots, for another 100 lbs.

[Racer]

1 - Well according to the Tables in the back of UACFH , HMGs loaded with Incendiary or Anti Personal Ammo weight 300lbs & those loaded with HD or Explosive Ammo weigh 400lbs . No announcement was made in ADQ or elsewhere of the change , so there's a good chance 'the change' to 250lbs unloaded weight was a typo .

2 - IF it has been changed , then that means that there are THREE repeat firing Weapons weighing 350lbs - RRs , Medium Lasers & HMGs , and NONE weighing 300lbs !!! Car Wars doesn't work like that . If you do an 'Average Damage vs Loaded Weight' Graph , then the 300lb HMG sits comfortably near the linear progression line - the 350lb HMG is way off

3 - Repeated requests to ADQ & Pyramid from the early '90's onwards were never replied to - thus no Official conformation OR clarification .

4 - Vehicles from both the Military Vehicle Guide & 'Recon in Force' scenario from Pyramid , seem to use BOTH weights for HMGs when back engineered ...

With all this confusion & the general chaos around that time - crazy amounts of typos in products - our groups have applied 'The Rule of Logic' to the problem & gone with 300lbs loaded weight with Standard Ammo .
We DO agree that the damage should be 2d-2 & these are the stats most British Car Wars Groups go with . The late 'Matt the Hatt's' typed out version of UACFH had many corrections in the text & this was one of them .

We've never had many problems with this - it is frowned upon to mount too many HMGs in ongoing campaigns , as they can make road combats unbalanced .
If Mister Jackson himself says "Oh yes it was a typo & we never caught it" or "Yes we DID change it & sorry we didn't clarify it for everyone" then I'll be happy either way .
As one person who wrote much Car Wars stuff in early 1990's , couldn't read his own notes & wrote his '1s' and '2s' to be almost identical , I'd take many things with a pinch of salt , unless later confirmed ...

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Racer

Well according to the Tables in the back of UACFH , HMGs loaded with Incendiary or Anti Personal Ammo weight 300lbs & those loaded with HD or Explosive Ammo weigh 400lbs . No announcement was made in ADQ or elsewhere of the change , so there's a good chance 'the change' to 250lbs unloaded weight was a typo .

Yes, the "300"s are typos; if one checks the rest of the numbers, it comes out to 350 (250 base; [20 x 5 =] 100 or [20 x 10 =] 200 ammo).

UACFH was not well-received when it came out originally; this is one of the reasons why.

Originally Posted by Racer;2244611[U

IF[/U] it has been changed , then that means that there are THREE repeat firing Weapons weighing 350lbs - RRs , Medium Lasers & HMGs , and NONE weighing 300lbs !!! Car Wars doesn't work like that . If you do an 'Average Damage vs Loaded Weight' Graph , then the 300lb HMG sits comfortably near the linear progression line - the 350lb HMG is way off

See above re UACFH's reception -- _CW Tanks_ was also not well-received at the time, for similar reasons. (The offered explanation was "the HMG being only 1 space, and doing 2d6-2, balances it".)

[QUOTE=Racer;2244611We've never had many problems with this - it is frowned upon to mount too many HMGs in ongoing campaigns , as they can make road combats unbalanced .[/quote]

[shrug] It's never been a problem over here because no one ever uses HMGs; for the cost, weight, and space, one may as well use standbys like the RR or the VMG, with special ammo. (Heck, the ATG with sabot is essentially 5d6....)

[Racer]

Doesn't explain why BOTH weights are used in both the Military Vehicle Guide & Pyramid ? The ambiguity & lack of confirmation or clarification leaves the subject open & for almost 27 years various groups in the UK have used '300lbs' with no real problems . A gaming team in Canada who we have contact with via an Expat , also uses the 300lb figure . Think the may have posted on here at some point ?

Stats we use on the graph are '2d-2 & 300lbs' - both 350lbs & 2d-1are off the linear progression ( at 350lbs AND 2d-1 , it IS on the progression line though ... ) .

A light vehicle using a single 300lb HMG or a Luxury using a linked pair are hardly game breaking , so many can see the logic of our argument ...

Unresolved issues with propagated typos - like Steelbelting DPs & weight of Microplane Props - or illogical ambiguous stats or rules - like shots in a Mine Flinger Magazine and Duel Weapon Magazines - have been bugbears to the game for decades now . We need OFFICIAL Rulings or an online 'Living Rulebook' to finally quash these problems .

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Racer

Unresolved issues with propagated typos - like Steelbelting DPs & weight of Microplane Props - or illogical ambiguous stats or rules - like shots in a Mine Flinger Magazine and Duel Weapon Magazines - have been bugbears to the game for decades now . We need OFFICIAL Rulings or an online 'Living Rulebook' to finally quash these problems .

This is the tragedy of Me Being Me -- I was still in high school when most of those rulebooks came out; had I been a few years older, I *might* have been in a position to fix those problems....

[Racer]

Someone on another thread mentioned "You never seem to see brick Light Cycles" ... thought I'd have a try :

Buckler C - Light Cycle , Heavy Suspension , Small Cycle Power Plant w/HTMs & 10pts Component Armour , 2 OR SBHD Tires , Cyclist w/10pts Component Armour , Fake MG Front , Plastic Armour : F16 , B20 , 2pt CWG Front , 3pt CWG Back , Acceleration 10mph - 15mph w/HTMs , Top Speed 120mph - 90mph w/HTMs , HC 2 - HC 1 Offroad , 800lbs , $2,320 .

Fake MG is a pure bluff of course . A PFE can be carried & still cost under $2,500 - there always seems to be some pyromaniac trying to fry exposed Cycles with FTs or Flame Clouds . Cyclist is also protected from Burst Effects & with excellent Acceleration , this model can escape Offroad from any heavy combats . Cheap Defensive Cycle for Eastern Roads/quite towns & that can still feel safe in rougher areas .

[ We use +33% DP for Steelbelting , so the SBHD Tires have 8 DP - Combat Garage uses +25% DP but best not to get into that discussion here ;-) ]

[swordtart]

Originally Posted by Racer

... Cyclist w/10pts Component Armour ...

A PFE can be carried & still cost under $2,500 - there always seems to be some pyromaniac trying to fry exposed Cycles with FTs or Flame Clouds. Cyclist is also protected from Burst Effects...

In this case however the Cyclist is NOT exposed and so you can forgo the PFE.

(I have doubts whether a PFE should work on anything other than crew from inside crew component armour).

Also define "Brick" in this case. I quite like the idea of a shepherding bike for gangs with a fake weapon, but I am not sure anyone is going to turn away from 1 MG, fake or otherwise)

[Racer]

In this case I meant 'exposed' as in internals aren't covered by external Armour . Swordboy & Mr Chimpy are notorious for trying to set unprepared Cyclists on Fire with FCGS & HDFTs - regardless of Component Armour . One successful roll & Cycle won't stop burning , thus the sense in a PFE .
Yes I know a Fake MG isn't much , but easier to explain than a real one in New York in the 2060s ...
Other Cyclists will often pick on any unarmed small vehicles , so protective camouflage etc . It's a very small target - -3 to hit F+B - with reasonable Cycle Armour , backed with Component Armour . Coupled with high Acceleration , all contribute to making this a survivor .

[swordtart]

Survivor and Cyclist don't really fit well together. Better to buy an AR and take the bus instead ;)