Deluxe Road Sections
 

My group is interested in racing scenarios, both gas powered and not. I have a few supplements with race tracks to make, and they all make reference to the deluxe road section books. There's PDF versions of those on the store I see, but without the usual download preview, I don't know if any of these contain road sections already contained in the latest deluxe edition, which I have. Should I get any and/or all of these? I'm starting to spend a lot of money picking up old supplements for this game. Not that I'm complaining but there are more I could pick up.

Speaking of which, just a random additional question that isn't really worth making a post about, is the Uncle Albert's Catalog from Hell worth the $15? I do like stuff, but it sounds like it overlaps a lot with Compendium 2, which I obviously also have because of CWDeluxe.

Thanks, and sorry I'm asking so many questions here, I'm just trying to get started with this fun tabletop game.

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

If memory serves the deluxe edition contains only straights and curves (with debris versions of both).

Curves contains tight curves (which may well be useful if you are trying to create hairpin bends).

Intersections contains all new road sections, cross roads (which might be useful for figure of 8 circuits) and turn-outs (which would be useful for pit lanes and those tracks that have alternate routes).

Straights are probably least useful as there is nothing in it that you couldn't photoshop from your delux versions.

All include some extra counters for different coloured paint and other dropped counters, but again nothing critical.

Boardgamegeek may have some low res scans so you use to assess the value to you.

Dueltrack contains all these, plus some others (short junctions),plus examples of how they can be combined to create some real world race tracks (and some fictional ones). It also has some new racing car counters and pits etc.

The gas engine rules have been largely superceded, but the chassis and crossbow rules are quite good fun (and you can hand wave away the different gas engine stats as an artefact of this iteration being set at the height of the troubles)

I would strongly recommend Duel Track for the road sections alone, but the focus on racing may give you bonus material to use as well.
EDIT.

A word of warning however, Dueltrack road sections need some "stitching" together as the PDF pages are not apparently compatible with the card road sections. For some reason they are printed on two pages. If you are even slightly competent with paint you can cut and paste them back together without too much trouble (though arguably if they had been scanned right in the first place there would be no trouble at all).

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

I'd go with just 1 if you're on a budget. The main things in 2 is a 4-way intersection (which you can just make with straight sections) and ice and water counters. Set 3 just has straights, plus some counters for trees, hedges, and green paint clouds (we usually used these for tear gas).

UACFH is worth $15. There is overlap, but there is a lot more stuff in it.

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

Interesting, I saw the stuff on racing in dueltrack, when I thumbed through a sample book, but I didn't know it came with road sections. And they're pretty much the ones in the deluxe sections? So I should just get dueltrack then, since its cheaper than getting all 3 road section books, plus comes with bonus stuff to use.

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

Sometimes the previews don't do the products justice.

I just checked my copy and the road sections have all the road sections from the 3 separate products except the crossroads (which has been pointed out can be easily created by cut and paste using MS Paint or by printing the extra sections and sticking them together) plus some additional ones unique to Duel Track Pit Stops etc.

In the separate road section products the sections are on single pages and so can be printed right out rather than having to be stitched together. On checking there may be something funky going on as the pages seem to be printed in a single sheet first and then across tow sheets later. I haven't printed them out (as I use them electronically) so this may be for scaling purposes you may have to fiddle with your printer settings.

The front of the first page of the separate road sections was printed in a single colour (red or green or blue), and there were some extra counters that were colour specific (trees for the green sheet, water and ice for the blue, and flames for the red). These are not in the duel track versions. But you do get Duel track specific counters in full colour plus a load of counters for the racing body types which I believe were unique to Duel Track.

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

Yeah, that doesn't surprise me, since the deluxe edition stuff is kinda put weirdly across two pages too.

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

The original pages are larger than the printable area of an 8.5" x 11" page of your typical printer. SJG set things up so you have the originals (for viewing and printing if your setup is capable) as well as a version that is printable at home.

Products that came with large maps are done the same way.

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

I'll add that Task Force Games put out their own version when they published their Autoventures series of addons for the big three popular car-combat games (king of which was CW). But generally they're a shade or two lower in quality than what SJ Games put out for their own game.

Still, they're interesting, and I seem to recall there was a counter sheet with things like road signs and animals or some such.

I hope that helps.

Edit; Game Board Geek has it listed here; http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/41397/road

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

Most home printers have less than 8.5" x 11" printable area. Most laser printers and most modern inkjets have about a 0.25" minimum margin, resulting in an 8" x 10" printable area, some have even less, but those are becoming less and less common.

Re: Deluxe Road Sections
 

That's exactly what I said: the original pages (the ones in the PDFs) are larger than the printable area of your typical printer on a Letter size sheet of paper.