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-   -   Worth it for nostalgia...? (https://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=193304)

ak_aramis 10-31-2023 09:47 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeatDeath (Post 2505682)
Yep. If you're paying build dollars for anything other than damage resiliency/damage evasion or damage throw weight, you aren't gonna have a good time where the victory condition is "last-man-standing".
It's worth noting that, as evidenced by Convoy and Autoduel Champions, there were several different playstyles of various groups.

There were some for whom it was all about the duels. This was one of the convention modes.

There were some for whom it was about racing - and they played out entire races. This was another convention mode.

Then, there were those of us for whom Classic was a Role Playing Game. We as a clade drove a lot of the less combat focused things. I've seen players buy an Armored Beer Fridge for blood transport missions. "Just to be sure." Tow Trucks are definitely for the RPers. And the cheese sandwich. The last quarter of ADC.

And, of course, those in between those. Classic CW is not any one thing, and part of its problem was the competing pull of the several camps.

6th cannot provide that third experience, and I've not heard of race focus, either, but that it could do.

Note that, from Car Wars Deluxe on, the core rules had enough to use them as an RPG if you already knew RPGs.

(If i'm going to play a pure dueling game, I find Osprey's Gaslands more to my liking than CW 6th. For me, duels were not the fun part. For racing, I'll stick with Formula D/Formula De, unless doing combat racing, in which case, I've got TurboFire... and CW Compendium, and deluxe, and pocketbox...)

WasabiAvenger 11-01-2023 01:39 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ak_aramis (Post 2506015)
It's worth noting that, as evidenced by Convoy and Autoduel Champions, there were several different playstyles of various groups.

There were some for whom it was all about the duels. This was one of the convention modes.

There were some for whom it was about racing - and they played out entire races. This was another convention mode.

Then, there were those of us for whom Classic was a Role Playing Game. We as a clade drove a lot of the less combat focused things. I've seen players buy an Armored Beer Fridge for blood transport missions. "Just to be sure." Tow Trucks are definitely for the RPers. And the cheese sandwich. The last quarter of ADC.

And, of course, those in between those. Classic CW is not any one thing, and part of its problem was the competing pull of the several camps.

6th cannot provide that third experience, and I've not heard of race focus, either, but that it could do.

Note that, from Car Wars Deluxe on, the core rules had enough to use them as an RPG if you already knew RPGs.

(If i'm going to play a pure dueling game, I find Osprey's Gaslands more to my liking than CW 6th. For me, duels were not the fun part. For racing, I'll stick with Formula D/Formula De, unless doing combat racing, in which case, I've got TurboFire... and CW Compendium, and deluxe, and pocketbox...)
I thought the environment was super well supported back in the days of Road Atlases, ADQ's, etc. I really enjoyed the world building, even if I wasn't a huge RP player. I far preffered dueltrack style events.

43Supporter 11-01-2023 03:42 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ak_aramis (Post 2506015)
And, of course, those in between those. Classic CW is not any one thing, and part of its problem was the competing pull of the several camps.
I'd disagree with that, at least in-part; one of the *best* features of OG _CW_ was the "Time-Life Books" aspect of it: "Keep only the parts one wants." Not interested in Boats -- ignore the Boat Stuff. Want to do RPG -- it's there for those who want it.

The Big Failure (in *every* sense) was _UACFH_ -- I actually saw people walk up to a game, take one look at CFH, and walk away; when asked, the answer almost invariably was "that's too much to deal with". (_CW Tanks_ was a close second -- First Law Of Gaming: *NEVER* allow Players access to Nuclear Weapons. .:) )

Overload 11-02-2023 02:20 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 43Supporter (Post 2506073)
I'd disagree with that, at least in-part; one of the *best* features of OG _CW_ was the "Time-Life Books" aspect of it: "Keep only the parts one wants." Not interested in Boats -- ignore the Boat Stuff. Want to do RPG -- it's there for those who want it.

The Big Failure (in *every* sense) was _UACFH_ -- I actually saw people walk up to a game, take one look at CFH, and walk away; when asked, the answer almost invariably was "that's too much to deal with". (_CW Tanks_ was a close second -- First Law Of Gaming: *NEVER* allow Players access to Nuclear Weapons. .:) )
Car Wars is a crunchy game where you basically needed a spreadsheet to design a car. That said, I'd start new players, with Pocket Box Car Wars.
Car Wars was also interesting in that it added new rules Quarterly, much like CCGs add cards quarterly. CFH was needed to compile all those Autoduel Quarterly magazines, just a the Car Wars Compendium had all the rules in one place instead of requiring a player to haul all the expansions around.

43Supporter 11-02-2023 07:08 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Overload (Post 2506175)
Car Wars is a crunchy game where you basically needed a spreadsheet to design a car.
We didn't have easy access to spreadsheets back-when, yet we managed to design cars easily enough (mainly, as I've said before, by cutting out everything which didn't involve making the unit go, stop, handle, cause an enemy to blow up, or prevent one's self from blowing up .:) ). PB _CW_ is nice, but a bit limited.

swordtart 11-03-2023 01:42 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Overload (Post 2506175)
Car Wars is a crunchy game where you basically needed a spreadsheet to design a car.
Spreadsheet! Spreadsheet? We had to make do with a Casio calculator with an 8 digit LCD display...

LCD? I dreamed of LCD, all I had was a Sinclair Oxford 100 with 8 digit red LED display...

Sinclair Oxford 100 eh, spoiled you were, I had a HP-35 with reverse polish notation...

Calculators, bloody luxury, I just had a pencil and scrap paper and a blunt one at that...

But you tell that to kids of today and they won't believe you!

HeatDeath 11-03-2023 02:44 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Oh, we used to dream of paper!

And blunt pencils? LUXURY!

We had scratch marks on rocks, we did. And if we did the calculations wrong Steve Jackson himself would come over to check our work!

43Supporter 11-03-2023 02:51 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeatDeath (Post 2506293)
We had scratch marks on rocks, we did.
Rocks? We had to carve designs on our own skin. Getting dice was like pulling teeth -- literally.

(This is getting Silly. .:) )

Overload 11-06-2023 02:48 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
As a accounting major in college back in the 80s, a spreadsheet IS paper and pencil. Yes, now we have computer spreadsheet programs, with their fancy forumulas. Back then I too used a TI-30 business calculator.

juris 11-10-2023 12:36 PM
Re: Worth it for nostalgia...?
 
Ha - remember when pen and paper rpgs would have blank character sheets at the end of the book for you to copy - CW did the same!

Quote:
Originally Posted by 43Supporter (Post 2506294)
Rocks? We had to carve designs on our own skin. Getting dice was like pulling teeth -- literally.

(This is getting Silly. .:) )


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