Classic: Crashing at High Speeds

[WilliamL]

I'm just starting to get into playing Car Wars Classic, and I just had some confusion on some of the rules surrounding crashing. To my understanding, all crashes except spinouts, rolls, and vaults get applied on the next phase of movement. Let's say I was going fast enough to be able to move 3" in a phase. I choose to perform a bend for my first 1", then I fail my control check and get a kind of skid on the crash table. I would then move forward the remaining 2". Onto the next phase, the skid is applied. Because I went straight for my last 2" of movement in the last phase, do I skid in the same direction that I was going, or do I still skid in the direction that I was going before the bend?

Thanks!

[swordtart]

This is an edge condition that is probably a hang over from when the turn was divided into 10 phases and the maximum speed was 100 mph. Under those conditions the next phase would be the next time you moved.

I have always interpreted it that the skid starts immediately you have completed the manoeuvre that caused it. Thus for a 3" move if you bend on the first inch and lose control, you would start to apply the skid result to the second 1" of straight movement in that same phase.

This avoids the additional complication of trying to remember the facing the car had in the previous phase even though you have now moved it straight for 2" (in your example). It also seems more joined up to me.

This is also much easier if during that same phase your vehicle hits a hazard (which often happens when skidding), you don't have to try to work out how the skid interacts with a fishtail 2" after the fact.

If you do not agree with that interpretation, unless you are happy to put down a vector marker (such as you do for hovers) you will need to apply the skid after the 2" based on the new direction of movement after the 2" of straight movement from the phase in which you skidded. Either is compatible with the rules as written, but the latter removes some of the disadvantage of skidding as you effectively ignore the direction you were originally facing.

[Parody]

We do Crash Results per inch rather than per phase. That ruling/change came from the CWRQ 4.7, the final set of tournament rules for old Car Wars. The CWRQ also talks about handling partial movements, collisions, and other things during Crashes.

Along with the ODQ 2.6 these documents talk about a number of oddities in the CWC/UACFH ruleset. Even if you don't adopt everything in them they're useful reading.

Hope this helps.

[WilliamL]

That makes a lot of sense to me - thank you both! And thanks as well for the resources, Pardoy!