Playing "Car Wars Deluxe Edition" For 1st Time In Nearly 40 Years

[dan2448]

I just bought a copy online of the first "Car Wars Deluxe Edition" from 1985, and thought I'd try to play it again for old times' sake. But I haven't played Cars Wars for nearly 40 years.

I was just going to read over the rulebook and try to start playing. Any alternative suggestions for where/how I should begin, and/or approach the game playing solo?

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by dan2448

I just bought a copy online of the first "Car Wars Deluxe Edition" from 1985, and thought I'd try to play it again for old times' sake. But I haven't played Cars Wars for nearly 40 years.

I was just going to read over the rulebook and try to start playing. Any alternative suggestions for where/how I should begin, and/or approach the game playing solo?

Get a PDF of _ADQ 2/1_; "Green Circle Blues" has a very useful set of rules for playing "solitaire" road duels.

[dan2448]

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

Get a PDF of _ADQ 2/1_; "Green Circle Blues" has a very useful set of rules for playing "solitaire" road duels.

Fantastic suggestion: thank you!

[ckosacranoid]

Or convoy also is a solo run.
Then again there is mean streets, a bunch of issues in ads that had missions that can be played solo also.

[swordtart]

Like Traveller books of the same era, you can treat the game as several interlinked mini games.

Designing cars is a mini game. I spent more time designing cars than actually playing.

Playing a race game is a mini game. No guns, no ramming (if counters collide the race is over), just two identical cars driving round a small circuit (I say small as we laid out Brands Hatch from DuelTrack and got bored after half an hour and about 100" of movement - never got the whole way round). Next time introduce collisions and ramming.

As a challenge a simple figure of eight on a single sheet of A4 gives an 11 x 8 grid that is entirely suitable for low speed duelling (as high as 40-50 mph if your HC is good). This represents a tiny civic area that only needs a few hundred spectators to make profitable. We can assume any town that has at least one garage has one of these little league arenas for training, am-nights and the occasional demonstration event. Many events will use salvage vehicles refurbished or jury-rigged for one last gasp. The vehicle mentioned here https://forums.sjgames.com/showpost....&postcount=320 is a good candidate as it has high survivablility allowing the fight to last more than one round and as will require moving about once the armour gets chewed off.

Just learning the movement rules is a mini game. Print off the curves and straights, lay down a stright and a bend (doesn't matter which way). Make moves a turn at a time until you can trace LOS round the bend. Then lay another road section (Roll 1D6 1-2 Straight, 3-4 Left Bend, 5-6 Right Bend - Odds are optionally cluttered sections).

You get the idea, Ped Combat, Stationary vehicle firing at stationary car, moving car, working your way up to moving vehicle vs moving vehicle.

I found the scenarios were just an excuse to get into combat (and why not). You can skip all the fedaddle and just pick a couple of stock cars and using a small circuit have at it.

[Chris Goodwin]

Which supplement has the PDF of the counters with the small counters with the car graphics on them for the speed counters? Use those and you can play Car Wars in a fill sized arena at 1/4 scale on a letter/A4 sized sheet! I can't believe no one has ever thought doing that.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by Chris Goodwin

Which supplement has the PDF of the counters with the small counters with the car graphics on them for the speed counters? Use those and you can play Car Wars in a fill sized arena at 1/4 scale on a letter/A4 sized sheet! I can't believe no one has ever thought doing that.

Umm... someone did. It proved a tad inconvenient; if you thought "arena hurricanes" were bad at 1" scale.... .:)

[juris]

I believe the original pocket box came with some road hexes. A few straights and curves. Basic scenario was a car vs. cycles - which is like the intro of the Road Warrior and completely appropriate. If you run out of road, just lay down another road hex.

Originally Posted by dan2448

I just bought a copy online of the first "Car Wars Deluxe Edition" from 1985, and thought I'd try to play it again for old times' sake. But I haven't played Cars Wars for nearly 40 years.

I was just going to read over the rulebook and try to start playing. Any alternative suggestions for where/how I should begin, and/or approach the game playing solo?

[kypie24]

1985? That’s vintage!
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