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Hey guys.

In a conversation at lunch today, we were reminiscing about various game systems that we played over the years, and Car Wars came up. I can find very little on the web about this. Is it still in print? If so, is the current edition (5.0?) worth playing?

Any details would be appreciated.

--Russ

Be very careful about the card-version, which was one of the last editions, if not the last. While fun enough on its own, it is a very different game.

Wasn't Car Wars also called Dark Future?

1st edition (pocket box) and 2nd edition (compendium) are best, IMO. Giant DIY Arenas are the name of the game.

The last "for Dummies" version for Hot Wheels cars can be ignored.

Also, Dark Future was GW's attempt to cash in on Car Wars with a competing, minis-based product. It was not good.

Thanks!

alienated_one wrote:In a conversation at lunch today, we were reminiscing about various game systems that we played over the years, and Car Wars came up. I can find very little on the web about this. Is it still in print? If so, is the current edition (5.0?) worth playing?

The only version of Car Wars worth playing is the old mini-box/boxed supplement/Dueltrack/Uncle Al's/Nitrous-infused Deluxe Car Wars that has been out of print for years.

Let's face it, this was less a game of Mad Max and duking it out on the blasted landscape of a post-apocalyptic America than it was about who was the most clever engineer and could come up with the sexiest car to take on all comers!

The recent editions are not even worth mentioning. You can choose a car from a selection of half-a-dozen or so, and then fight in simplified easy-to use battles. What?!?

The fun was in building your own car, then fighting with it. Sure, the rules seemed needlessly complex, and the arguments over interpreting and endless errata were really frustrating, but darn it, I want to cruise down the highway in a luxury car with a turreted recoilless rifle on top, flamethrower on the side, minedropper in back, and a targeting computer for my co-pilot! That's the way to get it done!

On a separate but related note, one particulalry prophetic piece of Steve Jackson's genius has always stuck with me, and I hold it up as a shining example of his brilliance. In the background for the Deluxe Car Wars rules, he asserts in his vision of the future that because of the dangers in between fortified towns (biker gangs, rogue Autoduellists, giant mutated Yorkshire terriers and what-not), the mail virtually ceases to run. Instead, most civilized folks in his vision of the 21st century communicate by means of "electronic messages" sent in lieu of mail. He called this system "El-May".

Never got involved in Car Wars, but I remember playing Auto Duel on my IIc with EXTREME fondness. The only thing I have to say about Car Wars is that I find the minis very disappointing, especially for an SJ game.

GearHead wrote:Never got involved in Car Wars, but I remember playing Auto Duel on my IIc with EXTREME fondness.

Me too, and I'll tell you what: there was a little-known game developed by a Russian team a few years ago called Hard Truck: Apocalypse. I picked it up for $4.00 at Half Price Books (they had a stack of them on clearance). You can talk all you want about the latest and greatest big-budget game franchises like Left 4 Dead or Halo, but this little game was an absolute gem of a find if you enjoy Car Wars at all.

I played the hell out of it for months, and even after beating it, find myself returning to it from time to time just to enjoy the game play. It's what Origin Systems' Autoduel wishes it could have been given the technology of the day.

I always thought the fun of car Wars was converting Matrchbox cars by sticking airplane missiles and tank turrets on them....

I don't want to turn this OT, but the first thing that came to my mind after Deathrace was this game, http://www.aberrantgames.com/warlands.html.

Anyone played it/seen it?

One of my favorite flavors of Car Wars was the "Chassis & Crossbow" low-tech version, which was a quasi-variant set of rules buried somewhere in the Deluxe Car Wars rule book. No lasers, no plastic armor, or targeting computers -- just good ol' fashioned metal plate, gasoline engines, and hand-aimed weapons. We had a lot of fun with those rules.