K. David Ladage
United States
Cedar Rapids
Iowa
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Car Wars
By: Steve Jackson
Published: Steve Jackson Games
Web: http:\\ www.sjgames.com
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A Brief History
Car Wars! Just the name of the game conjures up many a weekend in my youth as our over-powered, over-armed, under-armored cars, vans, bikes, trikes, and semis would duke it out on the highways of a post-apocalyptic world. I can especially recall the epic car crashes that would take place sometimes.
I had a van that I built with a 700 cubic-inch, internal combustion engine, twin nitrous systems, and a ram-plate; it had some small arms on it, but the idea was to crush my opponents with the ungodly speed if this monster engine hyped up on crack after I hit the nitrous. I called that van Full Tilt Boogie. We started the duel in a large arena we had mapped out on graph-paper. I hit the nitrous at one point, and almost immediately lost control of the van. I missed my target, slammed into the walls of the arena and exploded in a ball of flame. So much for that one...
Later, some friends and I had a game we played with semis and cycle gangs. Two players made the semi with a cargo of food; the other four had the cyclists and had to get the food before the semi had travelled the two miles left before we got to KC1 -- the fortified Kansas City of the Car Wars universe. That was a fun game -- we had put in anti-personnel grenades along the 40-foot trailer of the semi which took out more than one cyclists. Unfortunately, we did not make it... but that was a blast of a time.
This review will be a bit different from my earlier reviews. The totality of the rules of Car Wars is simply more than I think anyone wants me to go over... it is a complete gaming system that can range from moderate to extreme complexity, depending upon how many optional rules you have turned on. So what I am going to cover in this review is not the specifics of the rules, but the history and evolution of those rules.
You can build it...
Car Wars is a board game and, as I said above, a complete gaming system. At its most basic, it is a collection of pre-made cars that you can race with. The initial rules had all of the movement governed by 0.25" graph paper and/or maps printed with 0.25" graph lines on them. Later, the rules added in the "turning key" which allowed for a lot less clutter on the maps, and a lot more freedom in movement. That little tool was a godsend for Car Wars fans.
Movement was relatively precise. Movement for vehicles was broken into ten segments. if you were moving 100 mph, for example, you would move ten inches on the board. This movement would be broken into ten separate moves of one inch each. This kept all of the vehicles on the board in relative locations based on their velocity. If you were moving 50 mph, then you would move every other time (for a total of five moves) of one inch each, allowing you to cover five inches. The scale of the game was such that a typical sedan was about one-inch long... so this was 'car lengths' as well. This helped players to visualise the game relatively easily.
The initial game was for cars. The scenario was relatively simple -- in some not-too-distant future, we are in some sort of 'Death Race' meets 'Mad Max' world where cars are using power cells (which was helpful in limiting the game to 100 mph) and are armed and armored for combat.
Later, motorcycles, trikes, larger cars and trucks, semis, boats, helicopters and so on were all added. Even true military hardware (tanks!) were included in the game. But through all of this, it remained a game mired in 1970s and early 1980s style game design.
Sure, it had a relatively loyal following. Steve Jackson games kept up a line of products for it (Autoduel Quarterly, Uncle Al's Catalogs, etc.) that continued to define and enhance the game. A full back story was developed that included the release of cross-over products that allowed you to fully role-play in the Car Wars Universe -- the AADA Road Atlas series was amazingly well done! I loved the post-collapse history if Iowa. It was cool in that it sounded completely plausible ... unless you happen to live in the State ... or a neighboring state. Honestly, the Amana Colonies will never take over Iowa. No matter what happens.
Along with those pre-built vehicles, was a detailed, and quite flexible, vehicle design system. In fact, the design system would become the basis for all GURPS vehicle and equipment design systems in the early days of that RPG system. This was good in the early days; was amazingly dated in the later days. But it was fun. Hell, designing the vehicles and seeing just how much you could pack into the car and still move a respectable speed and acceleration was a game in an of itself -- much akin to the way character creation in classic Traveller was a game.
One of the most fun expansions for the game was internal combustion engines. In the history of the Car Wars universe, gasoline was a rare thing. it typically ran $50-100 per gallon (or as we like to say these days, the California-rate :) ). But man could those engines put out some power! Suddenly, it was not impossible for you to make a car that could do 300 mph! And believe me, I did that! That expansion was a favorite of mine... I can still recall the 'Dragster Battles' we did... wow!
There was an attempt to restart the line. This was a valiant attempt, but ultimately failed. It failed not because they changed the way dice and combat worked in the game -- those were good changes; most everyone approved of those. It failed not because it reduced the 'impulse' movement system from ten segments of movement down to three -- that was a good change; most everyone approved of that. It failed because it had no design system -- you only had pre-built cars; and it failed because every attempt to reverse engineer the pre-built designs resulted in numbers that made no sense at all -- especially with trikes. In the end, the game was simply not going to succeed. If you cannot make your own vehicles, many Car Wars fans will simply say it is not worth the paper it is printed on.
Conclusions
Car Wars is a great game. But in the modern thinking of games, it is a bit of a dinosaur. The prep-time can be long; the number of rules can be intimidating; the movement is fiddly and sometimes difficult for new players; the damage system and the automobile handling system results in a lot of book-keeping. Thus, this game is not for everyone.
But if you like old-school games... and you like chaos and mayhem... this is a great time.
Afterthoughts
This is one of those games I really want to see make a comeback. But I have no idea how it could. The fact that my days of laying out a 6' x 4' clump of taped-together graph paper sheets drawn with the track we are about to play are gone, leaves me feeling a bit sad. I have shown the rules to friends and asked if they would like to play. I get the same look from them when I suggest Star Fleet Battles... so sad.
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Joseph
United States
Today, we're all Spaniards!
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Car wars is a classic. Loved this game to death. Now, getting someone to play it — not so easy.
By the way, great storys, and thanks for reviewing an old game!
FoF
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M.D.W
United States
San Angelo
Texas
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Car Wars is a great game. I spent hours designing, playing, and just having a great time! It certainly wasn't expensive, just time consuming and worth every minute. Car Wars is definitely a game that your imagination could run away with. Good review!
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Jim Stone
United States
Sacramento
California
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I Totally Concur; An Absolute Classic.
I remember the bang for the buck as a 8th grader picking up games like this in ther original envelopes or mini box case sets.
I loved games like this one and stuff like The Creature that ate Sheboygan, Ogre, and what was the other one?.... I think Starfire or some such?
Probably less than 30 bucks at the time for all of them and HOURS AND HOURS of playing time as substitutions when we didn't want to go back to the depth of our Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
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Ned Leffingwell
United States
Shreveport
Louisiana
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I cut my gaming teeth on Car Wars! Great review.
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Larry Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
Way to go, Bubba.
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Your review brings back the memories. All of my group had their own copy of the game and we would spend hours tweaking our vehicles then get together on the weekend to battle.
I doubt I will ever play it again but it was sure hot for a while.
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Eric Downing
United States
Massachusetts
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My virginity was broken by D&D 2nd edition and Car Wars. I believed after my first session no one wanted to play it anymore. Apparently I was the only one stoked about the game, so I purchased, CONVOY!
That was a book-keeping nightmare from my memory. I still have it in my basement. "Oh, Convoy"..."Where are thou?"..."I'm coming to get you"...
Damn...I've been pretty good about practicing my guitar w/out any old-school gaming distractions. It looks like I'll have to seek this one out of my basement again.
Anyone in Mass want to play!?
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K. David Ladage
United States
Cedar Rapids
Iowa
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radioboyeric wrote: Damn...I've been pretty good about practicing my guitar w/out any old-school gaming distractions. It looks like I'll have to seek this one out of my basement again.
Ah, breaker one-nine, this heres the rubber duck. you gotta copy on me, pig pen, cmon? ah, yeah, 10-4, pig pen, fer shure, fer shure. by golly, its clean clear to flag town, cmon. yeah, that Big 10-4 there, pig pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy. mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy...
It was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
In a Kenworth pullin' logs
Cab-over Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin' hogs
We's headin' for bear on Eye-one-O
'bout a mile outta Shakeytown
I says "Pigpen, this here's Rubber Duck"
"And I'm about to put the hammer down"
('cause we got a little ole convoy rockin' thru the night)
(Yeah, we got a little ole convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight?)
(Come on and join our convoy, ain't nothin' gonna get in our way)
(We gonna roll this truckin' convoy 'cross the USA)
(Convoy)
Ah, breaker, pig pen, this heres the duck. and, you wanna back off them hogs? yeah, 10-4, bout five mile or so. ten, roger. them hogs is gettin in-tense up here.
By the time we got into Tulsa-town
we had 85 trucks in all
But there's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf
And them bears 's wall-to-wall
Yeah, them smokeys 's thick as bugs on a bumper
They even had a bear in the air
I says "Callin' all trucks, this here's the Duck"
"We about to go a-huntin' bear"
('cause we got a great big convoy rockin' thru the night)
(Yeah, we got a great big convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight?)
(Come on and join our convoy, ain't nothin' gonna get in our way)
(We gonna roll this truckin' convoy 'cross the USA)
(Convoy)
Ah, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that, pig pen? negatory, pig pen; youre still too close. yeah, them hogs is startin to close up my sinuses. mercy sakes, you better back off another ten.
Well, we rolled up Interstate Forty-Four
Like a rocket-sled on rails
We tore up all of our swindle sheets
And left 'em settin' on the scales
By the time we hit that "Chi-town"
Them bears was a-gettin smart
They brought up some reinforcements
From the Illinois National Guard
There's armored cars and tanks and jeeps
'n' rigs of ev'ry size
Yeah, them chicken coops was full of bears
And choppers filled the skies
Well, we shot the line, we went for broke
With a thousand screamin' trucks
And eleven long-haired friends of Jesus
In a chartreuse Mac'r bus
Ah, rubber duck to sodbuster, come over. yeah, 10-4, sodbuster? lissen, you wanna put that Mac'r bus in behind that suicide jockey? yeah, hes haulin dynamite, and he needs all the help he can get.
Well, we laid a strip for the Jersey Shore
Prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn't have a doggone dime
I says "Pigpen, this here's the Rubber Duck"
"We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll"
So we crashed the gate doin' ninety-eight
I says "let them truckers roll, ten-four"
('cause we got a mighty convoy rockin' thru the night)
(Yeah, we got a mighty convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight?)
(Come on and join our convoy, ain't nothin' gonna get in our way)
(Convoy!)
ah, 10-4, pig pen, whats your twenty? omaha? well, they oughta know what to do with them hogs out there fer shure. well, mercy sakes, good buddy, we gonna back on outta here, so keep the bugs off your glass and the bears off your... tail. well catch you on the flip-flop. this heres the rubber duck on the side. we gone now. bye,bye.
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Douglas Glisson
Canada
Alberta
www.scottsigler.com/gfl
I'm gonna keep signing my posts so just let it go already.
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I loved Car Wars back in the day. It was so cool it had it's own quarterly mag/catalog of new upgrades. Uncle Albert's anyone? A new version of the apocolyptic car scene is Warlands: Full Throttle Vehicular Combat! and Outrider. I like parts of both systems but it's always going to get compared to the original pimp daddy of vehicular combat.
Hey, they redid Ogre, maybe there's still hope.
Kraken Fan #69
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Daniel Kearns
United States
Bloomington
Indiana
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Hell Yeah!
Great freakin game.
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Corey Cunningham
United States
Lake Geneva
Wisconsin
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Not sure how close to southeast Wisconsin any of you fans are, but I am part of the Gaming Hoopla ( www.gaminghoopla.com) and I am bound and determined to bring back Car Wars!
I will be running an off-road scenario for up to 8 players, just not sure what time yet (as a Staff member, we have to wait for all other events to be submitted and then choose our times to help fill in light time slots). Micro-machine scale!
My BFF Ted and I used to run Car Wars at Gen Con back in the early 90s. Paint the Town Red, Dogs of War and even Boat Wars! Then he knocked up his wife and hasn't been back since.
Our favorite battle from back in the day was when we had I believe 5-6 players, each of whom built a force worth $250,000; with crazy rules for how many total tires you had to have (to prevent using all semis and buses). We played on a large outdoor area map, with hills, cliffs, boulders, a river, etc. I remember using a helicopter; Ted had a full size bus but somehow used car tires on it so I think a cycle-mounted rocket launcher took out the bus after it tried to do a D6 at 70 mph! The chopper ended up crashing and taking out an enemy car! What good times those were!
And we used to play Star Fleet Battles as well!
"Old days, good times I remember..."
- Chicago
Game on!
- Corey
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We were in high school when my friend called me one evening and said he had just picked up a game for $3 ($4?) that we were going to play till we wore out the paper it was printed on. He was nearly right
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not a game to play when you're a tad sneezy.
lots of fun, gave all mine away.
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Beer be with you.
United States
Northlake
Illinois
Last Ten Games I've Played: IGEL ARGERN, Glen More, PHASE 10 DICE, Phase 10, TANK CHARTS, Mexican Train, BLOKUS, TTR: Europe, RUMMY, Merchant of Venus
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gamerdork wrote: My BFF Ted and I used to run Car Wars at Gen Con back in the early 90s. Paint the Town Red, Dogs of War and even Boat Wars! Then he knocked up his wife and hasn't been back since.
Great games. The Paint the Town Red game almost caused a fist fight with my game group !!!!
I'd like to be able to hit the Hoopla this fall.
Kurt
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Yes, I still play this occasionally -- getting those big articulated lorries sliding around the corner (or not!), difficult to beat that for fun when you're in the mood.
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Stephen Brackman
United States
S. Grafton
Massachusetts
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Quote: And we used to play Star Fleet Battles as well!
Us too, which was a problem. The games have so many similarities it was always hard to play Car Wars when SFB was just a better system.
Still great times in the 80s.
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Learn to swim, learn to swim, learn to swim, learn to swim..
United States
Cleveland Heights
Ohio
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Brakman wrote: Quote: And we used to play Star Fleet Battles as well! Us too, which was a problem. The games have so many similarities it was always hard to play Car Wars when SFB was just a better system. Still great times in the 80s.
What kept Car Wars going though was Car design. That adds such a great angle to the game. SFB never really dabbled with Ship construction, for good reason. Some minor customization, but it really wasn't thematic to have ship design. Car Wars, though, once you tackled the Design Sheet you rarely went back to stock vehicles.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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TheChin! wrote: Brakman wrote: Quote: And we used to play Star Fleet Battles as well! Us too, which was a problem. The games have so many similarities it was always hard to play Car Wars when SFB was just a better system. Still great times in the 80s. What kept Car Wars going though was Car design. That adds such a great angle to the game. SFB never really dabbled with Ship construction, for good reason. Some minor customization, but it really wasn't thematic to have ship design. Car Wars, though, once you tackled the Design Sheet you rarely went back to stock vehicles.
Well, also Roleplaying mode... CW had it, SFB didn't.
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Declan J Fallon
Ireland
Dublin
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The combo rear flamethrower and mine drop... ahhh .... I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
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stoneman63 wrote: I Totally Concur; An Absolute Classic.
I remember the bang for the buck as a 8th grader picking up games like this in ther original envelopes or mini box case sets.
I loved games like this one and stuff like The Creature that ate Sheboygan, Ogre, and what was the other one?.... I think Starfire or some such?
Probably less than 30 bucks at the time for all of them and HOURS AND HOURS of playing time as substitutions when we didn't want to go back to the depth of our Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
I found my first printing copy today that I bought directly from Steve Jackson at a comic book convention in Dallas in 1981. The price: $3.00. Man have times changed!
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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TheChin! wrote: What kept Car Wars going though was Car design. That adds such a great angle to the game. SFB never really dabbled with Ship construction, for good reason. Some minor customization, but it really wasn't thematic to have ship design. Car Wars, though, once you tackled the Design Sheet you rarely went back to stock vehicles.
Not true... I had no problem with designing vehicles, and did so often... but when running it as an RPG, there just isn't the time to do so, nor should even half the stuff on the road look anything like an arena-optimized vehicle.
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