Car Wars Rules Questions

Even now, this archive is being built from many years of ADQ back issues . . .

ADQ & A:

Subject: Re: Car Wars Advice
Date: 21 Nov 1995 19:20:37 -0500
From: pdb6 (at) aol (dot) com (PDB6)
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board

Advice for a new Car Wars player now, huh?  I'm just brimming with
advice...

CW is a great game that can be lots of fun.  Don't shy away from building
your own cars, as that is half the fun, and to a certain extent, the rules
are pretty self-balancing, but if you do, I advise you to stay away from
the more advanced looking rules, and stick to the basics.  Some points of
advice:

1) Towns and goofy arenas are generally the most fun to play in.  As long
as there are corners to go around and break line of site, combat will be
interesting.  Fighting on a racetrack can be boring because you spend alot
of time very far apart, and a big empty parking lot arena combat just ends
up a big mess in the middle.  Midville is always fun, and you can just
draw a big silly arena on graph paper.

2) Don't get too discouraged if you play for 6 minutes and then die cause
you failed a handling roll.  CW can be VERY random, and very often the
entire game will be determined by who accidentally rolls a 6.

3)  Don't use the " Modifiers to hit due to speed " rules.  It might just
be me, but CW existed for a long time before those rules were written, and
I think they just led to the fact that guns have become less effective.
CW works just fine without those rules, and you will find your Recoilless
Rifle is that much more fun to use.

4)  Avoid the more advanced rules like:  Ram Plates, Gas Engines, Metal
Armor, weapons that do more than 3 Dice of damage in one shot, and
anything that allows your car to make tight bends at 120 mph.  As time
went on, CW evolved into a game where guns were useless and it was too
easy to design a vehicle that could ram another vehicle at 130mph, drive
thru it, and keep going to do it again.  To have the most fun with CW,
stick to things like MGs, HRs, RLs, targeting computers, and pedestrians
with grenades.  If things are kept simple, CW is great fun.  Once you
start driving cars with +10 to hit x-ray pulse lasers in universal pop up
turrets that can't hit the on coming 230mph ram car, and even if you
could, he has laser proof armor, you have entered a realm that should not
exist, and isn't much fun anyway.

5)  The best cars usually cost between 10-20 thousand dollars.  At this
level of money, the designs tend to balance out better.  The more
expensive the car, the less money as a balancing point becomes valid.

Good luck, and drive offensively.

Peter D Bakija