Things that make me feel stupid…

So I call the local games store. It’s a bit of a dump, but they have tables in the back for people to come in and play. I’d called and asked the management before about the people that come in– do they mind if people drop in for a pick-up game? They’d said sure. Now I’m calling again to see what’s going on:

“Hello, super-duper Game store.”

“Yes, I was wondering if there were any groups scheduled to play there anytime soon.”

“Actually, there’s one here now playing Battletech.”

“Cool! I can’t make it tonight… will they be playing next week some time?”

“Uh… I don’t know.”

“Well, if one of their guys is there, maybe I could talk to him?”

…

“Hello?”

“Hi, I was wondering if you all were getting together next week for a game and if I could join in…?”

“Oh, uhh… do you have internet access?”

(Wow… I thinking think gaming group has a web page scheduling all of their events. Pretty cool!)

“Yeah.”

“Okay, go to whizkids.com and click on ‘find gamers in your area.’ Put down that you want to play Hero Clix Mechwarrior and you should be able to find someone.”

(pause)

“Right. Thanks.”

“Here’s the manager guy.”

…

(sigh)

You know, the guys at the chess club will be so glad to have another person dropping in….

[Trumpets: Wah Wah Wah Wah]

[Close up on Muppet-style frown/grimace.]

Nova’s Still Kickin’!

Thanks to the guys at Nova for posting a link to my blog. It’s good to know ya’ll are still dueling!

For those of you that haven’t seen it, Nova has one of the best Car Wars pages on the web. Check out their articles for a good read:

http://novacw.com/articles.htm

Also… this would be a neat thing to see:

http://novacw.com/midville_grand_prix.htm

If only I had a table large enough for all six Midville maps…!

[Other Games] Homer Simpson’s Trivia Game

The family was altogether and ready to relax a bit before the serious fighting got started and someone gets out this game.

Three people with college degrees could not understand the rules after reading through them. We started into a game anyway and just made up our own rules as we went. (Just like Car Wars back in the 5th grade– though none of us had degrees back then!!!)

The questions were so hard that a guy who owns every single episode on video tape could not get any questions right at level 4 or at level 3. People that were only slightly familiar with the game could guess multiple choice questions at level 1 or 2.

After we finished the game, I scanned the rules again and figured out that the designers had combined Taboo, Pictionary, and Balderdash into a special section of the game. These rules would give people that weren’t good at answering the questions a chance to win some points. There were also some rules that allowed for players to attempt to steal cards from the other players.

Overall, it’s an interesting game. The Simpson’s addict got a lot of laughs recalling the more insane moments of the series. The rest of us were just confused by the rules, mostly.

If you end up playing it, skip any question that references the poster. (Play grinded to a halt when questions like this came up: “#247 on the poster did this in episode 23.” Very aggravating. “#247? Oh he’s the guy behind the dude with the big hair….”) Try to keep the game moving and try to shift the focus of the game to the Taboo/Pictionary/Balderdash section of the game that will have more of a general appeal to regular folks.

I don’t expect to get a chance to play it again, though, because everyone was too frustrated! Oh well….

Notes on Some Recent Duels

My first duel under the new edition was playing a Hot Shot Deluxe against a Piranha Racer. It did not go well for me. The Piranha whittled me to pieces while my Blast Cannon never made a hit. I missed a control roll at a critical moment and ate wall.

Next I played a Dragon against a Banshee. The Dragon could not keep a serious fire going– the Banshee could just maneuver at high speeds to keep it from spreading. Meanwhile I’m taking large amounts of damage from the sonic blaster…. At $6,000 I’d say this weapon is a bargain that makes the old fashioned $8,000 laser obsolete.

Then I decided that driving a ram car is the sure way to victory in a one on one duel. I picked the 3 VMG Paladin. (Shouldn’t this car be painted black??) My opponent’s Terminator-X cleaned my clock. The VFRP has been transformed back into it’s original devastating badness in this edition and my front armor was blown off before I could line up a T-bone. Lesson learned: many ram cars in the new edition are under armored!!

Things finally went my way in a Division 5 duel. I took the ultra-low profiled Fiend that totes an RR. My opponent took a Sprocket that mounted an MG and an HR. We maneuvered around trading pot shots. After a while it became obvious that we were going to run out of ammo before we could score any breaches. We agreed we’d have to be mean to get this over with, so on the next pass, my opponent maneuvered into point blank range and let me have it. I returned fire by blowing off his front right tire. Immediately after this we had a turn break. Because I was moving faster, I got to go first. At the top of the phase, I moved a short ways and blew off his rear right tire.

Not a very satisfying win, but at this point I was willing to take it!

How much is skill worth?

Here’s an idea for an evening’s game session for two curious players:

Pick two vehicles– either a division 5 and a division 10, a division 10 and a division 15, or a division 5 and a division 5 pro.

Whoever bids the smallest number of skill levels gets to play the less expensive car– but they get to assign those skill levels to driver and gunner skill. The other player gets base skills– Driver 0 and Gunner 0.

If the cheap car wins, then its player gets to play again, but with one less skill level. If the expensive car wins, then the cheap car plays again with an additional skill level.

A few game sessions played this way should provide enough information for us to set a dollar value on skill levels!

Powerball Variant for Division 10 Set 1

The Powerball…. What a weird design! Without a gunner, it can’t fire but one weapon per turn– but it has three weapons! It has flame weapons, but can’t really start fires…. Hmmm…. Nobody in our group has the nerve to drive this one into the arena, so here’s a variant that has a bit more teeth:

Remove the RL, 2 rounds of MG ammo, and 1 round of FT ammo. Add two linked HRs back and a Targeting Computer.

Weight becomes 4,234 lbs.

Keep your distance and take pot shots with your MG. Thanks to your targeting computer and large ammo supply, you have a real advantage with this approach. Your low HC is a real shortcomming, though. Use a duelist with a decent driver skill if you’ve got one.

If you do happen to score a flame marker, consider closing and switching to the FT– this is especially effective if your target is going under 60 mph. Time your pass just right so that you can close to point blank range to launch your HRs at the start of the next turn. If you’ve softened him up before the pass, you’ll hopefully leave him with a breached side and two fire markers.

Car Wars: In Perspective

Car Wars, Star Fleet Battles, and Battletech are transitional games that exist in a bizarre border zone between Historical Hex-Based Wargames and the modern 3-D First Person Shooter.

Compared to other systems, Classic Car Wars is a great value. Out of the 1990’s Compendium box a huge variety of scenarios can be played: adventures on the interstates, arena battles, racing events, off-road duels, and city fights. Some moderate rolepaying rules are tacked onto the system that are reminsicent of Traveler and derivative of GURPS, but there is not much need for them: between the detail of the vehicles and the death-rates among duelists, drivers are viewed merely as a “free” vehiclular component.

Star Fleet Battles is superior as a solitaire game: it comes with several “monster” scenarios that are helpful in learning the vast amount of rules before you faced off against a live opponent. Unlike Car Wars there are no real design rules– each ship is crafted into existence by hand with its own refit history. Each race has their own rules, and games run exponentially longer than the typical Car Wars match.

SFB is more expensive– both in time and money. (You really can’t play the game seriously without getting both the Basic Set and Advanced Missions.) But a great deal of effort has been invested in the SFB system to produce balanced ship designs and scenarios. On the other hand, many Car Wars scenarios are more or less of the “each side gets $40,000 to buy their stuff” variety.

Note that both Car Wars and SFB have been folded into the GURPS system of roleplaying supplements– along with Ogre and Traveller. This provides a huge library of campaign supplements for both games– though on more of a personal level than a tactical/strategic one.

Battletech has cool miniatures. The illustrations in the technical readouts are nice. It is also supported by a series of novels. Like SFB, you have to get several boxes of stuff before you have anything close to a complete “system.” (Maybe classic Car Wars stalled in part because it’s compendiums were too complete??)

Coming up with decent scenarios and maps for Battletech is a much bigger chore. Battletech does not use phased movement, so games can run quicker– but as a consequence game play can begin to resemble chess with dice. The design system is poorly conceived and easily abused. Instead of fixing it, later releases merely added even more levels of ill-conceived/abusable rules. Any problems I might have with the game are made up for by the fact that one version of the Basic Game came with twelve plastic mecha miniatures. (Too cool!)

I’ve heard reports that recent releases of Battletech use the “clicky-base” miniature format. This is frightening, but probably the right move: the design (or lack thereof) of the the original rules does not merit further development. A simplified version of SFB would be interesting, but the computer game “Star Fleet Command” probably allready fills that particular niche. (There has also been some work on the Cadet version of SFB, but this doesn’t quite capture the spirit of the game.)

These games represent attempts to develop complete futurisic wargaming systems. Their flexibility and attention to detail are as yet unmatched in the world of computer wargaming. Car Wars in its 5th edition is the only system that is being revised, redesigned, and redeployed. Have times changed so much that such a project is unsustainable? I hope not! Though currently the signs are not good, things can still turn around once Steve Jackson releases the new design rules. (Please do it soon, guys!!)

Dragon Variant for Division 15 Set 3

Remove the MML and the HR. Add 27 points of armor and a pair of linked incendiary MR’s to the back. Weight becomes 6590 lbs.

The MML is useless and a single HR will scare nobody, so get rid of them!

The goal of these changes is (like in the previous Hotshot variant) to make it possible to score two fire markers in a single turn. If you do set him on fire, you will have to wait for it to do the job. While the combined damage of the MR’s will shorten that time, the extra armor will help insure that you survive it so that you get to see the exposion.

Hotshot Variant for Division 15 Set 1

Does the Hotshot always seem to die in her duels against the Piranha?

Try this instead!

Remove 20 rounds of MG ammo, 4 rounds of FT ammo, the 2 FT’s from the sides, and the “Panic” button. Add 71 points of armor, two incendiary MR’s linked right, and two incendiary MR’s linked left. (An MR is like an HR except it does only 2 dice damage.)

Cost becomes an even $15,000. Weight becomes 6540 lbs.

You might miss the ammo, but without the extra armor in this variant the stock Hotshot can’t survive long enough to shoot it anyway. Any pass in which both MR’s and FT’s hit has very good odds of scoring 2 fire markers. Hopefully the MR’s will weaken his armor enough so that when your he catches fire he’ll have a decent chance of getting breached.

Design Note: The Hotshot is one of the oldest and most produced designs in the game. Because this variant doesn’t move anything around, this is a believable upgrade that real life “street” HotShot’s could easily have been converted to.

Lou Coatney on Board Games vs Computer Games

“Boardgames are directly interactive with/against an opponent and friend, and command in warfare often proved to be a psychological, as much as material, contest.”

“The components and game system of boardgames can be completely seen and understood. This enables the player-student to see how the historical situation’s variables (of supply, weather, terrain, etc., for example) are (or could better be) inter-related. Moreover, you have an in-person opponent to teach you the finer points of the game.”

(continued…)

http://members.tripod.com/~LCoat/1alampag.htm

I agree. Not being able to know what’s going on underneath the graphics pretty much chills my interest in most computer games.

One thing I like about the new Car Wars is just how pleasing to the eye it is. The counters are brightly colored– and if you’re using laminated record sheets cut out of the back cover, your counter’s color corresponds to the color of your record sheet! (Very classy….)

I especially like how the Luxury, Compact, etc. all have different counters sizes. (Can’t wait to get some cycles, though!)