Jeffro’s Car Wars Blog

The Cretan 420 is a limited run concept car that appeared at the 2042 Combat Showcase.  It raised eyebrows in its day, and was the subject of more than its share of footage of spectacular flaming explosions.  Today it is something of a collector’s item and autodueling connoisseurs are willing to pay incredible sums for them.

Mid-sized, x-hvy chassis, hvy suspension, 150 cid engine, 5 gallon duel tank with 5 gallons of gas, 4 solid tires, driver, Gatling Canon spinal mounted front with 10 rounds of HD ammo, PS back, spoiler, airdam, HD shocks, SWC.  Armor (Metal/Plastic): F 15/30, R 0/30, L 0/30, B 0/30, T 0/12, U 0/12, 2 10 point Armored Wheel Hubs front, 2 10 point Wheelguards back.  Accel. 5, Top Speed 60 mph, 5,697 lbs, $24,204.

For Division 25 dueling, take Body Armor, a Portable Fire Extinguisher, a Sub-machine Gun and a Grenade.  (Brings total cost to $24,999.)

[This vehicle was designed with Compendium 2e rules.  It uses the Gatling Cannon from Aeroduel and the Spinal Mount rules from the "Evil Stevie Returns" article in ADQ 10/4.  The GC gives a D2 hazard each time it is fired, but the HD shocks bring it down to a mere D1 hazard.  This maneuverable car packs a big punch and can take a lickin', but it's slow and vulnerable to incendiary attacks.  But really... who brings incendiary weapons to Division 25 when fireproof armor is so affordable?  And do you really need to go so fast when your weapons give you a hazard every turn?!] 

The Grendel is a small bus built for short runs through extremely dangerous areas.  Passenger space is sacrificed for extra weaponry.  Twin ATG’s make this bus a nightmare to have on your tail, while minedroppers make it a foe best not followed.  With 4 turret mounted RRs, there’s really no good arc of fire to in which to engage this monster.  Perhaps its only weakness is its relatively light armor.

GRENDEL.  30′ bus; extra-heavy chassis; regular truck power plant; 10 solid tires.  Armor F 30, B 30, FR 30, BR 30, FL 30, BL 30, FT 25, BT 25, FU 20, BU 20.  Turrets with linked RRs front and back; two linked ATGs front; MD back linked to MD back left linked to MD back right.  Driver plus gunner; each have hi-res computers.  7 passengers, 1 extra cargo space with up to 210 lbs.  Weight 18, 990 lbs. (full); price $80,050.

[Note: this vehicle was designed only with rules and equipment from the original Car Wars and Truck Stop pocket box games.  Drop one shot of MD ammo to meet the $80,000 price limit for the Pack Attack scenario from Truck Stop.]

Here’s a different approach for calculating speed and range mods that’s usable with any version of Car Wars played at the 1 inch = 15 feet scale:

Take the distance to the target in inches and add it to the speed of the target in inches-per-turn.  Divide the result by three and round down.  Examples:  A car moving at 3 inches per turn (30 mph) at a distance of 2 inches away (30 ft.) will snag a -1 to-hit modifier.  A car moving at 6 inches per turn (60 mph) at a distance of 6 inches away (90 ft.) will get a -4 to-hit modifier.

The modifiers are generally pretty close to what Car Wars Compendium 2e gives, but this system will give a much a smoother range of values.

Carry that load with class– and protect it with triple machineguns in a full 360 degree arc.  The Marshall: a no nonsense hauler at a price that can’t be beat.  And if you’re expecting an unusally nasty amount of trouble, check out our standard options for an extra 1200 pounds of rocket power.

MARSHALL.  Van; x-hvy chassis, hvy suspension, super power plant, 6 solid tires.  Armor F 20, R 15, L 15, B 20, T 20, U 10.  Mounts 3 linked MGs in turret.  Carries fire extinguisher.  19 cargo spaces.  Maximum cargo load 1200 lbs.  HC 2, acceleration 5 mph.  Weight 6,000 lbs; cost $19,950.

“Slugfest” Option — Add 5 linked RLs back each with 8 shots of ammo.  Hi-res Computer.  No cargo.  Weight 7,200 lbs; cost $30,350.

“Broadside” Option — Add 6 linked HRs right and 6 linked HRs left.  Targeting Computer.  No cargo.  Weight 7200 lbs; cost $23,350.

[Note: this vehicle was designed with just rules and equipment from the original Car Wars and Truck Stop pocket box games.  I built it to be a no-frills $20,000 road car that fills out the range of concepts presented in the original AADA Vehicle Guide.]

Google Directory listed my blog in the top 5 Car Wars web pages.  (Woo-hoo!  Party!)  Also, some kind soul once described my blog as “well-written” and “featuring regularly posted articles and vehicle designs.”  Now this description has since been resused by other folk that link to the site.  Cool.  Thanks, whoever you are. 

Without a doubt, “The Island” is the best Car Wars movie of 2005.  It’s got it all: futuristic 18-wheelers, jet-bikes, killer dropped-weapons, and clones….  Lots and lots of clones.

If you ever wondered how Gold Cross would really work, this movie shows us.  There are a couple of key differences between Car Wars continuity and the movie, but there’s no reason that the movie couldn’t describe how things really work in the Autoduel America’s 2040s.

The movie combines themes from Bladerunner and The Matrix, and hits hard on the ethical issues in a much more moving and effective way than movies like Alien: Resurection did.  The action is relentless and the suspense never lets up– this makes the movie emotionally exhausting the way that The Matrix:Reloaded’s endless chase scene was.  It probably would have been a better movie if it had given us a break to assimilate everything that had happened.

The sets and visuals are incredible.  There’s just so much space and scope to everything.  (We’ve come a long way from Star Trek’s matte paintings and styrofoam….)

I hadn’t heard a lot of good about this movie, so I wasn’t expecting much.  I didn’t think “Obiwan Kenobi” could pull off the leading man bit.  (The wart on his forehead is distracting and he’s nowhere near as cool as Sean Connery or Harrison Ford.)  But he did pull it off….  Ewan McGregor was a very believable actor and drew me into the character.  I guess now we won’t have to fault him too much for working with Lucas on the prequels….

It’s really not a bad movie, on the whole.  It’s little derivative, but “Matrix Runner: The Resurection” turns out to be entertaining anyway.  The first thirty minutes alone are worth the price of admission.  No other movie has illustrated so graphically the ethical difficulties that would result if the technology of cloning became possible.  John Nowak addressed some of it in his short stories for Autoduel Quarterly, but this movie goes even further than I imagined it could go.  That to me is the mark of great science fiction: when authors give us a glimpse of the future beyond what we already think we know.

Glenn Austin wrote the 3D ramps article that appeared waaaaay back in ADQ 3-4.  (That was one of the first ADQ’s I ever bought and the “Bullseye” design on the back cover was a favorite Division 15 design of my opponent.)

He’s got a blog and occasionally writes about Car Wars stuff.  Here is an amusing post about an event he ran at Gen Con.  (Scroll down a bit to find it.)  Remember… “what the referee says goes!”

You’ve seen Derran Mcgwire stomp the Southeastern Division 20 circuit in his infamous Wolverine–  now you can experience the power of triple recoiless rifle satisfaction for yourself.  Obliterate the competition with this unbelievable bargain!

WOLVERINE.  Luxury; x-hvy chassis, hvy. suspension, super power plant, solid tires, driver, passenger.  Armor F 30, R 30, L 30, B 30, T 15, U15.  Mounts three linked RR’s front; MG, PS, and SD back.  Carries fire extinguisher and targeting computer.  HC 3; acceleration 5 mph.  Weight 6,550 lbs; costs $20,000.

[Notes:  This vehicle was built with just the rules from the original pocket box Car Wars.  In the original AADA Vehicle Guide, only one Luxury design ("The Moose") had the maximum 6 spaces of weaponry pointing in a single arc.]

Not a lot of gaming going on lately, but we seem to sneak some in every now and then.

I’ve played several games of Final Frontier, but now my opponent wants to run a Bladerunner / Max Headroom / Steel Beach type of science fiction role playing game.  Changing from a dry mini-game to a potentially 7 person free-for-all will be quite a change….

I’ve finally played Settlers on Catan!  It’s basically a more refined and very well engineered M.U.L.E. sort of game.  It’s especially nice how you can still play even when it’s not your turn.  Every piece, rule, and hex on the board fits so elegantly together….  Wonderful!  The only downside is the playing time can go from three to four hours and also you need at least four players.

I finally found a game my wife would play: Syberia.  Being a non-competitive story driven type of adventure game is what made it appeal to my wife.  At first she would play until she got stuck then let me painstakingly check each room for missed objects and clues.  It would occasionally take half an hour or more to get unstuck… but we always found new things to do each time we played.  By the end of the game, my wife was the one getting us unstuck!  We played an hour or three every night for two weeks.

Syberia is fairly easy as far as the puzzles go.  The “end-boss” for each section of the game is a variation of the classic Flood Control Dam puzzle from Zork I.  Some of the dialogue is a bit rough (The rhetorical question “Get the picture?” comes out as a command :”Get the picture!”) and there are several little things that I felt should be fixed.  I wish there was some way I could go through the game with a red pen to mark them!  In spite of this, the game was engrossing– we just couldn’t put it down.  Lotsa fun!