Womp Rat

New from Amex… the Womp Rat! 

Tired of your enemies chewing up your armor on the side of your car that your guns are mounted?  Feel like your division 5 car is a little one sided?  Not sure whether you want your opponents well done or blown up?  The Womp Rat is the answer to your duelling needs! 

Loaded with two complementary weapon systems on opposite sides, you can choose between rockets and flames any time you like.  If one of your weapons get shot off, just turn the other facing against your opponents.  No muss, no fuss.  Stay in the game twice as long… with the Amex Womp Rat! 

WOMP RAT — Compact, standard chassis, light suspension, medium power plant, 4 standard tires, driver only, FT with 8 shots ammo left, RL with 8 shots ammo right.  Armor: F 25, R 32, L 32, B 20, T 0, U 0.  Accel. 5, HC 1, top speed 97.5.  Weighs 3,654 lbs., costs $4,997. 

MML VARIANT — Change RL to MML, slope armor, and upgrade tires to HD.  Add two points of armor.  Top Speed 100.  Weighs 3,596 lbs., costs $4,998. 

[Design notes:  This vehicle was built with the standard design rules that remained consistent from the pocket box all the way to the compendiums.  If you are using it with 5th editions rules, you will want to revise the other designs as I described here so that the cars are all built according to the same standards.  The medium power plant used here has 8 DP in the original game, standard tires have 4 DP and the HD tires have 6 DP.  With those caveats for 5th edition, this vehicle can be used with every version of the game-- but of course the sloped armor and the MML in the variant were not available from the very beginning.]

Salvaging 5th Edition Car Wars

The main problem with 5th  edition is that the design system was never released.  I’ve since gone back to using Compendium 2e for my games, but I regret not being able to use my full color laminated vehicle record sheets from 5th edition.  What to do?!  My solution is to use the Compendium’s design rules to make vehicles as close as possible to the 5th edition designs.  I use a seperate sheet of paper for tracking armor anyway, so this will hardly make a difference at all.

The stock Napalm with a 30 point ramplate carries 51 additional points of armor at the other five locations and has a top speed of 95 mph.  (This would be the standard “heavy” ramplate of the old rules.)  Without the ramplate, the car can carry a total of 126 points of armor and has a top speed of 92.5 mph.  Both versions would change the power plant DPs to 8 and have an acceleration of 5.

The stock Dagger carries a 30 point ramplate as well and carries an additional 36 points of armor at the other five locations.  The power plant DPs would increase to 10, the vehicle’s acceleration would be 10, and the top speed increases to 140 mph. 

That’s a pitifully small amount of armor on the Dagger, though.  If we use a tricked up medium power plant (with PC’s and SC’s) instead of the large, we can do better.  This car keeps the 30 point ramplate, has 65 additional points of armor elsewhere, has 8 DP for the power plant, and acceleration of 10, and a top speed of 122.5 mph.

(By the way, the Napalm and Dagger vehicles above both use standard tires and light suspension.  The Napalm has a heavy chassis and the Dagger has a standard chassis.) 

Every other facet of these designs should match the stats on the full-color vehicle record sheet perfectly.  If you own Division 5 Set 3, then you should be able to understand the rest of these designs easily.  Now I can use the record sheets from 5th edition with my 2e games… or I can use the 2e design rules with my 5th edition games– and you can, too!

Variant Customization rules for CAR WARS Div. 5 set 3

The notes in the back of your rulebook include info about costs, but leaves out info on space and weight.  Here is the relevant missing information pulled from earlier editions.  Keep in mind that the Light Ramplate did not exist in earlier editions and that some rules may have been changed in the new design system.

Weapon     Weight     WPS     Loaded Wt.     Space
——     ——     —-    ———-     —–
MG            150      2.5           200         1
FT            250      5             500         2
HDFT          650     10             750         3
MML           100      2.5           125         1
RL            200      5             250         2
SD(exp.)       25      5              75         1

Compact Armor:     $13 and 6 lbs. per point
Ram Plate (Heavy): Costs 1.5 times front armor $
                   Weighs .5 times front armor wt
Ram Plate (Light): Costs .75 times front armor $
                   Weighs .25 times front armor wt                  

Gunner:            150 lbs., 2 spaces
Links:             $50

Examples:

The Napalm and the Dagger are very similar vehicles– they are both compacts mounting light ramplates.  The Dagger has slightly better armor, but only half the firepower.  Both cars have equally poor handling, but the Dagger has twice the acceleration.  Let’s see if we can heighten the contrast between these two vehicles.

The Napalm schematic does not illustrate the light ram plate.  To make a variant model without it, we subtract $283 and 44 lbs from the cost of the original stock Napalm.  Then we can add 21 points of armor for $273 and 126 lbs.  Note that this puts us 126 pounds over the original weight.  Without the full design rules, we don’t know for sure if this impacts the vehicles acceleration or chassis limit.  Additional “reverse engineering” could settle this question.  This variant costs $4,988 and weighs 3,676 lbs.

The Dagger is pictured as having a gigantic ram plate… but the designers of this set gave it only a light one.  We can drop 23 points of armor on the vehicle and drop $299 from the cost and 138 lbs from the weight.  Then we can upgrade the ramplate to a heavy for $292 and 135 lbs and have a final cost and weight that is only a little bit shy of the original values.  We can have a fairly strong confidence that this variant would be consistent with the unpublished 5th edition design rules, but the confetti number may have dropped a point or two. This variant costs $4,987 and weighs 2,914 lbs.

Note that messing with the ramplates can be a little math intensive– and we may not know for sure if we’re following the rules or not when we do that.  Let’s try a couple of variants that don’t fool with such things.

Start with the stock Napalm.  Remove one FT and the link.  We can now make an up-armored version that adds 83 points of armor to anywhere but the front.  I would probably move the remaining FT to the side and load up a great deal of armor on that facing– the side is easier to hit.  We end up with a car running $4,993 and weighing 3,359 lbs– slightly less than the original design for both cost and weight.

Suppose a duellist wins an Amatuer Night event and wants to fix up his car.  He’ll be taking it on the road, so he needs a more well rounded vehicle than an arena car.  He could remove one FT and the link, and then add an SD (explosive), a gunner, and 15 points of armor added to anywhere but the front.  His car would cost $4,994 and weigh 3,498 lbs.  He could still take it into a Division 5 duel if he wanted to.

Hopefully these Variants will spice up your games while you save your nickles for the Division 5 Vehicle Guide.  Enjoy!

Amateur Night Notes

I introduced the game to a new player last night. We played two rounds. He liked flamethrowers so he grabbed the Napalm. I took a Stinger– the fast recoiless totin’ car.

It was his first game and I didn’t want to be mean– and I wanted to go ever every major rules section in the game. This was accomplished by my maneuvering into point blank range. I shot him up– then he returned fire and rammed me. Game over for me! Two seconds of game time and less than ten minutes of real time and we’d gone over most of the rules.

I explained that we were playing in a eight vehicle single elimination event with no repairs between rounds. In the second round I played the Bumblebee that won the last game I refereed.

Our two slightly damaged vehicles faced off. After the first pass he asks me, “What’s a Light Ramplate??” Doh!! The ramplate isn’t marked with an icon on the vehicle sheet, so I’d forgotten he had it!! (ARGH!) That did a lot to increase the front armor of his vehicle….

He scored fire markers on my poor Bumblebee a couple times. I was breached, so that was really bad. I kicked up the speed and pulled 2 d3’s a turn to try to get rid of them. He got to see me spin out– while he skidded really bad a couple of times. (The new Crash Table is very well done, I have to say. Very cinematic, playable, and fun.)

It took a few passes, but he finally scored a hit with his flame throwers through my breached armor. That was it for me!

That gave him a total of 2 kills on his first night: and 3 skill points in each of Driver and Gunner. I see that instead of salvage, the new rules for Amateur Night offer cash prizes. That sure cuts back on the math for the referee!

After the game he asked if Car Wars was still available. I take that as a good sign. He was irked when I told him there were no design rules for the new edition… (”designing stuff is half the fun!”) but he did seem to like how fast the game plays and also how all you need for a game board is a table top….

Speeding Up the Game and Eliminating Annoying ‘Counter Fudging’

Tired of the fact that too often players spend five minutes shuffling counters and turning keys to figure out a way to just barely miss those pesky spike counters? Or maybe they’re bringing play to a halt by trying choose the perfect amount of manuevers to keep their opponents in line of sight until just the last moment. Or maybe games are just lasting a little too long in real-time to account for a measly 8 second arena duel….

There is a way for you ref’s to take care of these things– and I’m surprised I never thought of this before. I had suggested earlier that the referee should track everything: Handling, Speed, and Damage– that way players don’t have to do any bookkeeping and everyone stays honest. After thumbing though a copy of Savage Worlds at the local game store, I’ve decided it might be good to take this a little further.

To speed things up, only allow maneuvers on the first, fourth, and seventh inch of movement in each phase. (On the other phases, cars move straight ahead one inch.) When a player comes up to his turn, don’t let him touch the counter at all. He may look at the board for a moment and then shout out his move. The referee then plays out the move.

For example, a player going 50 mph would shout, “Two D0 to the right!” on his turn. Really mean ref’s might count to 3 when he announces each phase for the players– if the players don’t respond with a valid instruction, they end up just going straight for the whole phase and miss their chance to fire!

Refs running a game this way may seem like drill sergeants, but playing this way will eliminate most of the unrealistic exactness that Car Wars players routinely pull.

M-corps in 5th Edition Car Wars

Some state governments have been encouraging the establishment of M-corps (”militia-corporations”) in an attempt to use the AADA system to subsidize the creation of a new class of combat ready citizenry. City police and the highway patrol admit an inability to deal with large well-organized gangs. Military assistance from the Federal government is too infrequent to preserve the viability of in-state businesses. Proponents of the M-corp system believe that encouraging the formation of small autodueling corporations within the state will minimize the threat of gangs and stimulate economic growth.

First, an M-corp gathers 20 volunteers that must commit for at least two years. These duellists begin with base skills: Driver 0, Gunner 0. The M-corp then requests a grant from the state government. If approved, they receive an initial grant of $30,000. (Grant amounts may vary state to state.) The M-corp is obligated to assist the city police department in defending the town against gang attacks, but is free to invest the grant money in equipment and vehicles for arena events.

M-corps that remain profitable for three years (and that get good recommendations from their city) become eligible for Full Militia Status and a $70,000 militia grant. This money can be used to buy bigger and better vehicles and also to clone the more promising personnel. The state government, however, retains the option of calling these militias to assist in a coordinated attack on the gangs.

Because the M-corp system is so new, a state with 6 to 8 M-corps will probably have only one or two organizations that have acquired Full Militia Status. In addition to their grants, an M-corp also receives a variety of tax breaks and incentives. Some states require the cities attached to the M-corps to make a matching grants of 25%.

Each year, the state government awards a special $50,000 grant to the M-corp that has been the most profitable. The state uses this formula to determine profits:

Profits = (Total Cash Prizes from Arena Duels for the Year) – (Repairs Expenses Incurred by the Corporation in those Duels) – (Total Purchase Price of Corporate Vehicles Destroyed in those Duels)

Note that investments in vehicles and clones do not count against profits for the purposes of this grant. The state does not want to discourage such spending! Additionally, some states do not count expenses related to certain in-state industries such as certain specified ammo and weapons purchases.

M-corps often engage one another in team events with two or three cars to a side. These duels are staged at in-state arenas and are relatively friendly; they are, after all, training together in order to help combat the gang presence. Nevertheless, ratings for these events are high due to the number of spectacular deaths that occur because of the lack of experience among the team members.

Helping the Hotshot: a House Rule for Flamethrowers

Ramplates have been scaled back quite a bit in the new game. They get +1 or +2 damage per die instead of the old killer doubling, and the confetti rules put a limit on how much damage small cars can risk dealing out. (There should be no more 200 mph rams from heavily armored Compacts….)

Flame weapons have been scaled back a lot more, too– even more than ram weapons.

There was an old Van design in the original AADA guide called the Firestarter. All it had was a Heavy Laser in a 3-space turret. Under the variant fire rules first released in DCW (and subsequently made official in the Compendium), the HL was useless when it came to starting fires. It could only make a bad situation just a tad worse with it’s Mod of 1 and it’s Duration of 0.

The 5.0 fire rules brings the Firestarter back to the game allowing it to consistently score a fire marker with each hit. I think this is a good thing. On the other hand, I don’t like that the new Piranha with it’s three Incendiary MG’s is almost as good at starting fires as the Firestarter– and probably even better than the Hotshot!

The fire situation is further restricted by the fact that you now have to burn through the armor before you get a chance for explosion. Also, fires can go out fairly easily even on vehicles that don’t have extinguishers. This makes things unnecessarily hard on the Hotshot.

To balance all of this, I propose we give an additional bonus to flamethrowers. The Hotshot ought to have an edge here! When rolling at the end of the turn to see if the fire went out, add one to the roll for each hit that was scored by a flamethrower.

With this rule, the Hotshot has a much better chance of destroying his enemy with the “oven effect”– even if he doesn’t score fire markers every turn. A hit by a single FT will help insure that the fire keeps going. A hit by a pair of linked FT’s will most likely score one fire marker and then have a pretty good chance of earning a second one at the end of the turn.

This isn’t a big change and still doesn’t make flame weapons the terrors that they were back in Compendium 2.0. The main idea here is to keep the game colorful and lively by making the weapon types more equal and distinctive.

Design System: Likely Out in 2005

“There are plenty of options on the table for the future of Car Wars, and the Vehicle Design System specifically. However, I will not discuss what they are (except that Pyramid doesn’t figure in to any of them). Right now, it’s in a holding pattern, and probably won’t move in *any* direction until late 2004 at the earliest, more likely 2005.”

– Andrew Hackard

Div 5 Guide and Arena Book Goodies

I ordered the Division 5 Car Guide and the Arena Book. Probably silly purchases, but I wanted to provide a bit more choice to the players withouth having to buy 6 more sets.

– brian

By the way, the Arena Book comes with two mean division 15 cars. The Terminator-X has killed my cars more than once!

Also the Division 5 book comes with a $7,500 variant version of each car in the book. I’ve never played that division what with it being so new and all, but it may be more fun than the usual $5,000 games.

If you’ve got 4 players and a referee, it may be more fun to have two teams go against each other with a 15k car and a 7.5k car on each side. You ought not to end up with a stalemate in that game– one side should come out with at least one survivor.

Their Second Duel…

We had our second session of Car Wars last night. The game went a lot faster but we still got confused when figuring out collisions and collision damage. I need to make a flowchart for that stuff.

Anyways, it was Division 5 but we used HotWheels cars anyways to make it a bit more exciting. My brother took a bunch of pictures:
http://www.boomstick.org/archives/2004_03.php#000248

- brian

Nice pictures!

Did Dave survive his ram against you?? Did anyone survive the event? Are you tracking any information as a continuing campaign, or was this a one-shot type event?

You may be wondering if anyone in Car Wars dies due to weapons fire…. They definitely do in Division 15. But one thing about that ram– there’s no to-hit roll and no way to dodge once they get in close….

One way to diminish the ram’s effectiveness is to play in larger arenas that are set up to force people to make lots of turns. Your board looks a little small compared to what I tend to play on. Also, the Bumblebee could have turned the spikedropper on automatic to cut back on the other players’ maneuverability.

I normally try to avoid tire shots because they’re so chintzy– but if I’m up against a dedicated ram car or a person that’s known to always ram, then I feel free to take off his tires in self defense. Of course if the ram car has an ultra-low profile, this might not work so good….

But if everybody’s ramming… well…. The first person to ram will loose speed and front armor. That makes him a likely target for everyone else.

The only real defense against the ram is to go faster than everyone else. You go first then and get a chance to get out of the way.

Oh, and about those collisions. As referee I apply those rules with a heavy dose of common sense. I generally announce… “this is what happened; anybody think that’s crazy?” and generally nobody complains.