Here are some photos from our 5th Edition Car Wars game.
It’s sad that this edition was so ill fated. The rules play faster and simpler than previous editions, are easy to teach, and the increased movement per phase gives the game a more dynamic feel than previous editions. Plus 5th Edition was designed with Matchbox scale cars in mind, making it even easier to set up games like this. We used Division 10 cars, large enough to have a variety of weapons but not as heavily armed and armored as their Division 15 counterparts.
The Calm Before The Storm
I made the city using the Capitol City papercraft base set from Fat Dragon Games. I printed them on a standard color laserjet printer and attached the base tiles to foam core. I’m a big fan of Fat Dragon Games’ sets. They look great, they provide excellent instructions, and they make good use of .PDF technology. Fat Dragon has multiple layers on its designs that you can turn on or off to add variety to your structures. The result is that some of your street sections may have potholes, others cracked pavement, others can be strewn with trash, or you can turn them all on for that authentic Detroit feeling.
The cars are from a regular set of five Matchbox cars that you can get in any toy store. I went with futuristic looking cars and those that went slightly small on size, I took the cardboard from an old pad of paper and cut the bases from them, then hit them with a layer of spray primer to give them an asphalt look. Then I used the same blue tack you use to hang posters to attach the cars. No mess and I can pull them off the bases for my kids when I’m done.
The Carnage, A Rooftop View
The crossroads became very popular early on, as all five cars decided to cut through the center of town. This lead to major chaos. Note the debris counters. Many more would be placed before the cars got clear. The quarter in the center is being used as a spike dropper counter. The orange car has just finished a 90 degree skid to avoid rolling through the crossfire. The red car is about to suffer tire damage from debris.
Off To The Races
The survivors turned it into a road race. Ram plates have a powerful reputation in Car Wars 5th Edition and we did see that they are very strong weapons. High speed and my car’s heavy ram plate caused my target’s car to disintegrate, while getting T-boned by a light ram plate followed by a missile launcher spelled my doom. However high speed and good maneuvering can compensate. We had several cars with ram plates that were defeated by good driving and gutsy tactics.
Although that comes with its own risks. The black car on the left lost control during a high speed maneuver and slammed into the building, crushing the left side and killing the driver.
IT’S A GUNDAM!
I took this picture for fun. Giant mecha didn’t actually drop in on the autoduel.
After all, I need to save some surprises for next year.
Fractalbat 