Austin Millennium Con Convention

At last weekends Millennium Con in Austin ,Texas I ran two Car Wars events. I've been gearing up for this for a while.

Austin has a large gaming population and Car Wars creator Steve Jackson Games is located here, so I had hoped that I'd get more than a few people interested in playing and reminiscing about Car Wars, and I did.

I set up the game about an hour before my starting time and laid out a few of the old rulebooks and expansions such as the first Pocket Box(which people just love seeing), the deluxe rules, the Armadillo Arena, the AADA auto guide, and some others. I wish I counted, but I probably had more than 30 people come talk to me and tell me their story about Car Wars. All of them talked about the game with fondness. By the end of the day I knew exactly how each person would start their story. It would begin by the person coming up and eyeing the game board, then they would drift over to where I laid out the older Car Wars material. I would say "Are you familiar with Car Wars?" And everyone's first reply would be "I use to play, but I haven't played in years". And they would enficize "years".

I got to talk to quite a few people about Car Wars, some would bring up scenarios they remembered, many would tell me they still have all their Car Wars material, some talked about using Micro Machines, more than a few times taking on big rigs with cycles was mentioned. One teenager told me that Car Wars is legendary in their house hold. Apparantly, one of his parents first games together before they were married was Car Wars, during that game the Father had scored a kill vs soon to be Mom, and till this day the Father has never beaten (or dared to beat) Mom again in any boardgame. But, it sounds like they are still together, so maybe there is something to learn there.
I can definetly say, there are lots of gamers that still have a place in their heart for Car Wars, and I fully enjoyed talking to them about it.

For me this will go down as one of my best experiences hosting a game at a convention. Giving people a chance to revive the excitement of this classic game was worth all the effort. Something else I thought was very interesting was that I had a younger player play, a kid probably a few years away from his teens and he had a great time playing the game. He was right into it the whole way through. I'm glad to know that this game can still capture the minds of kids nowadays. So, with all that said, I am very happy I ran this game and had a great group of players join in.

I was only signed up to run one session at the convention, but I ran into a few people that couldn't join in the that game and wanted to play, so I agreed to run a consecutive game. Quickly we had a couple more people join in and I ended up running two 6 player games in a row.

I used the same scenario for both games, so it was the same arena and cars. Both games had a different feel, the first being more of a tactical game, the second being more of a run and gun and reckless affair. It was interesting to notice the different styles of play and was definetly due to the players personality.

The cars we used had 20 armor on all sides, a vulcan machine gun in the front, two linked medium rockets on both sides, a spike dropper in the back, and one heavy rocket in the back, the vulcan and the spike dropped was linked. It was a car with many weapon options, which I thought was a good idea to keep people always into the game.

It was a standard duel, drivers that survived could salvage their kills, gates would open after 30 seconds and you could escape if you need to at that time. But neither game lasted that long.


This is the info I gave to the players about the game:

Arena info: The Portland Car Arena
The “Portland Car Arena” located in Portland, Maine is an AADA sanctioned arena on the Atlantic Armor Circuit. While not an extremely popular arena most of the year, during November while the city of Portland holds its renowned literary festival, the arena takes the spotlight. During the festival period, crowds from around the country attend and many of the duels are televised internationally. Grudge matches and challenge matches are popular during the festival, and many companies strive to get their cars and equipment into the festival dueling events as they are widely broadcasted.


Vehicle Maker Info: Steinberg & Ewing Motors
“Steinberg & Ewing Motors” is a newly established company formed by the former ace autoduelist Mike Steinberg, and the genius engineering mind of Tony Ewing. The company’s first vehicle produced was marketed as a transport, and had little success due to light rear protection. But the company hopes to make a splash into the autoduelling circuit with their new sedan named the “Front Runner”. “Steinberg & Ewing Motors” have generously offered to supply enough “Front Runners” for the third amateur duel of the festival.

The "Portland Car Arena"

The Contestants

Beginnning of Game 1

Game 2 Beginning: Everyone dropped thier spokes quickly in this game. And they all converged in one corner.

And did you ever wonder who was driving the purple van in the picture on the back of the original pocket box version? Well, here he is. I beleive his name is Mike and I know he was a good sport about playing the celebrity bit. Thanks for the picture.

Car Wars After Action Reports

The guys in North Carolina have been doing quite a bit of Car Wars gaming, and then writing about it. Check out some of the after action reports here on Boardgame Geek.

Grenadier Motors Sorte Trials

Retama Duel Center Hosts Team Amatuer Night

Armadillo Arena

Here are some picts from another Caw Wars gaming group in Minnesota.

Choatic Systems Pictures

Car Wars Compendium 2.5 Now Available

Just recently, Steve Jackson Games has made the Compendium 2.5 rulebook available for download in PDF format.

This is the second to last version that was published, and it is the version that is played most today. It has 5 phases per turn, and is the last version to have a vehicle design system.

Don't walk, run to this site to pick up a copy!!!!

http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG30-7142

The Big Meetup (at least in my mind)

On my trip to Austin I stopped in North Carolina and gamed with possibly the two biggest Car Wars fans in the world. I don't exactly like using the word fan in this situation as they are now contributing to Car Wars and the Car Wars world as much as anyone has in the past. I feel they have taken up where Steve Jackson has left off, and hopefully they are keeping it warm for him.

I have found that Jeffro is the scribe for his and Earlburts Car Wars gaming, or should I stay study. As much as these two love tailing someone and firing off an Anti Tank Gun round, they equally love putting in the missing pieces of the Car Wars world that all the rulebooks and supplements and Autoduel magazines missed. They have completed countless auto duels using stock cars and amatuer drivers to collect data on how difficult it would be to move up the ranks as an Autoduelist, they have tested and retested certain stock vehicles for performance and have written their findings about them, through research they have come up with possible percentages of what mass produced cars you would find if you happened to be driving down a street in the Car Wars world. All that and much much more. You have to read it to appreciate it, so here is Jeffros blog:
http://jeffro.wordpress.com/

Also in his blog he covers our gaming day better than I could, so I'll brush over it. If you want a blow by blow and analysis, check out his blog.

As for the meetup. Jeffro and I met up the day before the Car Wars event. He had OGRE and G.E.V., so we got one game of each in. Both games I liked quite a bit and will probably hunt down and purchase G.E.V at some point. It's one of those simple to play games where the tactics can get quite complex. Just the kind of game I like.
We also tried "Battlesuit", another Steve Jackson Games product which is the skirmish infantry game for OGRE and G.E.V. As much as this game has for problems, I found myself thinking about it even more than OGRE and G.E.V. after playing it. When you are finished rolling all the dice and calculating all the mods and figuring out all the line of sights, the game leaves you with a good story for a battle.
Both of these games and also Jeffro's enthusiasm for everything Steve Jackson really makes me want to investigate more SJG products. I don't think I have played any other than Car Wars, but I am starting to think I may have been missing something.

The next day was the Car Wars day. We had a four player and a five player game. Both were exciting down to the wire events. Both of which I got blasted to all heck, but I did get my licks in too. Jeff and Earlburt brought along their collections and I had a field day going over the stuff I hadn't seen. We had a huge room to ourselves so Earlburt laid out quite a few arena maps, it was real fun to see that. I especially liked checking out the Portland, Maine arena.

All in all it was a great weekend of gaming and one I won't forget.

Next up on my gaming "to do" list is to start a Car Wars club in Austin Texas.

Car Wars Miniatures

Here is a my collection of 1/100th scale Car Wars cars. I LOVE THESE BABIES! I originally were using them to test out painting and modelling for some larger cars, but they ended up so nice I kept going with it. In Japan I managed to collect about 150 of these. I hope to do up quite a few for my collection, and maybe sell some others as lots. They are mounted on a 2 inch base.

I had to do a Japanese themed car while in Japan. I couldn't pull off the Rising Sun, but this is what I ended up with. It will add a little spice having a Japanese driver with a massive forward facing gun.

Some type of rocket launcher on the top, and a liquid dropped weapon on the side.

My version of the HotShot.

These are Furuta 1/87th Scale figures. They fit real good on a 2 inch base. I love these models. Finding these are what got me back into Car Wars. I have a whole bunch of these I hope to have time to model. The lower right car is the closest thing I can find to the Black Caddy original Car Wars counter.

Well, here is my tractor trailor. Looking forward to a highway fight with this someday.

Dune Buggies and Olden Day Car Wars

Duelling Dune Buggies. I'm looking forward to modelling these. For some reason I think they will turn out real nice with weapons and armor. I got about 20 of these in various colors. Maybe someday I will run a game at a convention using these guys on a large table with a dirt/sand colored covered table. Possibly some jumps too.

A while back when seeing some roaring 20's miniature cars I got the idea to do an old style Car Wars game. I finally found some fairly inexpensive models with an assortment or vehicles.I picture using these models at a convention using some sort of really simple rules. Instead of the cars having weapons, I picture a driver with a pistol and a passenger with a shotgun or rifle, maybe a tommy gun or a molitov cocktail. I think the idea is interesting and would at least get a chuckle.

Not much Gaming, But Some Collecting

I've been in transition moving out of Japan for a few months. I haven't done much gaming, but knowing I wouldn't be in Japan any longer so I went on a spree buying models that I thought I wouldn't be able to find in the USA. I ended up buying too many small cars for Car Wars, and started collecting racing cars. I played the racing game Speed Circuit back when I was younger, it was a Formula 1 racing game. When I am finally settled I'd like to find those rules and do it in miniature. I haven't been able to find any good miniature Folrmula 1 cars, so it might have to be done using a different type of racing car. Those I was able to find.

Got about 20 of these for a dollar each. Looks like they are a repoduction from a race in Asia as some of the advertisements are using Kanji.

These are a line done by Racing Champions. They are 1/144 Scale. I got about 20 of these, I can't wait to get them onto a track. A whole line of these will look really nice.

These are Schuco 1/87th scale. They are perfect recreations. I only have a few of them, but will look out for more.

Autoduelling in Tokyo

I've recently been making maps for Car Wars online. I came across an article about autodueling in Tokyo. After the great quake of 2009, Tokyo was abandoned. Sections of the city were later walled off to create arenas inside the city.
Picture small suped up armored cars zipping throughout the narrow city streets shooting Vulcan machine guns at each other and dropping spikes and mines to prevent from being tailed.
Here are a couple pictures of the Tokyo Arena map I have made.

Car Wars Online

I haven't faired too well on my return to Car Wars. But here's me in my Black Caddy dropping mines to thwart that guy from blasting another one of my sides.

This is a typical ending for me. Someone rammed me in the side going 70 mph. I'm still looking to win my first event. And I've learned I hate ram cars.

Battletech

Along with Car Wars I use to play Battletech when I was young. I found a couple people at the local gaming club that wanted to play some Battletech again, so we got some figures and had a few games of Battletech. Here are some snaps from three different games.

Car Wars Miniatures

Living in Tokyo you can find all kind of models and replicas. I ran into some two inch cars a while back and it got me wanting to do Car Wars in miniature. I wasn't able to get my local group very interested, but I still modified and painted up some Car Wars miniatures. I did discover that Car Wars is played on the internet using Vassal and I have been doing so quite a bit lately.
Here are some of my cars and the setup for an event I held during a club meeting.

First Blog, (so it's kind of a test)

I've always wanted to keep a history with pictures of my gaming. Here is goes.
Here are a couple of pictures of a small sci-fi skirmish game I put together. I've always wanted to do a shootout in a car parking lot, and I finally found some cars that fit with the 1/72 plastic figures I have. I painted up some modern or furturistic military guys, modified some other figures to look alien like and added some quick terrain. The rules we used were a simplification of Battleground WWII rules.