Car Wars
Design Advice
By Curt
Lindmark
The
first rule to a Car Wars game is to have fun.
This can be achieved by having a solid design with a good chance of
competing and finishing well.
The
following are my collective thoughts on how to build a solid design.
First:
know what the victory conditions are.
Usually, they are two full kills and 5 seconds of maintaining the lead,
or 2.5 full kills. This is the standard
for AADA matches. Know first and
foremost what it is you are expected to accomplish with your design. If the match is a straight race, considering
sinking your budget into your engine and tires.
Second:
know where you’re fighting. The layout
of an arena can very strongly influence what decisions you can make with your
design. If the arena is a large circular
track, you can choose one side of armor to be facing the wall and afford to
skimp on the one side while improving the armor on the other side. If an arena contains long narrow passageways
with little opportunity for your side armor to be shot, you can afford to skimp
on the sides and beef up the front.
Carefully analyze the layout of an arena and customize your design to
fit the surroundings.
Third:
make sure you can get the car moving.
Pick an engine that is strong enough to push you, but try to find one
that is the best fit for your car.
Having more power factors than you need in a duel is of little use. Most combats happen fast enough that you
don’t have time to get up to an inflated top speed.
Installing
High-Torque Motors (HTMs) on electric cars is a much better deal than an
oversized engine. If you do choose an
over-sized engine, try to get one that will give you a raw 10 mph acceleration,
and then install HDHTMs to double your
acceleration.
Spoilers
and airdams are always useful in mid-to-high level
matches. They allow you to turn lazily
around the arena without impacting your HC.
They also let you out maneuver other cars when you do use part of your
HC to turn sharply right when you need it.
HD
Shocks are also useful to minimize the occasional hazard.
Fourth:
Decide how you want to orchestrate the demise of those around you.
You
can choose one (or more) of the following
At
the most, you can choose to split your budget between two of the three. Ram/Shooter is always a popular mix of
methods of destruction.
Having
all three methods in your design often means that each type of attack is weak
enough not to be as useful compared to others who choose two or one method.
Ram
Ram
attacks require you to plow your car into your opponent, and hope you have more
armor than he does.
If
you choose a ram attack, you need the following (budget allowing)
The
other thing to consider in driving a ram car is where to hit. The side armor of a car is often the best
choice. You can choose the speed of the
collision (yours) to inflict what you think is the right amount of damage. If possible, try to aim for the front half of
the car. Most dropped weapons and/or
dischargers that are bumper triggered will be placed towards the back of the
victim’s car. Hitting in the front will
reduce the likelihood that you’ll be hit by them. Also, any ranged weapons that are bumper
triggered will fire straight out of the middle of the victim’s car. If you make sure you’re not on that line when
you hit them, you’ll be sure that their automatic gunfire will miss you. Hitting the back is often not nearly
effective, unless the target car is going significantly slower than you
are. You also run the risk of back
mounted dropped weapons causing you some havoc.
Hitting the front is often the worst choice, especially if the other car
is also mounting a ramplate. If at all
possible, never hit a ramplated car on the front.
Shooter
Shooter
attacks require you to use firepower to kill your opponent prior to them doing
the same. There are three ways you can
use shooter designs:
one
big gun (OBG), many little guns (MLG), or a few medium guns (FMG).
OBG
designs rely on a single (or at most a pair) of heavy hitting guns to devastate
armor. The risk of this is if you miss,
you’ve invested a large amount of your budget into something that has done
nothing for you that turn.
MLG
designs rely on having multiple chances to hit and do a small amount of
damage. The risk with MLG designs is
attacking someone with a thick sheet of metal armor. A single 6 die weapon is great against 7 pts
of metal armor. Six 1 die weapons are
utterly useless against 7 pts of metal armor.
FMG
designs tend to be very popular. A
luxury can fit three VMGs, RRs, or RLs and inflict roughly 6 dice of weaponry
per salvo with often a decent chance to hit.
Once
you establish which method (or combination thereof) of weapons you want, the
next thing to decide is where to put them.
Some
designers put guns on the front. For
some choices, that is the only option you have.
One thing to consider in placing guns is the effect of speed modifiers
to your tohit roll for your target. If
your target is moving at any appreciable speed, and you are firing at his side
with your front mounted weapons, you incur the worst possible tohit modifier,
and will often miss. Most opponents will
deliberately turn to keep their side arc facing your front guns to inflict just
such a modifier.
If
you mount your guns to the side, and keep his side arc in your side arc, you
all but negate any tohit modifiers from the target’s speed.
Often,
if you mount your guns to the side, you’ll be constantly turning to keep your
target in your arc of fire. Having a
spoiler and airdam will help you constantly turn slightly with little to no
negative effect on your handling.
The
other thing to consider when choosing guns is what your expected target is. Are you planning on shooting thru the armor,
or at the tires? If you plan on tire
shots, it is most important to increase your bonuses to hit. A computer is a great way to do this. A dedicated gunner is also a good way. They’re free (except for food, water, and the
occasional candy bar), and in a larger car, there’s room for them.
There
is also the added possibility of incendiary weapons. They inflict fire mods on your targets, which
is useful for setting your opponents on fire and letting them burn to death,
and/or explode. The lower the division,
the less likely they’ll have methods of combating vehicular fires, and the more
useful this idea is. It is imperative to
have your own fire protection if you plan on bringing incendiary weapons. A vehicular fire extinguisher is a good
idea. An improved vehicular fire
extinguisher is a better one. Having an
Deciding
how much ammo you choose to carry can also be a meaningful choice.
The
MG carries 20 shots. Most duels don’t
run 20 turns. If you chose HD ammo with
10 shots, the cost and weight are the same, and your damage goes up.
This
becomes more significant with the VMG with HD ammo (2D+2). Having rounds left in the magazine at the end
of the duel means you paid for something you didn’t use.
The
most important thing of all, when choosing a shooter design, is not to have
more weapons systems than you have crew.
If you have only a driver and have two completely different weapon
systems, you can’t fire them both in the same turn. Any weapon you don’t fire because you ran out
of firing actions is a waste of money, weight and space. The other guy, without a second weapon system
he’s not using, will have more of something you don’t have, and will likely
kill you with it.
Dropped
Weapons
It
is possible to orchestrate kills using nothing but dropped weapons. This is probably the most difficult method of
killing someone by itself. The target
has to run over your dropped weapons in order for them to be of any use. If an arena is designed with multiple
chokepoints and an artificial requirement to pass over them, this can be more
effective. The four things that can be
impacted the most effectively by dropped weapons are tires, underbody armor,
handling class and burn modifiers.
Dropped
weapons are separated into three classes
Dropped
gas
Dropped
liquid
Dropped
solid
You
can not effectively combine two dropped liquids together. That is the primary restriction on combining
dropped weapons. Everything else is fair
game.
Each
weapon will be given one “dropped weapon” (DW) point for each of the four
components it affects: tires, underbody armor, and handling class and burn
mods.
Dropped
gas weapons
Offensive
Flame cloud: 4 DW. The most effect dropped gas weapon is the
flame cloud. It hits vulnerable top and
underbody armor (people have been killed by a single flame cloud, because they
installed only 1 pt of armor on the top), and it also will damage tires, after
destroying or bypassing wheel protection.
It inflicts a burn mod and also inflicts roughly a D3 hazard.
Defensive
Smoke: 0 DW.
Smoke does nothing but inflict minuses to hit. It also blocks lasers, but does not block IR
lasers. In a high enough division, any
laser guided weaponry will be guided by IR lasers. Hot Smoke is a better choice.
Hot Smoke: 0 DW. Hot smoke is a better choice than smoke. It blocks IR lasers, and offers the same
minus to hit protection as regular smoke.
Paint: 0 DW.
Paint will block lasers and IR lasers, but only for 5 phases (it’s
falling liquid, but essentially a dropped gas).
It will also inflict a -3 to hit to anyone who drives thru it.
Dropped
liquids
Offensive
Flaming oil: 4 DW. Flaming oil ignites after one phase, burns
for 5 phases, blocks LOS for lasers (normal and IR), causes burn mods, and
inflicts hazard and maneuvering penalties.
Pyrophoric oil: 4 DW. Pyrophoric oil is just like flaming oil, only
it ignites after someone drives on it.
This can be used to great effect when someone thinks it’s only oil,
because it hasn’t ignited yet.
Sticky foam: 2 DW. Sticky foam is great when used in conjunction
with another hazard inflicting dropped weapon.
Because it is a dropped liquid, the best dropped weapon to combine it
with is either a flame cloud or a mine.
Defensive
Ice: 1 DW.
Ice does not cause damage or burn mods, but is the single most effect
hazard multiplier available. It is twice
as effective as oil, and against cars with slicks, is horrifically devastating
to their handling class. A single
sideswipe with a bumper-triggered ice discharger can easily force a high speed
car to crash.
Oil: 1 DW. Non flammable oil is useful for raising
hazards caused by other damage, but ice is usually more effective.
Dropped
solid
Offensive
Spikes: 1-2 DW.
Spikes only attack tires, not underbody armor, and can be made
incendiary for extra money. However, the
damage from spikes is not considered enemy gunfire, so does not inflict
hazards, or damage the wheel, just the tire.
Incendiary spikes are useful for setting tires on fire, which can force
the car to catch on fire, and burn or explode your opponent.
Junk: 1 DW.
A junk dropper can be used in low-end divisions to drop debris which can
damage tires. It is more effective
loaded with sand and mounted front to help counter dropped liquids from other
players.
Mines: 4DW.
A mine dropper is the most effect dropped solid weapon in the game. You can choose to inflict burn mods, extra
tire damage, extra underbody damage, make them remote controlled, make them
more likely to be set off by a passing car or even fling them in front of an
opponent (with a mine flinger)
By
combining dropped weapons from the dropped gas, dropped liquid, and the dropped
solid categories, you can inflict damage, hazards and/or burn mods on your
opponents and kill them, force them to crash, or make them burn and explode. In a perfect world, you can do all three!
Which
ever method (or methods) you choose in your Car Wars Design, remember these
points
1)
attack where you are strong
2)
attack where he is weak
3)
have fun
With
thanks to Jeff Dodge, Rob Hagmaier and Jim Anderson for their suggestions.