Wikimedia Commons, fair use

This is my entry for the "Gaming in the '80s" contest being run by @archdruid (@veryspider and @elfranz). This will hopefully be the first of my three allowed entries!

Everyone has had dreams of recreating the apocalyptic setting of the Mad Max films in a board game format... perhaps a little less so in real life... Anyway, the concept of mounting guns and armour to cars, trucks and motorcycles in a world that was completely destitute is just too good to pass up.... and so it fell to legendary game designed Steve Jackson to form a rule set and a narrative universe for this dream to come true!

Setting

Car Wars was set in a dystopian future (roughly 2030) where the natural resources (in particular oil) is severly depleted. This leads to civil unrest and a nuclear war (which was limited in scope, and largely mitigated by anti-missile defence systems) between the USSR and the United States (funny, there was still a USSR at the time of this game's publication!). This situation led to a succession of a number of the Southern states of the United States and complete collapse of the world economy.

So, the population was largely concentrated into sanctuary cities with the roads in between them being subject to the whims of lawless gangs (sounds very much like Mad Max!). In the years before the collapse of civilization, there was a sport that was becoming popular, that of auto-dueling... car duels with rudimentary weapons. As technology advanced, the weapons and equipment started to be miniaturized with the effect of vehicles becoming more and more lethal... which became a survival necessity when the end of civilization arrived. It was also a future where cloning of bodies (and the transference of memories via chips) was a commonplace (but expensive) procedure, and so death was a minor setback for those with the cash to be able to back up their memories.

Game History

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First released in 1981, the original game came in a little plastic hard case (pictured above) with maps and a rulebook and a number of cardboard cutouts to represent the cars in game. Throughout the following decade, the original rule set was expanded to include motorcycles, heavy vehicles (trucks and buses), helicopters, boats and even hovercraft! In addition, a light RPG element was added in later additions, to have a "personal" touch to those otherwise namesless toons who were piloting these wheeled machines.

The game was definitely an inspiration for later computer games like Interstate 76.

My Experience

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I actually inherited all the boxed sets of Car Wars from a family friend who had children that were older than me... and so, when they went to university... I got the pick of the loot! Needless to say, these games were like shining jewels to an imaginative young mind! The idea that you could build entire settlements and convoys in your mind and put them down on paper... and then have games that would test the resolve and long term survival of those enclaves... well, let's just say... it is a concept that I still look for in modern day computer gaming as well!

So, in the early days of my gaming... I would just devour the rule books, and design settlements and convoys by myself... but as my younger brother grew up, I introduced him to the idea... and we would have fun emulating the survival of an enclave. My brother would be the survivors, and I would be DM0-ing as the raiders and the world at large. It was great fun... well, at least I had fun!

When I finally went to university, I was very much pleasantly surprised to find that one of my new friends at the university college was also a big fan of Car Wars (yes... nerds....). Anyway, we did end up playing some scenario games together when I would go to his place for some of the university holidays (his family lived closer to the university than my family did!)... however, these were the days of StarCraft and the original CounterStrike. The days of board gaming were beginning to be numbered...

There was one scenario that I really fondly remembered... we had devised an asymmetric scenario with a certain amount of cash to be able to be spent by both the opposing forces. My friend would have a single unit with no limit on worth (so, basically a super tank...)... whilst I would have limitless forces but with a limit on the worth of each (so an army of gnats). I would love to say that I gave birth to the modern day warfare doctrine of drones and smart missiles. We had begun the scenario after hours of designing our vehicles. His was a monster tank with unbelievable weaponry and armour... a singular killing machine. I opted for a fleet of cheap cars and motorcycles... of which most were unmanned and remotely piloted. Likewise, most of my vehicles were husks... a cheap engine on wheels and nothing more... so cannon fodder. However, scattered in this mix was a handful of (possibly only three) cars with contact triggers and as much explosives as the engines could bear.... one of these would be enough to level the map.... but I had three... however, none of my vehicles had any armour.

My game theory (tactics) was that there was nothing that I could build that could stand up against the firepower of his tank anyway... so, I would have decoys and overwhelming swarms. Of that swarm... I could afford to lose everything ... except one of these roving detonators would have to reach the target.

The game did play out as planned... his tank started alone in the middle of the map... I split my swarm into 4 waves that approached at speed from all sides. I would be losing cars and motorcycles left right and centre... they were getting slaughtered... as they had no weaponry and no protection (my friend was getting cocky...). However, only one bomb needed to reach the target... and I think in the end, at least two made it at the same time.... I remember rolling the literal handfuls of dice for damage as my friend looked on in disbelief. There was more than enough damage to blow through his armour and out the other side... whilst blowing apart most of my swarm as well...

... he was pretty cranky for the rest of the day....

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