Car Wars (Sixth Edition)

Car Wars was one of those long-standing obsessions from my distant youth. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I read about it in magazines and newsgroups, but it was hardly easy to find or import. A gloriously deranged lifestyle game like Battletech, except that instead of giant robots you took a car, loaded it with accessories, and went out to dish out pain. When SJG decided to give it the same Kickstarter treatment it gave Ogre, I hurled a great deal of money at my screen. Then came the pandemic, the shipping crisis, and SJG’s decision to stop serving Europe through direct sales and Kickstarter. At least this pledge arrived, even if it was two and a half years late, and on the table it has the eccentric presence I had hoped for.

The final game, for better or worse, is essentially unrelated to the original. The rules have been streamlined to an almost ridiculous degree — there are no relative speed coefficients in defence, for instance. Customisation uses a neat point system and cards, in the style of X-Wing or Armada: you build your vehicle, give it the personality you want, and throw it into the arena. The explanation fits into ten minutes, and fifteen minutes later you are already spraying the opponent with gunfire.

At the table, it is pure fast and furious. A short game takes roughly 20 minutes per car, while the full-boarding, max-armour slaughter can run to 40 or 45 minutes per vehicle. Interaction is not about subtle diplomacy: you hunt for firing lines, position your armed car, and try to make the other player feel they picked the wrong lane. It is immediate, quick, and delivers exactly that silly, road-trapper feeling of “I fire the machine gun and drive away.”

I like it a lot as a game for blowing off steam, but probably only as that. I do not see the new system easily supporting a serious campaign or scenarios, particularly when SJG takes years to develop those anyway. Still, the miniatures are excellent and make the box worth opening: I can happily use them in Gaslands: Refuelled as well. And best of all, Car Wars convinced me to pick up my paintbrushes again — and the finished result on the table is not bad at all.