Road Rage - a game of Automotive Combat

[Hawkeye]

Sorry about the double post, but it's just to keep people up-to-date with the plan for a 28mm Car Wars-type game. I picked up a couple of the Disney Pixar Cars (one was the Doc Hudson car), and they scale up perfectly with 28mm miniatures like EM4, etc. I have a couple of eBay orders in on Hot Wheels 1:50 G Machines, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they scale up, but judging from Comsquare's photo, they should be perfect. The Schuco car looks like a nice fit too, but I checked prices on eBay, and they're a lot pricier than the G Machines. I'll order a few more of those on and off over the next few weeks, and I'll pick up some more EM4 minis and, of course, some Copplestone minis. I'll paint as I go, write up the rules as I get a collection of minis and cars together, and then work on some terrain. My plan is to have a working prototype some time in the summer - and lots of pics!
Thanks for all your help, guys!

[Ramshackle_Curtis]

I have written and play Nuclear Renaissance, which is basically a gang based vehicle game. The models I make for it are a scaled to fit the 30mm gaming convention. However, Im not really a sticler for scale, and dont mind bigger models. I often use pound land bought toys for conversions, and as long as they fit I dont worry about scale too much.

[LeadAsbestos]

I have a pile of G Machines, looking for a home. PM me if you're interested!

They do scale up well, and they have seen some action w/ my China Town stuff.

[Hawkeye]

@Ramshackle - I had mentioned in a previous post that I planned on picking up some of the wonderful dirt buggies from your range and some bikes, although as I write this I'm reminded that there are a couple of other vehicles I'm interested for Star Mogul as well. It makes sense to add the rules to the order, since they seem to do what I'm looking for, so expect an order from me some time soon. I am in the US, though - that's not a huge problem in terms of shipping or anything, is it?

@LeadAsbestos - pm sent!

[Pil]

I had been toying with the idea of using Necromumnda rules and incorporating vehicles and driving into them, so we'll see how that pans out.

Our gaming group played a Gorkamorka/Necromunda hybrid which we dubbed "High Octane". It was basically Gorkamorka with different human factions (instead of Orks) and some different weapons. Our adaptations to the Gorkamorka rules can be found here:
http://members.multimania.nl/Pil3/Miniatures/High%20Octane/

We also posted some battle reports on LAF:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=9091.0
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=9173.0
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=12948.0

The game was campaign-based (like Gorkamorka and Necromunda) which was something we wanted at the time. It focused rather heavily on the footers though, a gang with lots of vehicles usually didn't work as well as a gang with lots of gangers (riding a large vehicle with a lot of capacity).

As I like the setting a lot I'm quite interested to see how your version turns out

[Hawkeye]

Thank you, Pil, for the links to the rules and to the old battle reports. It's a busy day here today (commencement/graduation ceremonies that as a faculty member I have to attend when I'd rather not, as I still have papers to grade), but I'll get to them this evening as a way to unwind!

As for gameplay, it's interesting that once you scale the cars up to be able to use 28mm minis on foot, the balance of the game seems to change too. I always loved the vehicle combat aspect of Battlecars, etc., but I really want to include options for drivers whose cars get totalled too. I think it might be a tricky balanacing act, but once I start putting the rules onto paper, I'll see how it plays out.

As for cars, a few of the Hotwheel G-Machine 1:50 vehicles have started to trickle in, and they're great! They scale up really well in terms of height, but they do look a bit long for the average 28mm mini. I think I can live with that, though. 1:64 just looks too small. I suppose I could check into 1:55 (SIKU, I think, make some), but it's difficult to know how things are going to scale up until you have a car and a miniature beside each other. In any case, I can't wait to start converting and painting.

Mother's visiting at the moment to see her first grandchild (my son, born just a month ago), and she's leaving on Wednesday, so after that, I'll have time to get this project off the ground and start a thread!

[Pil]

Congrats on the firstborn! Sounds like you are a busy man

The game balance shifting towards gangers is really a result of the system though, you could change it in many ways to shift the balance towards vehicles. In Gorkamorka/Necromunda every ganger can gather income which makes gangs with few models very hard to manage (I once tried a gang with only two income-generating gangers and I could never save up any money). Also, the vehicles can't always do a lot of damage to warriors on foot (if you run them over they get a S3 hit if they fail an initiative test). Since our game was based on Gorkamorka most shooting was pretty weak, which was probably a good thing (and intentional in Gorkamorka originally) since the manouvrability of vehicles isn't any good if two opponents shoot at each other from accross the table. Anyway, I'm sure you'll come up with something that works

[Hawkeye]

Thanks, Pil. I'm looking forward to coming up with some rules that allow cars to blow each other to pieces, but the bigger weapons would be harder to bring to bear on individual models on foot. What this would mean is that cars would also need a light weapon or two (or a passenger leaning out a window with an smg!) to take out pedestrians. We'll have to see what sort of rules I can come up with to balance things, but first things first - cars and minis! That's my plan for the next few weeks.

[Patron Zero]

Two quick bits to ponder;

Have you considered using Galoob Micro-Machine vehicles, a lot of styles-size out and easy to modify.

http://m2museum.com/Categories.htm

Have you looked at model railroading structures as a possible scenescape/landscape source?

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/index.php

[LeadAsbestos]

I still think 20mm is the way to go! Looove the Dark Future minis, and Matchbox size cars are cheap and easily convertable. Not to mention that the scale can also be played out on w/ some long roads, and not take up your entire house!