05-27-01

HADES plays its first 9x duel. The Havoc (left) versus the Defiant (right) in a one-on-one Division 30 exhibition.

This match was mainly to work out the bugs of adapting CarWars to a larger scale. My backyard was the battlefield. Both cars started roughly 40 feet apart. No weapons fire occurred until the third turn when the Defiant cut loose with all five MGs. Neither driver could accurately judge distance at the larger scale and the shots all missed. Both cars fired on the fourth turn, with the Havoc's HMGs answering the Defiant's MGs. The Defiant's stripped 22 points of armor from the Havoc's front, while the Havoc's HMGs only took eight points off the Defiant's front. Both cars accelerated on the fifth turn as the distance between the cars diminished rapidly. The Defiant lost twenty more points of armor, while chipping thirteen points from the Havoc's front. The Havoc lost ten points of right side armor to the Defiants turret MGs as the cars passed each other.

The Havoc screamed around in a tight bend to bring its guns to bear on the Defiant. The Defiant was still recovering handling points and eased into a gentle turn to line up another pass. Both cars swung around for a head-on firefight. The Havoc lost another 13 points of front armor before chewing through the Defiant's front MGs and two-thirds of the drivers IBA. The Defiant's driver quickly shut off his plant and radioed his surrender.

Lessons learned:

Lets look at the designs.

Havoc: Sedan w/CA frame, Large Plant w/SCs, Driver, PR Radials, 5xHMGs (blow-thru concealed) front, SD rear, HR SWC, 217 pts plastic armor.

Defiant: Sedan, Large plant w/PCs, Driver, Solid Tires, 3xMGs front, 2xMGs in 2-sp turret (all loaded with 15 rds. HD ammo), Imp. Fire Ext., HD Brakes, HD Shocks, HR Comp, 180 points sloped plastic armor.

Average Damage: Havoc: 10D-10. Defiant: 5D+5.
The Havoc's HMGs have an average damage of 5, while the Defiant's HD-loaded MGs have an average damage of 4.5. If the Havoc had carried 10 rounds of HD ammo per gun instead of 20 rounds of standard, the game would have ended much sooner. If the Defiant had carried Incindiary ammo, the Havoc would most likely have been on fire by turn 4.

Both cars had acceleration 5, with similar top speeds (Havoc 95, Defiant 90). The Havoc had a slight edge on handling with radial tires to the Defiant's solids.

The biggest difference in armor protection came from the Defiant's need for heavier top armor to protect the turret. Given that the turret guns were only used to fire outside the front arc one time, the weght, space and cost of the turrent could have been better spent elsewhere.

The Havoc is designed for fighter-style tactics. In an arena with multiple opponents, the driver would be forced to turn constantly to keep targets in his sights. The CA frame also makes rams a suicidal move.

Nine-scale observations:

Long-range weapons will be appearing more often, as the larger battlefield makes RGMs and WGMs viable weapons.

We need to convert the range charts to nine-scale to make range calculation easier. We measured the distance between the cars in inches, then divided the distance by 9 and used the regular charts this time.

The increased scale and freedom of movement made the game much more fun than the usual paper maps and counters. No worrying about bumping the table or curious housecats.

The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the Car Wars system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games. Car Wars is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.