Gaslands compared to Car Wars

Gaslands is much simpler than Car Wars in some ways. The record sheets for the cars are much more streamlined, it doesn’t have the bloat of components that are available, it uses special dice, and it has templates instead of a turning key.

Instead of the detailed record sheets from Car Wars with the armor locations by side and all the components represented with hit points, the Gaslands sheets seem very simple. They have Hull Points which replaces the armor and components, and the weapons are simply noted.

The Gaslands rules allow for 11 vehicles and 21 weapons. This isn’t far off of where the original pocket boxes were for Car Wars. Car Wars soon added all the Uncle Al’s Catalogs, and later editions for more variations in components by weight and spaces. In the pre-spreadsheet days, it was a bit more of a challenge to fine-tune a car.
One simple rule that Car Wars always had (in the first and fifth edition rules) was the ‘drop the counters from a foot off the board’ rule for collisions. I hated that rule. I much preferred the (granted more complex) rules from the Car Wars Rules Screen. Gaslands has rules for collisions that are simpler than the CW screen but still have enough meat on them to still satisfy.

Where Car Wars just used regular six-sided dice, Osprey has six-sided dice with special faces. You can purchase them directly from the author, make your own, or even use regular D6s and consult a chart. Considering the amount of dice rolling in this game, I recommend buying or making the specialty dice.

The original Car Wars had a turning key to make maneuvers. It took a little bit to get used to but it was elegant once you learned it. Gaslands has many multiple templates for maneuvers but people may be less intimidated as they are now familiar with this from X-Wing, and Wings of Glory. These can be bought or made but are definitely needed in order to play. There is a copy in the back of the rulebook and can be printed out from the website.

While waiting for the new Car Wars edition

We played a lot of Car Wars back in the day. I played from the original pocket box sets, through the bloated 4th edition. We spent a lot of time designing cars. We played at conventions and even ran races and arenas at conventions. I played through the Convoy solo adventure a few times. I still play the Car Wars Card game.
I even played the old video game on my Apple IIc.

Even though we don’t play as much anymore, I had picked up the 5th edition booklets when I found out about them and we actually played a game of it – upsized at WinCon.

We also played a bit of Games Workshop’s car game, Dark Future. I have Avalon Hill’s RoadKill but didn’t ever manage to play it. I never played Thunder Road but would pick it up if I find it.

There is a new version of Car Wars in the works which should be out shortly. I’ll most certainly pick it up when it comes out. I’m still in the target market for it.

In the meantime, I picked up Gaslands by Osprey. It seems very simple compared to Car Wars but still interesting enough to give it a try. I’ve already picked up some cars to use, and will need to make dice and templates before we can try it. It should be fun enough to keep us busy.