Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Let's Talk Sixth Edition!

Turbo Turret
Turbo Turret
No, not D&D this time... CAR WARS.

Did I fool you?

Steve Jackson Games brought a bunch of their Car Wars Classic reprints to Gen Con this year and apparently sold out in the first day. I'm sure they are kicking themselves that they didn't bring at least 2 to 3 times more product. This was not the "Sixth Edition" promised in the OGRE Kickstarter, but was a reprint of Classic from the early 90's (which is considered revision 2.5?).


Unfortunately, the actual "Sixth Edition" revision of Car Wars is likely a year or two off. Some of us are hoping for 2015, but the likelihood is 2016 at this point. The good news at least is that they are working on it right now and long time Car Wars designer Scott Haring is spear-heading the effort.

Sting Rod II
Sting Rod II
While no solid details have been announced, the current discussion is around presentation of the future product. A lot of people (myself included) don't think 1-inch cardboard flats are going to cut it anymore and are hoping for 3D vehicles. Parallels have been made with the X-Wing presentation and business model and a number of us are pulling for a "starter set" with several vehicles which would allow a 4 player game out of the box.

Scale also plays a huge consideration. Hot Wheels 1/64 scale (3 inches) is too big for most dining room tables, but original scale (1 inch) is thought to be too small to have any "wow" factor in a crowded board game market. Two inch scale would seem to be the logical choice, but that would almost certainly mean Steve Jackson would have to arrange the manufacturing of toy vehicles at that size for the game, which would negatively impact the price point.

Enforcer
A lot of the conversation is in the Kickstarter-only super secret forum, but updates do trickle out to the standard Car Wars forum... so take a look if you are interested.

We're still a long way off, but I'm excited at the prospects especially given that I've acquired several Hot Wheels that are making me want to play again... Turbo Turret, Enforcer and Sting Rod II. I didn't even know these existed a couple months ago!

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