"Car Wars Divisions" Topic

I'm getting back into the classic game. I recall something about Divisions. Anyone know how they came up with those and what they were?

They were based off the cost of the cars.

Division 5 meant you could spend a maximum of $5,000 USD on your vehicle…this included ammo, body armor/personal weapons for the driver and/or gunner, etc.

Division 10 meant a maximum of $10,000, and so on.

Traditionally, they were in multiples of 5…ie, Division 5, Division 10, Division 15, etc.

There was one special class of Division called Unlimited…you could spend as much money as you liked.

Amatuer Night fell outside of the Division format, but since Amatuer Night was for rookies, and the cars involved were cheap anyway, it was all good.

Ah, easy enough. Thanks, evilmike.

Oh this brings back fond memories of graph paper arenas and drivers running for shelter.

IIRC Division 30 was the highest step before Unlimited, at least for cars (as opposed to tanks, etc). Beyond that, you could buy virtually anything a single vehicle could carry anyway, so Unlimited made sense.

Div 5 had you driving dangerously fragile tinkertoy cars, Div 10 was good for compacts and subs, Div 15 (my favorite) gave you enough of a budget for a variety of good mid-sizes, while 20 and 25 saw luxes, pickups, and vans competing more often than not. Quite different experiences as I recall – good to mix it up and play them all for variety.

Man, this really makes me miss Car Wars, but especially the old Origin Systems computer version, 'Autoduel.'

Remember having it for my Commodore 64 back in the day, and man, I played the hell out of that game. I think the only games I logged more hours in were EA's 'Mail-Order Monsters,' Interplay's 'Wasteland,' and, of course, Firebird's 'ELITE,' which was easily the one game I played more than any two others combined (excluding possibly Autoduel, MOM, and Ultimas III and IV. Any combo of those five might rival it, or even possibly slightly edge it out.)

Looking back on it, I can see a lot of where my future love of wargaming was echoed in that some of that list.

Is there a current-release version of Car Wars or Autoduel out there, or are legacy versions our only option these days?

- Monk

The last edition is about a decade old. I think SJG still has plenty, thanks to a shipping and communications snafu that killed the relaunch early.

Removed from Carlist Wars board

Okay, THAT's funny.

The original Divisions were 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and Unlimited. Vehicles costing more than $100,000 were not permitted in Unlimited events.

When Volume 5, Number 1 of Autoduel Quarterly was published in spring 1987, these seven Divisions were replaced with the current set: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 80 and 100.

Car Wars Expansion Set #4: Armadillo Autoduel Arena had a detailed explanation of the AADA Divisional system.

Classic Car Wars products (Fourth Edition) are being made available by Steve Jackson Games on the e23 Web site. Some Fifth Edition books are still available from the Warehouse 23 Web site. Links to both these stores can be found on one of my Web site's pages.

SWAT HQ – Steve Jackson Games Resources – Car Wars
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If you look on other pages of my Web site, you should find a few links to Car Wars materials on the Web.

SWAT HQ
link