I ran this at StillCon 2010, and a number of players and spectators asked me to post up some tips on how to run such events. As promised, here it is.

Some Background

So back in the day, me and my gaming buddies started fiddling around with Car Wars. We loved the vehicular mayhem, but were frustrated with the size and scale of the game. The rules call for one-inch counters on a poster-size grid map, and while this was okay for a tabletop, if anyone breathed wrong all the teeny slips of paper would fly all over. Worse, because the counters were all top-down pictures of a car, none of the cars looked really distinctive. So the whole game got to be a blur, and we were nearly done with it when one guy had an epiphany.

What we decided to do was go 3D. An actual car glued to a properly sized base would be much cooler than just a little paper token. So while we were sitting around speculating, hopped up on Mountain Dew and Western Bacon Cheeseburgers, we speculated on what we could use. The first thought was micro machines (remember those?), but they were ever so slightly too large for a one-inch counter. And then we had the real breakthrough.

One guy finally made the mental connection that, since the CW rules worked both car size and movement off a scale that placed everything in increments of a single inch, the scale could be multiplied by any number to generate a new scale, creating a base unit of 1 "length" rather than 1 inch. That led us to the idea of using Hot Wheels cars, but the easiest length unit for them was 3 inches, which didn't divide evenly enough to be convenient. And then we decided on 1:24 scale model cars. The length unit became 8 inches (easily divisible), and the vast array of model cars available at local hobby stores made us giddy.

Accordingly, we implemented the new plan. We each bought a 1:24 scale model car, assembled it, and then went through our spare figure parts boxes for weapon-looking stuff to tack onto them. Since my parents' house had the biggest flattest driveway, I got made the unofficial GM, and Super-Scale Car Wars (for us at least) was born.

If the notion of playing Car Wars in 1:24 scale appeals to you, great! I've written this little guide with you in mind, and will attempt to explain how to get started. We'll jump right in.

The Car

The first thing you're going to want is some model cars (well, the first thing you'll need is a copy of the rules, which you can get here). Even if there isn't a very big game shop in your town, there's bound to be someplace that deals in plastic models (Hobby Lobby's not bad, and even Wal-Mart usually has a few, but there are several big online outfits that stock a truckload--just hit Google). When purchasing a model, keep a couple of things in mind. First, try and stay with cars. The way the rules of the game are set up, cars tend to be more efficient to build and play. Therefore, pickups and vans, while having the potential to look really cool, ought to be avoided at first.

Selecting a car model can be tricky. There's a good chance that everybody is going to want sports cars. That's great, but I'd encourage variety. A field full of Ferarris and Porsches, no matter how they're tricked out, is liable to look too uniform. In addition to the sports cars, I would recommend older cars (stuff from the 50's through the 70's -- big old boats and lean muscle cars). These look mean, and have lots of flat surfaces on them for turrets, weapon pods, etc. Additionally, stock car models can look really good (they've got all the roll cage stuff inside, and there's already only one seat), as do concept car models (the Stingray III, GT-90, and others). Concept cars have the added benefit of not being readily identifiable by anyone walking by your game, and they look futuristic which reflects the game's setting. Several model companies also make or have made a line of weird show car designs by the likes of Tom Daniel that look nothing like any other car (the driver's seat is centered, the car isn't symmetrical, or whatever). These are great, if you can find them (consider eBay if you're really desperate). Don't rule out the little cars either. There's little more satisfying than taking out a Cadillac with an upgunned Miata, and compacts add variety to the field. Above all, when selecting your car, be original.

The kits themselves don't have to be super detailed. Many buyers of plastic model kits are looking for detail, and that's what the companies cater to, but it's not necessarily what you should be looking for in a Car Wars model. Ease of assembly should be a high priority. There are a lot of good snap-together model kits out there. I've even seen players skip the kit step entirely, and buy a die-cast car from a toy store. Such cars are available at most toy stores, and many are 1:24 scale. This is also the only way to get 1:24 scale motorcycles that I've ever seen.

Assembly and Accessorizing

When assembling your model, be aware that you will be handling it often. Some kits have opening hoods, trunks, and even doors, and I suggest gluing those down so they don't flap around in transit or during the game. Gluing it all down also makes painting the body easier -- you can spray the whole thing at once rather than painting the individual pieces and then trying to put them together without getting glue all over the stuff you've already painted.

Speaking of glue, avoid the classic Testors glue in the orange or blue tube. It takes a long time to dry, which can be a hassle, and the bond it creates breaks down over time in strange ways. I suggest a good CA (that's cyanoacrylate) glue.

When assembling the model feel free to skip steps. If you're gluing the hood down you needn't feel obligated to assemble the engine; you're never going to see it, after all. In most cases, the engine is not critical to the structural integrity of the model (I recall a persnickety Lotus Esprit model that had no place to mount the back wheels unless the engine was present -- though this is the exception rather than the rule). Additionally, the engine pieces can be used later when putting weapon mounts on your car. Cylinder heads especially make neat dropped weapon dispensers. The engine isn't the only thing you can skip. Most vehicles for Car Wars have only one crewman, and no room for any others, so leave out the passenger seat (as long as it doesn't leave an unsightly hole to do so). If you are going to tack extra pieces of sheet plastic over the windows, don't bother putting the clear plastic ones in. The same is true for ramplates -- if you're planning to put a big piece of sheet plastic over the front end, don't worry about putting the grille on. Be creative, and let your creativity save you assembly time.

Once the car is more or less together, go ahead and stick weapons on it. If you've been collecting tabletop wargaming figures (and really, who hasn't?), you probably have a bit box where you stash all the stray parts and extra bits that come with those sorts of figures. Bit boxes are gold mines to the creative super-scale player. Anything can become a gun, and if not a gun, just a nifty looking accessory. Don't forget any spare parts that were left over from the model kit (like cylinder heads and carburetors), and if you collected the old three-inch G.I. Joes (and really, who hasn't?), their weapons and equipment are readily cannibalized (especially if you've still got any of the vehicles). Again, be creative.

What's that? You don't play tabletop stuff, your mom thought G.I. Joe was a tool of Satan, and you bought one of those pesky Lotus Esprit models that require full assembly? Don't fret, help is available, it will just take a little longer. Good hobby stores ought to carry a selection of plastic sheet and tube stock, from which weapons can be scratch-built. Certain model companies that specialize in military stuff, notably DML, make packs of weapons, some of which are ideal. You could also go in with your friends and buy a couple of tank models, from which you can cannibalize the weapons (not just the big cannon, either -- most tank models have several secondary machineguns and launchers which are a little more to scale). The turret on the Sixgun (shown to the right) is built from the commander's turret of an M-60 tank model sporting a scratchbuilt gatling cannon cut from ordinary tube stock. The front fenders on the Monster (at the top of this article) are the side skirts from an M-8 armored car.

Things to keep in mind when mounting weapons center mainly on a familiarity with the rules. I try to build models with a specific design in mind, and then try to stay true to the idea when designing the actual car. That way, everybody has some idea what everybody else has mounted on their car just by looking at the model. Ergo, I would counsel against turning your model into a rolling arsenal. Mount the number and type of guns you think you'd like the car to have, and then design it accordingly when its time to play.

Once the model is totally together, you'll need to mount it on a base, which for super-scale cars will be eight inches long, and four inches wide. Bases can be made of anything as long as the material is good and stiff, and somewhat resistant to the elements (and has straight edges). Plywood works well, though without power tools it can be difficult to get it cut straight. Illustration board (really thick cardboard with one nicely finished side) works very well, and is available at art or blueprint supply stores. Illustration board doesn't have the resilience of plywood, but it doesn't need to be painted (or sanded, for that matter), and can be easily cut with a hobby knife. I avoid regular corrugated cardboard, as for play purposes it's just not resilient enough. Once you've decided what you want to mount your car on, and have a piece cut to the right size, center the car on the base and glue the tires down. Once dry, you have a model car ready for play.

Counters

We've already discussed weapon mounts for the models, but we need to address template weapons now. Most dropped weapons, and certain dischargers and the like, leave counters behind indicating a patch of oil, a pile of spikes, or whatever. The Car Wars rules come with several sheets of such counters, in all varieties, to be cut out and used when needed. You will need to make new counters in super-scale: the typical options measure either 4"x8" or 4"x4" in this scale, depending on the weapon. Counters can simply be cut out of posterboard and have the name of the counter written in big letters across it (SPIKES, MINES, OIL, SMOKE, etc.). If you've got a table saw or some other way to make nice straight cuts, you can also pick up whiteboard material from a home improvement or school supply place, cut it to the proper size, and then write the token type in dry-erase marker; that's a nice way to be able to do lots of different kinds of counters without needing to make and store them all.

Or you can get creative. This is a visual game, after all, why not go all the way? Oil counters can have a large black blotch colored on them in magic marker. Smoke could be a grey blotch (or a semi-contoured cloud, as shown on the left). Mines and spikes can go one of two ways. Keeping them two-dimensional makes them easy to move models across, but taking them into 3D makes them look more imposing. 2D spikes can be represented by sticking several foil stars to each counter, while 3D spikes can be done by getting several packs of cheap plastic jacks from the local bargain store, cutting off one arm so they lay flat on the counter, and gluing them down (painted or not as you see fit). Mines can be easily represented by washers glued in a random pattern on the counter. Hardware stores carry a vast array of the things. Some are flat and some are not. Go see what's available and decide for yourself what you think looks best. Whatever you decide to use, try not to put more than three or four stars, jacks, washers, or whatever on each counter so they don't get too cluttered. You should also write in small letters along one side of the counter what it represents, to avoid confusion.

There are two types of dropped weapon that deserve separate attention; flaming oil and ice. Ice is fairly easy. Your local craft store should carry sheets of adhesive-backed silvery prismatic stuff. This can be easily cut to the size of the counter and stuck down. Flaming oil can be a little tricky. The best way I've found to deal with it is to stick a little piece of adhesive magnet (the stuff they make refrigerator magnets out of) in the center of each oil template. I also have a bunch of firebursts cut out of red posterboard with a little metal washer glued to the underside. If the oil is on fire, I stick the fireburst to the magnet. If not, no fireburst. That way, flaming oil is easy to distinguish from regular oil, and I don't have to make an entirely different set of counters for the two.

You will also need counters to represent pedestrians (in case a driver bails out of a flaming wreck), Debris (bits left behind when cars take damage), and Obstacles (lost wheels, large amounts of bits left behind when cars take lots of damage, etc). I haven't determined a decent way to do these -- 1:24 scale people are in short supply (though the G.I. Joe figures whose gear you cannibalized make passable pedestrians), and while you could glue engine blocks, stray doors, tires, or whatever to your debris and obstacle counters, I don't. The reason I don't is that they usually come into high demand (lots of cars lose lots of bits in a duel), and so I need a big stack of them. For these three types, I just write the name in big letters on the counters so they are easily identifiable.

When doing your counters remember one thing: Be creative, but don't spend a fortune. Make counters as you think you'll need them -- if no one in your group ever uses a minedropper, don't bother making the counters for it.

The Playing Field, and Moving On It

Each car is mounted on an eight-inch-long base, and eight inches becomes the scale "length" (standard measurement for movement). This can pose a problem when looking for a playing surface: a super-scale car traveling at 50 mph will move 40 scale inches across the field in a turn (just over three feet). The minimum size playing area for SSCW is a square 20-25 feet across. 30 to 40 feet works better, as there's more maneuvering room, but the smaller one will work if there's absolutely nowhere else to play. Gym floors and hotel dance floors are ideal, with dorm hallways and common rooms coming in a close second, but the parking lot of your local game shop will work fine. Parking lots, outdoor basketball courts, and the like have the added advantage of chalkability (you can draw dropped weapon counters with chalk rather than having to make them) but the disadvantage of comfort, as sitting on the ground in a parking lot can be surprisngly dirty.

You will need some sort of marker to delineate the boundaries of the field. I got some bricks, painted them a friendly caution yellow, and use them to mark the corners. Bricks have worked well for me, as they are big enough to be seen, and heavy enough to not be "accidentally" nudged aside by a player whose car is on a collision course.

The easiest way to work movement is with a ruler. Tape measures work for calculating ranges, but moving cars is easier with a yardstick. I got a bunch of them (so each of my players could have one, and not fight over them) at a local school supply store, and marked them in eight inch increments. That way, the car can just be moved from mark to mark and has moved one length and no counting or math is involved. You will also need to make at least one super-scale turn key. This is best done with thick cardstock, or the illustration board we mentioned earlier. Foam-core presentation board isn't bad either, but is extremely brittle, which makes it vulnerable to damage from being dropped or slid around. You're going to be handling the turn key a lot, so it's a good place to really think about your material. Whichever way you go, one poster sized sheet will make one key, and you will need a protractor to mark the turns correctly. Make each flat side measure 8 inches, mark it the same way the stock turn key is marked, and you're ready to go.

Targeting, Wrecks, and Other Mayhem

Earlier, I mentioned a tape measure. You will need one for SSCW, preferably one at least 25 feet long. You will use it to measure ranges from car to car when calculating targeting modifiers (remember to multiply the range bands listed in the book by eight).

When a car wipes out, be careful. It is tempting to go ahead and turn a car that has gone into a roll onto its top, and this does look cool, but it can knock things off the model, and keeping the models nice is the key to long-lasting enjoyment of the game. Estimate whether or not the car will be drivable, or even intact, when it finally comes out of its roll, spin, flip, or whatever, and if it is not likely to survive the crash, just remove the model from the field.

Another option is to leave the model on the ground, move it as it would given the uncontrolled maneuver it is executing, and place a marker next to it indicating what is happening to it. Alternately (and this is my favorite) take one of your old car models (you know, the one you got for your birthday when you were ten that didn't get assembled very well), give it a good whack with a hammer, glue the wreckage to a 4x8 base, and make it the official "wipe-out" counter. Replace your model with the wipe-out counter as needed.

Other Scales

I've wondered over the years about using other scales, and there are certainly options. On balance, if I had it to do over again I'd give heavy consideration to 1:32 scale models, on bases measuring 6" x 3". There are still a fair number of cars available at this scale (though the really odd-quirky-cool ones won't be there), but on the flip side this opens up the 1:35 scale stuff as well, which is the common military scale, so you'd have access to all those assorted resources. Is that enough to justify the move? I'm still torn.

"Matchbox Scale" is equally doable, and much more playable on an actual table (saving the backs of us out-of-shape old gamers out there). It'd take a base length of 3" x 1.5", so the measuring wouldn't be as simple, but ease of play is a major factor. A big strike against this is that Matchbox cars are stupid-hard to modify. You'd have to tear the car apart to repaint it, and there's no guarantee it would get back together decently. Of course, if WYSIWYG Car Wars isn't something you feel you need, this can be fun.

More?

I'm happy to discuss pacing, rules variations (or ways the rules can be tweaked when you've got lots of players at once), troubleshooting, or anything else Super Scale over in the Wargaming forum. Hit me!