Gen Con 2016 - Steve Jackson Games - Car Wars 6th Edition

While I was at GEN CON last week, I got a chance to speak with Phil Reed, the CEO of Steve Jackson Games. I had learned prior to the convention that the date had moved out for the release of the 6th edition to 2017, which I found as good and bad news. The bad was just the little kid in me that wanted it now, and the good is that being patient will give us a cool fully play-tested functional game. The “I want it now” has been smacked down by my wiser, “Be Patient Dummy!!!”self.

I wanted to learn and hear about the upcoming changes to look for in the new edition, and Phil filled me in on some of what we should expect.I think there are a lot of cool modifications coming that are going to make this game even better than previous editions, and I am super excited to see this new version of Car Wars!!!

CAR WARS

So before I go into the interview, I went and pulled all the details together that Phil wrote in his August 1st newsletter.

“We continue to work on Car Wars, and at the moment we can report that:

The game features twelve different factions: six wasteland factions and six arena factions. Each faction represents a gang, corporation, outlaw group, or other organization within the Car Wars world.
There are three points of entry into the Car Wars game: The two-player Wastelands Starter, the two-player Arenas Starter, and the four-player Car Wars game. A player may buy any one of those and start playing immediately, and buying all three allows up to eight to play at once.
From wheels to machineguns, Car Wars sixth edition is a new game. Everything from combat to maneuvering to vehicle design was designed to get players into combat within moments of sitting down at the table. The driving goal behind the overall creative process is best summed up with three words: Cars. With. Guns.
Car Wars sixth edition features plastic car miniatures at HO scale. Miniatures are included in the three games as well as in faction-specific expansion sets. At the moment, it looks like one faction pack – loaded with three plastic miniatures, several new game cards, and whatever tokens are required to use the cars in combat – will cost players $19.95. That’s a lot of new options at a low price!
James Lowder, established author and editor with decades of experience in and out of the game industry, is at work on the first anthology of new stories set in the Car Wars sixth edition world. It is 2117, and this book tells a dozen tales, each centered on a different faction. Additionally, the anthology will include twelve new game cards so that players can incorporate bits of the stories into their game sessions.
We are taking both the Car Wars anthology and the new game to Kickstarter, and the two projects will connect. The fiction project is first, and backers of the Car Wars anthology project who also back the game on Kickstarter will receive special bonus cards when they receive their rewards.
Additionally, we will offer special retailer reward levels for both projects. We will release information through our retailer newsletter once the projects launch on Kickstarter.”

And here is the interview that I did in the Exhibitor Hall with Phill Reed during GENCON 2016 last week:

So after the interview Phil let me get a little peek of the prototype version of the game, well he showed me the box, it was sitting on the table…. for like for 60 seconds. If you want to see what is inside the box, Phil put together some descriptions and pictures on BGG, and you can use this link to see them: Playtests

Thanks for Reading! I will be very happy when I am able to finally play this new version of Car Wars. Vrrrooooom!!!!

~Michael