CWIN Vol. 1, No. 7
The Firing Range
2047-2048 AADA WDC Commentary

Updated August 05, 2000
Web Posted October 18, 1998

Please note one of CWIN's primary goals is to report and publish submitted from other Car Wars player, to be a neutral corner for debates. If you have comments on the AADA WC Event Reports, please address your correspondence to the duelmasters and racemasters of those events. If you also send your letters to CWIN, the magazine will gladly print your thoughts in a future newsletter.

Michael P. Owen
SWAT Webmaster and CWIN Editor
owenmp@hotmail.com
 

Sunday, September 20, 2048

Norman McMullen
NOVA President
drjake@ix.netcom.com

This year's AADA World Championships was plagued by mishandled referee tasks on all levels, especially the World Dueling Championship (WDC). Ever since the events where moved from GenCon to TactiCon there's been nothing but trouble with Mr. Deis (pronounced "dice") and his opinions on how best to run the events. He had no idea on how to run the World Racing Championship (WRC), hence NOVA took that chore without breaking a sweat.

Meanwhile, Mr. Deis went on to show disorganization, poor planning, use of antiquated rules, mistrust of all players, local players that didn't trust themselves or anyone else, and poor time management. Rule by committee has never worked, yet Mr. Deis tried it anyway.

It took four months to finalize the WDC format, only having to redo it thanks to a schedule change two months from the convention. Chaos reigned again, the E-Mail flying like a snowstorm. Luckily, this past, and after a few weeks, and some prodding, the event was ready  again.

On the Friday of TactiCon, during the Racing Preliminaries, Mr. Deis was busy preparing the stock designs for the Dueling Preliminaries (to be used) the next day. Then it took him and his crew the better part of an hour to set-up the Preliminary Round Arenas, all the while the participating players were made to wait.

The rules used were unmodified versions dating way back from the early ADQs, rules often filled with contradictions. Rulings could and did change hour from hour, even turn from turn, during the Preliminaries. The use of badly-mangled fire rules didn't help matters, giving the firebugs their fix. Sloping rules were ruthlessly enforced against the one-third space weapons limit.

The Tournament Point System was heavily enforced, especially in the Final Round. The No-Dropped-Weapon Zones were a disaster. The Checkpoints were placed along the edge of the upper level, making them exceedingly difficult to score. The reasoning for this placement escapes me. The Checkpoints themselves were 3/4" in size, and in the scale used for the Final that was quite small indeed. The targets could only be shot at from very small angles on the lower level, creating very difficult scoring possibilities.

Editor's Note: The 2047-2048 AADA WDC was performed in MatchBox/HotWheels Scale, where the standard scale of Car Wars is multipled by three, resulting in cars with dimensions 3" x 1.5".

Mr. Deis distrusted everyone in the tournaments, both players and duelmasters. His confidence in himself was nonexistent. Players in the Final WDC Round weren't allowed to move their own cars -- the person to the player's right moved the cars. The local players didn't trust themselves to eyeball moves, using blank counters to check moves before they move. Players couldn't go one phase without calling Mr. Deis into handle a situation of movement or combat in both rounds. This lack of confidence slowed down both tournaments to no end. In the Final Round for dueling, it took four hours to complete six turns. That's right, four hours to complete six turns, and that was after an hour delay for set-up. For the Final Round of Racing, the mapboards were brought in late.

The WDC Tournament suffered from poor time management. Mr. Deis and crew didn't plan properly for the task at hand and it showed. I wouldn't recommend Mr. Deis run another for several years. He and his Chapter need to mature and get their act together. We need a better set of rules in the form of a new, revised Compendium to advance the game forward.

In the Dueling Preliminaries you could submit up to three designs, but Mr. Deis would only check the first one. If it didn't pass inspection, he wouldn't check the other two, settling instead on correcting the first one. For the Final Dueling Round he checked all designs, but didn't correct design errors. This action meant last-minute changes, delaying the start of the Final Dueling Round.

During the Dueling Preliminary Robert was called from table to table, the players unable to handle problems by themselves. This again was a local problem. Robert needed roller skates to keep up with all the questions. In short, Robert was overwhelmed by the task at hand. There were even kids in the Dueling Preliminary. Can you say cannon fodder? Even though there were eighteen other duelists in the event, the kids were just padding.
 
 
 

Tuesday, September 22, 2048

Michael S. Fal
RMADA President
mfal@rentaudio.com

Dear CWIN,

The following is my own personal opinion, not the opinion of the RMADA.

With the recent letter to CWIN from the president of NOVA, I feel compelled, as a participant in both the preparation and playing of the 2048 World Championships, to write a suitable response. Mr. McMullen has made several statements about the World Championships that are in error and I would like the opportunity to point out these errors.

The first set of statements are in reference to the quality of organization of the WC's. Mr. McMullen states " . . . Mr. Deis went on to show disorganization, poor planning, use of antiquated rules, mistrust of all players, local players that didn't trust themselves or anyone else, and poor time management." In response to this, please look at the following facts involving the planning, organization, and time management of the World Championships. First off,  Mr. Deis took great care and time in setting up resources for players to access before the tournament.  Furthermore, he was available via E-Mail to anyone requiring further information. Secondly, the qualifying round started and ended within the real-time limit set by Mr. Deis before the match. This real-time limit was available in writing weeks ahead of time on the World Dueling Championships Web Site. The final round also ran within the allotted time limit, which was 30 seconds game time. This round took approximately seven hours to play, but this is more a reflection of the players than the referee. All of the players, including Mr. McMullen, took time and care in playing the game instead of racing around the board in a haphazard manner that might cost them the championship.

Looking at the issue of "mistrust" between players, I did not see any evidence of this anywhere at the World Championships. Mr. Deis expected that every table take care of themselves in the qualifiers, except in the cases of collisions. To be fair to each and every participant, Mr. Deis presided over every collision to make sure that each one was ruled correctly and consistently. In the final round, Mr. Deis asked each participant to move the car of the person to their left. The owner of the car would tell the person who was moving their vehicle how they wanted it moved and then the person moving the car would finalize the movement. This way "fudging" was avoided and errors were kept to a minimum.  Some might call this mistrust, but in a World Championship event, wouldn't you want to make sure everything was done right?

In reference to the rules, let us look at these following facts: (1) Mr. Deis went by rules printed in Car Wars Compendium Second Edition and all of the issues in ADQ (all of which were present at the event, along with an annotated index). If you go to the official Steve Jackson Games AADA Tournament Rules Web Site you will find the following under the heading Rules: "All AADA-Sanctioned competitions will be run using the rules found in the Car Wars Compendium, Second Edition (including the errata sheet), and any official rule changes or errata published in Autoduel Quarterly or the AADA Newsletter." (2) In order to clear up any contradictions as well as answer questions involving confusion with these rules, Mr. Deis set up a Web Site with the current FAQ involving these rules. The site is extensive, with questions ranging over every topic. Also, there were printed copies of this FAQ available at the tournament for players who either did not have a chance to view the site or perhaps wanted these questions handy.  Finally, if a player felt that there was an incorrect ruling, Mr. Deis stated at the beginning of the tournament that each player had five minutes to look up the rule in question. Mr. Deis took every effort to establish the specifics of the rules before the match and maintain them throughout the event.

The next issue involves the checkpoints and targets, which according to Mr. McMullen were set up in a difficult manner, "creating very difficult scoring possibilities." I'm sorry that Mr. McMullen wanted easy points, but this arena was made so a participant had to work to earn the championship. The checkpoints and targets were specifically placed in such a manner that to get one would involve difficult maneuvers.

The final issue I would like to address is one that I personally have a serious problem with:  the presence of "kids" in the dueling preliminaries.  First and foremost, let me quote this from the 2047 World Championship rules (run by Mr. McMullen of NOVA), followed by a quote from the 2048 World Championship rules:

"Rule 1: The 2047 World Championships will be an open tournament. Entrants need not be AADA members." (2047)
"Rule 1: The 2048 World Championships will be an open tournament. Entrants need not be AADA members." (2048)

I would like to point out that this first rule was not changed from the 2047 WCs to the 2048 WCs. I hope that Mr. McMullen was not suggesting that we ignore the first rule of the Tournament. I myself actually enjoyed the presence of young Tatsu at my qualifier table (even though he almost roasted me and two other duelists with his FOJ), especially since he had enthusiastically participated in a demonstration game I ran earlier that morning. I simply can not understand why we would not want them there, since I want more people to play what I think is a great game!!!! I will not limit this game to only the people I "feel" are acceptable, no matter what others may want. To look at it another way, the purpose of the World Championship Tournaments is singular: showcase Car Wars to attract new players. It is the hope of becoming skilled enough to compete for the WC (the fair, clean, fun, and serious aspects of that competition) combined with the spectacle of the World Championships that draws people in and makes Car Wars fun! If you don't want new players, then you're in the wrong place.

In closing, I must say that I'm disgusted with the level of personal attack found in Mr. McMullen's letter. This kind of childishness (bordering on slander) is uncalled for, considering the effort that we of the Denver-Boulder area went to in order to make every out-of-town guest feel welcome. On two different occasions (Thursday night before the actual convention and Sunday night, after the final round) we extended an invitation to the members of NOVA to join us for dinner. On both occasions the invitations were declined. To find that the hand we extended in friendship was bitten by fellow gamers is shocking in the least. Overall, though, it's not surprising, considering that for the two months preceding the tournament Mr. Deis had to continually deal with Mr. McMullen's belligerency over the rules. Furthermore, NOVA's Club Champion, Michael Garrity, felt is was necessary to bait and taunt Mr. Deis, surreptitiously disguising the whole affair as a "challenge." I must say I am disappointed in the NOVA Club as a whole and any sort of respect I had for them has been thrown into the back dumpster. I certainly hope that I don't have to put up with this kind of immaturity in future World Championship matches, but I'm not holding my breath. I offer my sympathy to whomever will be the referee of the 2049 World Championships, because no one should have to suffer through this.

Sincerely,

Michael Fal
RMADA President
 
 

Monday, September 21, 2048

Scott D. Orr
2047-2048 AADA World Dueling Championship Rules Committee
sdorr@ix.netcom.com

This year's Worlds was plagued by mishandled referee tasks on all levels, especially the World Dueling Championship (WDC) Ever since the events where moved from GenCon to TactiCon there's been nothing but trouble with Mr. Deis (pronounced "dice") and his opinions on how best to run the events. He had no idea on how to run the World Racing Championship (WRC), hence NOVA took that chore without breaking a sweat.

Actually, both Norm and Rob were members of the rules committee. Since there were disagreement over how to proceed, and rather serious concerns about Norm's previous efforts at refereeing, as a compromise we decided to let one group (NOVA) handle the Racing event and let another group (everyone else) handle the Dueling event.   Before that point, nearly all participants on the committee had expressed opinions about both events, and so it's a mischaracterization to say that anyone among us had "no idea" how to handle either.

Meanwhile, Mr. Deis went on to show disorganization, poor planning, use of antiquated rules, mistrust of all players, local players that didn't trust themselves or anyone else, and poor time management. Rule by committee has never worked, yet Mr. Deis tried it anyway. It took four months to finalize the WDC format . . .

This isn't at all the case.  The format was decided some months ago. The primary activity for the committee after that point was check over the rules to make sure everything was clear (see below).

. . . only having to redue it thanks to a schedule change two months from the convention.

This of course wasn't Rob's fault, but rather the convention's. It affected the Racing event in exactly the same way, and so if it's an
indication of Rob's incompetence, it indicates Norm's incompetence as well.

Chaos reigned again, the E-Mail flying like a snowstorm. Luckily, this past, and after a few weeks, and some prodding, the event was ready again.

I believe the "prodding" Norm is referring to here is the rather bemusing incident in which, some time after the format had been set (the second time), he suddenly announced with no warning that we were "out of time" and that he was dismissing the rule committee and taking over both events, which would be run under "NOVA rules." Someone at SJ Games pointed out that Norm didn't actually have the authority to do this, and he hasn't been heard from since, until the letter I'm replying to now.

On the Friday of TactiCon, during the Racing Preliminaries, Mr. Deis was busy preparing the stock designs for the Dueling Preliminaries (to be used) the next day.

Since the stock designs were submitted some weeks in advance, and playtested by Rob's group (I submitted one myself, and had some feedback on it, in fact), I'm not sure what Norm is referring to here.

Then it took him and his crew the better part of an hour to set-up the Preliminary Round Arenas, all the while the participating players were made to wait.

I wasn't there, so I can't comment.  I do know the arenas (with the big scale) were pretty elaborate, as is typical of the Worlds. Was the space available to Rob and his crew to start their set-up earlier?

The rules used were unmodified versions dating way back from the early ADQs, rules often filled with contradictions. Rulings could and did change hour from hour, even turn from turn, during the Preliminaries. The use of badly-mangled fire rules didn't help matters, giving the firebugs their fix.

The rules used were the most current ones, those in the latest edition of the Compendium. Unfortunately, those rules leave some ambiguities, and also fail to take into account earlier official rulings and even rules changes. Where the Compendium gave a rule on a subject, that rule was used. Where the Compendium was silent, the last official ruling was used -- Rob spent a considerable amount of time going through old ADQs to do this. Where no ruling was available, we looked at all the existing rules and extrapolated from there. We did all this before the tournament.

As each rules question was raised in the months before the tournament, the rulings were posted on the Web Site periodically advertised in Michael Owen's newsletter, so that no one needed be surprised by the rulings, and no one could accuse the referee of an arbitrary ruling that cost a match (which has been a problem at recent Championships). This procedure contrasts with the "make it up as you go along" approach, which, as I understand, is the approach favored by Norm.

Sloping rules were ruthlessly enforced against the one-third space weapons limit.

You would prefer perhaps that rules not be enforced?

The Tournament Point System was heavily enforced, especially in the Final Round.

I should hope so. What would the alternative be, awarding points at random?

The No-Dropped-Weapon Zones were a disaster.

How so?

The Checkpoints were placed along the edge of the upper level, making them exceedingly difficult to score. The reasoning for this placement escapes me.

It was to make them difficult to score. The thinking here was that if checkpoints were harder to get to, kills would be more important.

The Checkpoints themselves were 3/4" in size, and in the scale used for the Final that was quite small indeed. The targets could only be shot at from very small angles on the lower level, creating very difficult scoring possibilities.

Again, this was intentional. If it's not to your liking, that's okay.

Mr. Deis distrusted everyone in the tournaments, both players and duelmasters.

I think rather that Rob just wanted to make sure everything was completely fair, and not leave room for anyone to feel as if someone else had gained an unfair advantage.

His confidence in himself was nonexistent.

Compared to Norm's confidence in himself, I'm sure that this would be true of most of us.

Players in the Final WDC Round weren't allowed to move their own cars -- the person to the player's right moved the cars.

I'm not sure I'd do this, but it does make sense in removing one of the most complained-about problems in the game (people moving their cars slightly inaccurately to gain an unfair advantage), and it wouldn't take a lot more time than the standard way of doing things.

The local players didn't trust themselves to eyeball moves, using blank counters to check moves before they move.

Sounds like a good idea to me -- besides, if players want to do this, it's not illegal, so how was Rob to prevent it?

Players couldn't go one phase without calling Mr. Deis into handle a situation of movement or combat in both rounds. This lack of
confidence slowed down both tournaments to no end.

Well, that's what a referee is for. In a tournament, I don't want things happening without him watching.

In the Final Round for dueling, it took four hours to complete six turns. That's right, four hours to complete six turns, and that was after an hour delay for set-up.

I've seen six turns take that long, especially with a lot of competitors -- which was the case here because there were only two rounds rather than three (because the convention didn't give the event as much time as originally promised).

For the Final Round of Racing, the mapboards were brought in late.

That's certainly unfortunate, though as you're aware, the schedule was very tight.

The WDC Tournament suffered from poor time management. Mr. Deis and crew didn't plan properly for the task at hand and it showed.

As far as I know, this was the most planned Dueling Championship in history -- planned enough, in fact, that I had a pretty good idea how it was going to be run despite the fact that I wasn't there.

I wouldn't recommend Mr. Deis run another for several years. He and his Chapter need to mature and get their act together.

If I were the head of NOVA, I think I would be extremely hesitant to introduce the word "mature" into a comparative discussion of AADA chapters. In any case, Rob's AADA chapter wasn't responsible for the event, but rather Rob and the rules committee were.

We need a better set of rules in the form of a new, revised Compendium to advance the game forward.

I think we all agree on that.

In the Dueling Preliminaries you could submit up to three designs, but Mr. Deis would only check the first one. If it didn't pass inspection, he wouldn't check the other two, settling instead on correcting the first one.

If Rob had time to do this before the round (and you don't indicate he didn't, so I assume he did), this was obviously the best way to go, since it allowed everyone to run their first choice.

For the Final Dueling Round he checked all designs, but didn't correct design errors. This action meant last-minute changes, delaying the start of the Final Dueling Round.

I think that in the final round especially, people would really prefer to make their own changes -- and of course there's also less time for the referee to do it than would have been true for the first round.

During the Dueling Preliminary Robert was called from table to table, the players unable to handle problems by themselves. This again was a local problem. Robert needed roller skates to keep up with all the questions.

Perhaps the players wanted to make sure rules were followed? If something is contentious, I think I'd really prefer to ask the referee. And there would have been a lot new players in the first round, meaning more questions would come up in any case.

In short, Robert was overwhelmed by the task at hand.

I don't think Norm has given any indication of this.

There were even kids in the Dueling Preliminary. Can you say cannon fodder? Even though there were eighteen other duelists in the event, the kids were just padding.

Heavens to Betsy! Children playing Car Wars! God forbid should we train a new generation of players? If this convention was like all the ones I've ever been to, there were no age restrictions on normal gaming events, and hence the event referee had to deal with whomever showed.
 

Tuesday, September 22, 1998

Scott D. Orr
2047-2048 AADA World Dueling Championship Rules Committee
sdorr@ix.netcom.com

Michael,

I don't think this is just a "spat" between chapters, and while I think the idea of a club challenge is amusing, and perhaps a good way to blow off steam, it won't get rid of the rather serious issues that have been raised (even if, admittedly, some of those issues might not have been raised were if not for personal and club rivalries).
 
 
 

Wednesday, September 23, 2048

Michael P. Owen
SWAT Webmaster
owenmp@hotmail.com

Dear NOVA,

I do not understand one comment on your letter regarding the AADA WC. Why was the presence of young duelists and racers not a good idea? Yes, some little leaguers need more assistance when they play but when I duelmaster at Game Faire each April I usually have a few kids pound their opponents into the pavement.
 
 

Saturday, September 26, 1998

Norman McMullen
NOVA President
drjake@ix.netcom.com

Dear Michael,

Young Duelists at the Worlds: I commented on the kids at the Worlds because it bugged me to see them treated as cannon fodder or seat
warmers for the Dueling Worlds. These kids have just learned the game earlier in the day, so their experience was very little. Have them in
the Dueling Worlds was just using them as padding.

I'm pleased to see new young players get interested in Car Wars. But I'd like to know whose decision it was for them to enter the Dueling Worlds. Was it theirs or was it Deis' idea? One must wonder about it. I hope you understand my comments about the kids.

Take care.
 
 
 

Saturday, September 26, 1998

Michael P. Owen
SWAT Webmaster
owenmp@hotmail.com

Dear Norman,

I understand your thoughts on "kids" in the 2047-2048 AADA WC. I have assumed that both AADA WC Tournaments only permit experienced players. The Spokane Game Faire BattleTech Tournament only permits participants that know the rules intimately. Beginners are not allowed to enter the tourney however the organizers of the competition hold tutorial games for beginners. When you were critical about kids playing in the AADA WC, were you refering to a similar type of protocol used in the SGF BT Tourney, where only experience matters and anyone regardless of age can enter?
 
 
 
 

Sunday, September 27, 1998

Norman McMullen
NOVA President
drjake@ix.netcom.com

Dear Michael,

I said that I did not agree with kids participating in the 2047-2048 AADA World Dueling Championships. What I meant to say was having total novices playing in a tournament where most participants have been autodueling for many years was not a good policy. I am not against kids playing Car Wars at all, which as you say well Scott, are a major "player" in the future of Car Wars.
 
 
 

Wednesday, September 23, 2048

To: Steve Jackson <sj@io.com> and Car Wars Enthusiasts Everywhere
CC: Robert Deis <rdeis@io.com>, Michael P. Owen <owenmp@ior.com>

Ken Rehor
Independent Duelist
kendawg85@mindspring.com

First off I have to say that Car Wars is the greatest game known to mankind, and we are all better human beings for Steve Jackson having produced it! :) Personally, I've been playing Car Wars off and on since 1985, when I first bought the plastic "Pocket Box" Edition. In fact, I found it two weeks ago, shortly before the AADA World Championships. I also rediscovered my very first vehicle design at the same time. Quite horrid, I assure you, but it brings back some fond memories of trying to figure out the rules by myself and then trying to teach them to my friends, none of us having the slightest idea what we were doing. But we were having fun and there wasn't even beer involved! :)

Over the last 13 years, I've learned a lot about Car Wars, but I never had the chance to compete with the people I’ve read about in all those old ADQs: Heath Culp, Tim and Don Jacques, Norm McMullen, Mike Montgomery, Miles Messervy and countless others I can't remember. People who shaped the game into what it is today and without whom, Car Wars would have surely died a lonely death in the late 1980s . . . Until this year.

Finally! This year was my chance to compete in the AADA World Championships! Literally a dream come true!  (I admit it, I have weird dreams). I planned all spring and summer . . . wondering how things were going to work out, agonizing over whether to use paint or oil, Anti Tank Guns or Micro-Missile Launchers, all to naught. In the last phase of the last round of the Dueling Qualifier, my last shot breached the side armor of my opponent, only to hit his power plant instead of his driver. My hopes of continuing to the Final Round of Dueling dashed, yet not my spirits. Even though I realized I made incredibly stupid mistakes, and even though I absolutely hated it when everyone asked the Duelmaster to plot collisions, I had a great time!

Some have, quite vociferously, stated that it was the worst run tournament they had ever witnessed. Possibly. But to question letting kids into the tournament? Not cool. Kids are the building block of our future gaming. Yes, they are cannon fodder. So? Isn't everyone at one point in their dueling careers, real or fictional? In the Qualifying Round I participated in, we were all rather defensively minded, even timid. Certainly to differing degrees. I, for instance, had 30 rounds of ammo for my Micro Missile Launchers, and ended the match (18 rounds and 5 phases) with 20 rounds left over. Why wasn't I using that ammo? It's a question I continually ask myself. I was being a weakling, and didn't take any chances. Quite plain and simple.

Car Wars is a game of taking chances, risking it all to win big. Our duelmaster at the AADA World Dueling Championships had his hands full, what with Convention Management being quite flaky, and players being extremely demanding, yet managed to keep his cool. It's a task I did not envy him for. As for those that say it was poorly run. I issue a challenge. If you think you can do a better job, great! :) But let's see it. Mr. McMullen, you had so much to say, and I know you didn’t intend any of it personally, (I think I’m one of the few to see it that way), then why don't you run the next AADA World Championships at NukeCon in Omaha next year? You're definitely qualified, and in my opinion almost deserve to have such an honor, with all the time and effort you put into Car Wars . . . And besides, Omaha is heck of a lot closer to Denver than Milwaukee or Columbus is! :)

So there it is, my not-so-unbiased opinion on the AADA WC and an idea for next years as well. Though personally I'd rather see it back here in Denver. )

And for all you aspiring world champions out there . . . watch your back, there's a new guy in town, and I'm gunning for ya! :)

May your ramplate never fail and your aim always be true!
 
 
 

Wednesday, September 23, 2048

Michael P. Owen
SWAT Webmaster
owenmp@hotmail.com

Dear NOVA and RMADA,

The CWIN staff suggest that the best way to solve the differences between the two of your gaming groups is to take your frustrations to the battlefield. Michael "Arena Watch" Drennon has offered to design a new arena especially for a challenge match between both of your groups, if the both of you want to take your opposing views to the pavement. While the Division and type of environment (concrete, off-road, required jumping, etc.) will be announced the actual design of the arena will not be revealed until the actual running of the event. Please tell Michael when you want to crush each other and Michael will gladly create an arena as challenging and as deadly as the two of you will be to each other. What are fellow autoduelists for? :-)

Michael Drennon
Car Wars Internet Newsletter (CWIN) Arena Watch Editor
KidEgo999@aol.com

P.S. Michael is not interested in debating with NOVA or RMADA. Michael sees the conflict between the two of you as a wonderful opportunity for an awesome Car Wars game, the reason he has offered his arena design services to both of you. Please contact Mr. Drennon only about questions regarding the NOVA-RMADA Challenge Match. Thank you.
 
 
 

Monday, November 16, 2048

From: Eric Freeman <efreeman@physics.ucsd.edu>
To: CWIN <owenmp@serv.net>

Dear CWIN,

I originally had reservations about publishing the following, because I thought some of my comments may have been too negative. However, since then I've reconsidered. I'm not quite sure what you want to do with this report, all the principals involved (SJ Games, NOVA, RMADA) have seen it, but I felt it was important that the Internet Car Wars community get another unbiased report of the procedings. I've finally found the time to edit the report a little bit. I wanted to initially make it shorter, but couldn't find anything I really wanted to cut. I realize it comes a bit late, so whatever you decide to do with it is fine. It would really be a shame if a prospective duelist stayed away from a WC run by RMADA, because of comments made by NOVA.

Sincerely,

Eric Freeman
 

Hello all. My name is Eric Freeman and I had the pleasure of being a part of both the Dueling and Racing Car Wars World Championships held in Denver, CO. I'm from San Diego, CA, and though I've been playing (off and on) for over ten years, these were my first World Championships.

One of the things that motivated me to make the trip out this time was the effort I saw put forth by the Rob Deis and his Denver gaming group
to hammer out as many rule ambiguities and potentially difficult referee calls before the match even started.  They wanted to make sure that the Duelling event went a smoothly as possible, with a minimum of arguing. I appreciated how I could just go on the Web and see (a) how ambiguous things would be interpreted and (b) the exact setup of all the arenas to be used with specific interpretations on how the scoring would be done. In addition, if one had other questions about the event, one could E-Mail Rob Deis himself and get a ruling on the matter.

This effort alone assured me that the Dueling would be a well-run event and was the impetus to me making the trip. I've never been interested at all in Racing with Car Wars, but since I was making the trip, I decided to enter that event as well.

My first experience with Racing at these World Championships did little to change my preconceived notions of it. The Racing Championships
were being run by the group from Omaha, NE, NOVA. First off, I must temper my remarks by commenting that my overall impressions (slightly
negative) may just be a matter of how I react to racing in general and not to the way it was run.

Racing Preliminaries: NOVA put many restrictions on the preliminary round. Only two designs were available to be chosen. Both designs were
essentially identical, with one being clearly superior to the other. This left basically no options for the preliminary round. In NOVA's defense,
it probably wasn't very feasible to have custom cars in the preliminary round since it was held on Friday night, however it would have been nice to have more than one option or at the very least be able to change your armor and weapon location. The cars were started in a pack of two rows with cars one car length behind the row in front of it. Since we all had identical cars, it was impossible to pass anyone unless they made a mistake and crashed. The other thing that bothered me was changes to standard Car Wars rules that weren't elucidated until the middle of the match. Primary among these was the disallowance of mid-turn speed changes. This above all is crucial to a racing event and contributed to my disappointment. I found myself very bored for this 4 1/2-hour event and I wasn't too excited about being in the final the next day.

Some might complain about the fact that cardboard counters (as opposed to 3-D models) were used in the Racing prelims. Since the counters are light, they can easily be moved by accident. However, as a Car Wars player who still uses these counters on many occasions, it didn't bother me very much and in fact I got quite a few valuable ideas from NOVA as to how to maximize the use of the standard counters and mapsheets. Firing was not allowed until a lap was completed. We completed about a 1/4 of a lap before finishing at the time limit so no firing was allowed. Granted racing isn't about firing guns, but it certainly would have made things more interesting. Other than the changes to some
basic Car Wars rules, the refereeing job by Norman McMullen was solid. There were no calls in which I took exception to. Solid referring didn't
make up for a boring event though . . .

The Racing Final: The most notable thing about the final was the arena it was in. The arena provided by the hosts in Denver was in a word . . . stunning.  It was a Micro Machines (MM) model scale of the Ozark (I'm not sure of the name) Off-Road Arena. It had real dirt roads, painted water and pebbles to represent the boulders. The MM cars were also nice with many of the cars being real off-road models. In the Dueling Events, we were allowed to design our own cars, but there were serious limitations as to what we were allowed to use. This took a lot of fun out of designing a car. Again the bunched start and nearly identical cars made it difficult to pass anyone. However, since the cars weren't exactly identical, it made this event much better than the preliminaries. Norman dealt well with some difficult calls, and I thought overall did a solid job. One things that I didn't like was how the event was called on time instead of a specific ending place. There was a jump on the board that required cars to slow down considerably to not overshoot.  One could (a) stay at high speeds and hope that they didn't reach the jump before the time limit or (b) start slowing down such they can successfully make the jump.

Basically one who does tactic-a will always beat tactic-b if you don't make the jump before the time limit.  Tactic-b will always beat tactic-a if you do make the jump. One can guess where you will be by the time limit, but that is a decision I really didn't like to make. It seemed to me that it would be better to set a specific ending point and dictate that the first to that point wins.

Anyway, in a nutshell the final was better than the preliminaries, but I don't think I'll be doing any more racing unless it is run differently or I have nothing else better to do.

The Dueling Preliminaries: Again the setup provided by the Denver hosts was stunning. There were three identical boards, two in MM scale and one in Matchbox (MB) scale. The boards had paper mache columns and pillars that could be removed from the board so you could more easily use turning keys and calculate things. I really was pleased that we got to bring in your own vehicle in the preliminaries. If that had not been the case, I probably would not have made the trip. I wanted to win or lose driving my own design. There were many experienced players, so the boards ran themselves. Rob Deis came in to resolve any difficult things, specifically rams between cars. Since Rob was doing three boards at once, that sometimes meant you had to wait for his services, but those waits were not very long as far as I was concerned and the prelim was done in a very reasonable time period. We were done (I think) before the scheduled end time. The refereeing was excellent and I daresay the best I have been involved with after playing with several Car Wars groups. On difficult calls, Rob took the time to really try and make the right one and in my experience he often made the right call. On my board, there were five other people, four who I had become fast friends with over the last couple days and I have to say that was the most fun I have ever had playing Car Wars and I didn't even advance to the final. I learned some cool ideas that I will be carrying over into my CW games in the future. I found myself envious that those in the Denver group get to play quality opponents on a regular basis, but motivated to try to really get such a group together in San Diego.

The Dueling Final: Again the Denver group pulled out all the stops with a beautiful MB scale model of the arena they had designed. The
whole look of the arena was quite impressive. Things went a little slowly at first with the number of competitors and the complex things happening (jumps and the clipping of corners of ramps). The match seemed to run smoothly. Even though I wasn't even in the event, I found myself mesmerized by the action and couldn't pull myself away.

All in all, I was very pleased with my weekend in Denver, and will be very excited to go to another World Dueling Championship if the folks
in Denver have a hand in running the tournament. If they are involved, I can without reservation recommend the trip to any Car Wars player as a wonderful and unique Car Wars playing experience.

Sincerely,

Eric Freeman
(Dueling Code Name: DDT)