Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

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CADmonkey
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Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by CADmonkey » Fri Sep 01, 2017 6:09 pm

Car Wars is a game my friends and I tried to play when we were kids in the 80's, and utterly failed to wrap our heads around the complexity of the rules. Since then I've had a love/hate relationship with Car Wars: loved the idea, hated the implementation.

As a result, I follow "vehicular combat" miniatures game blogs a bit, and what should I spy?

Gaslands, a "post-apocalyptic vehicular combat" game that Osprey will be publishing in November.

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Shoot, ram, skid and loot your way through the ruins of civilisation with Gaslands, a tabletop wargame of car-on-car destruction in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Players control small fleets of armed vehicles in battles for resources, dominance and survival. With rules for multiple vehicle types (from motorbikes to big rigs), varied special weapons and accessories (including oil slicks, caltrops and nitro boosters), and a host of options for scenarios, environmental conditions, crew and campaigns, players can tailor games to match their own visions for an anarchic future.
Looks like it's a Car Wars style game (but not as complex!) played with converted hotwheels/matchbox cars on tabletop. Here's some photos from a game the author ran at Salute 2017:

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Skimming through the design blog, it looks like the game will have a vehicle design system, factions & a campaign system. And skimming through the Gaslands twitter feed, it looks like the game will use X-Wing style movement templates:

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I’ve been buying hotwheels & matchbox cars for a while with the thought of converting them for "vehicular combat" gaming. This might be the kick in the arse I need to get started on that...

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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by Tzan » Fri Sep 01, 2017 9:41 pm

I played a bit of Car Wars back then.
Also the board game Battle Cars.

In the mid 90's I combined MicroMachines + Traveller 15mm lead figures + BattleCars to make a table top skirmish + RPG + GeoHex terrain.

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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by Quantumsurfer » Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:44 am

Played some myself way back when. I also love the idea and have mucked about with various game designs of my own over time. Mostly using hotwheels. So, right up my alley. Thanks. :D

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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by CADmonkey » Sat Sep 02, 2017 4:51 pm

Tzan wrote:In the mid 90's I combined MicroMachines + Traveller 15mm lead figures + BattleCars to make a table top skirmish + RPG + GeoHex terrain.
Quantumsurfer wrote:I also love the idea and have mucked about with various game designs of my own over time. Mostly using hotwheels.
Yeah, there's a lot of homebrewed "Not Car Wars" out there. Ironically, I found out about Gaslands through the tumblr of a Car Wars/Dark Future/Battlecars fan who wrote his own homebrewed "post-apocalyptic vehicular combat" game: Axles and Alloys.

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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by stubby » Sat Sep 02, 2017 11:26 pm

CADmonkey wrote:homebrewed "post-apocalyptic vehicular combat" game: Axles and Alloys.
I shed a dadjokely tear for whoever named that. That is beautiful
Natalya wrote:Wtf is going on in this thread?

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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by CADmonkey » Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:45 pm

stubby wrote: I shed a dadjokely tear for whoever named that. That is beautiful
Coop has a Rogue Trader era sense of humour. The current version of the rules is called Axles and Alloys II: Dork Future.

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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by CADmonkey » Sat Dec 02, 2017 4:51 pm

Here's an interview with Mike Hutchinson, the author of Gaslands: Meeples & Miniatures – Episode 235 – Gaslands. The interview begins at about 45 minutes.

Good interview by the sounds of things. I didn't quite follow the description of the movement rules but they sound like they could be interesting. The shooting rules sound like another variant on the Full Thrust beam cannon rules (though a little different from Axles and Alloys). And I heartily agree with Hutchinson's comments about campaign rules and especially the Necromunda-style injury rules that people always say they want, even though no-one actually likes them in play. I've tried running a few wargaming campaigns & leagues, and they all* fell apart when players found themselves falling behind with no possibility of catching up.

I have a copy of the Gaslands pdf now, and I'll be reading through the rules soon.


*with one notable exception: there was a Heavy Gear Duelling league which I repeatedly rebooted with new houserules as one of the players kept abusing the team creation rules and bringing utterly broken teams that ruined everyone else's fun to the games. Years later, that munchkin player revealed to me that he had been a playtester on the HG Duelling supplement we were using, and had warned the publishers about all the loopholes he had found prior to publication. But apparently he didn't see fit to discuss this with me as I was trying --and failing-- to get that duelling league started. :x :roll:

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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by Quantumsurfer » Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:41 pm

Let us know what you think of the ruleset.

Sorry about the munchkin. Been there. Never with a playtester, but still.

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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by BFenix » Wed May 09, 2018 5:05 pm

When looking for games like this I stumbled upon Car Wars, Dark Future, Thunder Road, etc... But the first one, after some digging and taking a glimpse at the rules, hasn't stood up aswell and does't seem as accessible. Dark Future sounds awesome but is dead and has minis of its own (not that that should stop anyone but meh)(also has a video game coming soon on Steam) and Thunder Road, despite looking super fun, is pretty linear and kinda expensive to get right now.

So, the rulebook is pretty cheap and has all the resources you need to play (also check out the other stuff Osprey publishes. Great military books and other games) and I still had a bunch of cars and 1/64 scale vehicles from when I was a kid. Add that to a fresh and sprawling community and yeah, Gaslands.

My rulebook arrived right after I came to the US, so unfortunately haven't gotten the chance to go through it in detail yet. However, I've also been dwelling in the FB groups (awesome HW and MB car mods there) and YT, especially The Battlehammer and James Hall Miniatures which gives a pretty good idea of how the game plays out and how to modify the minis.

Can't wait to try it out, build some wacky vehicles and demo it out back home!
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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by BFenix » Sun May 13, 2018 4:25 am

New material! https://gaslands.com/tx/

War Rigs and scenarios :overwatch:
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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by Steel_Valkyrie » Mon May 14, 2018 4:17 pm

Somewhat unrelated, but the now-dead 40k spinoff game GorkaMorka can be found, in it's entirety, online, it's similar.

Also, any brikwarriors interested in Wasteland Weekend? I'm looking at going September 2019
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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by BFenix » Mon May 14, 2018 6:32 pm

Steel_Valkyrie wrote:Somewhat unrelated, but the now-dead 40k spinoff game GorkaMorka can be found, in it's entirety, online, it's similar.

Also, any brikwarriors interested in Wasteland Weekend? I'm looking at going September 2019
Interested? Absolutely.

Financially capable? Mediocre.
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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by Steel_Valkyrie » Mon May 14, 2018 9:23 pm

At some point, I might mash GorkaMorka and brikwars into some unholy amalgamation.
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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by BFenix » Tue May 15, 2018 12:35 am

Steel_Valkyrie wrote:At some point, I might mash GorkaMorka and brikwars into some unholy amalgamation.
Do it!

I've had to plans to make something like that in Hellius ever since Fury Road came out. One day...
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Re: Gaslands: post-apocalyptic vehicular combat

Post by Steel_Valkyrie » Tue May 15, 2018 4:41 pm

I'll try and get some lore into it from all of the post-apoc universes.
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