Components: A sturdy, colourful, anime-style-art A5 box, two decks of cards (110 in total), 6 larger-size car templates and a rulesheet. The cards are standard playing card size, with rounded corners, and an effective colour-on-black layout with clear markings for the card's nature. Cards fall into Attack (weapons), Armour (protection), Manouevre (special actions, such as Swerve), and Special (such as machine guns jamming). The art is simple and evocative.
Objective: Be the last car surviving at the end of the autoduel.
Mechanics: Very simple. Each player takes a car template. These differ only in their illustration; stats for each car are identical. A car is divided into areas: front, right and left sides, rear, tyres and driver. Front, right, left and rear sides have 12 hit points; tyres 9, and the driver 5 points. When one of the sides reaches 0 HP, the driver is exposed and damage delivered directly to him/her. Once the driver is reduced to 0, the car is out of the game (although the rules do say that the driver effectively limps away, and is therefore NOT killed. Only the car 'dies'). If tyres get trashed, certain manouevre cards are illegal. Armour doesn't protect against tyre attacks, and actions such as swerving reduce tyre hit points.
Damage is delivered via attack cards. Attacks stipulate what weapon causes the damage (eg, Machine Gun) and how much (always a fixed amount). Each attack card can also only attack a specified side of a car. One exception are 'Called Shot' cards, which allow the attacker to stipulate the side being attacked. Protection against attacks comes in the form of Armour cards, which reduce damage by a fixed amount and are side-specific (ie, a Left Armour card only reduces damage inflicted on the left-hand side). You can play as many Armour cards as you like in response to an attack, but only if they protect the same side of the car. Other forms of protection come via different manouevres, such as swerving, and Specials, which can jam an opponent's weapon, cause a misfire, or provide armour against specific attacks (like flamethrowers).
The game is played in turns. Each player is dealt a hand of five cards, with all the remaining cards creating a Draw pile. In each turn a player:
1. Draws a number of cards to make their hand up to six cards 2. Attacks 3. Plays any Specials that are legal OR 4. Discards some or all of their cards. If you discard, no attacks or other plays are allowed.
So, if you have Attack cards in your hand, choose an opponent and lay-down the attack card. The defender can then try to minimise the damage with armour or a manouevre, or must sustain the damage. Play then passes to the next combatant. The winner is the last car with the driver standing (if not necessarily intact) once everyone else is out of the game.
Playability: The rules are simple, easy to pick-up, and the game is very quick. The cards are nicely balanced to allow for some creative attack/defence/manoeuvre combinations, and that 'killer autocannon' blast you've been planning can be stymied with the right combination of defensive cards, manoeuvres and specials. Most games take between 20 minutes and half an hour to play, but I've had my own car taken out very quickly (ie, within the first round), whilst in other games I've battled through by the skin of my teeth to leave the arena victorious.
Opportunities for strategy are there but are limited by the card types available. Taking the discard option can be useful, even if your car is vulnerable, so that you can acquire a different hand to gain protection or inflict damage back. No one card will render your car completely incapacitated, although sustained attacks from several players can do so easily.
This means that there's a tendency for a weakness with one player to be spotted and then mercilessly exploited by the other players. How often this will happen depends on the players, obviously, but in the games I've played with two separate groups, it was repeated: someone weakens a particular side of a car and everyone else goes for the same weakness - so be prepared for some ganging-up, or to be ganged-up against. Bad losers: beware. Bad winners - prepare to gloat your little socks off.
The fact that the game play is fast and (can be) furious makes CWCG very enjoyable, and it certainly has an immediate replay value. I don't know how long this replay value will last, but this basic set hasn't outworn its welcome in my gaming group yet. However, there's an obvious opportunity for expansions to add new weapons, new car templates (perhaps with different Hit Point values for some variety), and new manouevre/specials. Such expansions will extend the shelf-life of the game but, as with all expansions of this type, may extend the game duration to a point where the fun starts to subside a little, or makes the game unwieldy. We shall see.
VFM: Does the game provide Value for Money? It's nicely produced and great fun for killing an hour or so whilst waiting for the rest of your gaming group to arrive. It's not too taxing to play or learn to play, and there's lots of satisfaction to be derived from having your car almost wrecked but still produce that killer combo to be the Last Datsun Standing.
But...
At £16.99 (UK price) it isn't cheap, and you may feel that the price/enjoyment ratio isn't worth it. Personally, I do, although I hope that SJG release some expansion sets that don't overbalance the game, and are reasonably priced to boot.
One playing tip. We used dice to represent diminishing Hit Points on our vehicles. D12s for each side, D10 for tyres and a D6 for drivers. Up to you if you do this, but it does make recording damage easier. You could use poker chips or other markers just as well.
And one final aside: the deck of cards includes a couple of cards for SJG's 'Battle Cattle' game. The two are obviously compatible, but not having played Battle Cattle, I can't comment on how much fun you can derive from combining the two.
In all, a great little game for those with a Mad Max streak. Don't expect an accurate simulation of car combat, but do expect a fast and furious opportunity to take revenge on your cronies for all the times when their driving skills have left you nerve-shredded and panicky.
