Recently I was listening to Mynock Squadron, an X-Wing podcast, and am now in danger of spending way too much money on that game. I haven’t played Fantasy Flight Games’ X-Wing, but I have played Wings of War ((Now implemented as Wings of Glory. I’ve played both WoW and WoG. For this post, assume I’m referring to either game.)), the WW1/WW2 dogfighting game X-Wing was based on. ((Which is apropos, as the starship combat in Star Wars was based on dogfighting.)) X-Wing sounded cool to me, but I really only thought of the game as a Star Wars-themed WoW. Your guy is the plane, and the game is all about maneuvering and lining up that perfect shot. But listening to that podcast, I realized it was bigger than that: your ships could have different pilots with customizable loadouts. They were talking about trying out different pilots and kitting out ships with TLTs, HLCs, and other such jargon, and that got me thinking about the fun of Car Wars.
I love Car Wars from Steve Jackson Games. However, I don’t like playing Car Wars — earlier versions are too slow for the fast-paced Mad Max-like concept. The fun in Car Wars was building out the vehicles, the solo play before the game. That seems to be in the X-Wing game. And, if X-Wing plays as fast as Wings of War does (which can be a bit slow during turns), I think it would be a great base to build a new Car Wars game around.
Here’s what I’m imagining: Mad Max Fury Road miniatures game.
You’ve got your starter set with Max’s V8 Interceptor and two War Boy vehicles. Instead of pilots, you’ve got drivers. Instead of crew, you’ve got crew. (Including Dog, from The Road Warrior). You’ve got some basic upgrades in the box: thunderpoons, shotguns, ramming plates, nitrous oxide. Yes, factions too: War Boys, Buzzards, Rock Riders, Humungus, Wanderers (Max). Beautiful sculpts, released wave after wave. Take a cue from the Mad Max computer game with various factions, various drivers, various customization ((although in that game, they’re more upgrades than customizations.)) and man, that would sing. Even if the game doesn’t get to the table, I’d have some cool desk toys: maybe a Hot Wheels-scale War Rig? It would look great next to my Jada Club Battle Machines.
Someone develop this, please — or give me the seed money to investigate licensing at least!
http://nathanrussell.net/2015/10/apocalypse-road-design-diary/
That link above that Dave posted? It’s to some dude’s website where he wanted to build his own Mad Max-like game. Check out the posts tagged “Apocalypse Road” at Nathan Russell’s website: http://nathanrussell.net/tag/apocalypse-road/ — including making awesome vehicles!