Start your engines!

I remember back when Ramshackle games introduced their 20mm conversion set I didn't actually pay it much mind, and my attitude was mostly the same with their 20mm bikers. Namely that I don't play that scale. But they sort of stuck with me regardless, especially since I would quite like the idea of playing some proper vehicular combat.

So far vehicles has mainly been dedicated transports, like moving cover, or plain old terrain on my tables, due to them being there as an extension or expansion to the infantry forces who were the focus of the games. But a few things became sort of apparent when thinking about playing with vehicles, mainly that their movements happens or a whole different scale than infantry, and that if you wanted them to actually have room to race about going for a smaller scale might be a good idea to avoid having to build a massive table.

So with all of these thoughts swirling about I remembered the old box of hot wheels in our attic, and the conversion set suddenly became a very tasty as a quick fix to let me mash up some cars for some road mayhem. And today that package arrived!

And almost as usual by now, my order from Ramshackle Games contained a little something extra. 3 mean ol' bikers to risk life and limb on the highways along the cars.

The kit itself was pretty much a giant grab bag of armour plates, mounted weapons with swivels or crew and a tiny army of 20mm shinless men to sit in the seats of cars and growl menacingly. It seems almost disproportionate compared to the limited amount of armour plates that was in there, but I know Curtis has a tendency to include excess casts now and then. I would have liked some exhaust pipes and massive air-intakes for some of the car hoods too, but those haven't even been made, so I cant really fault Ramshackle for that.

Anyhow, here are a selection of my fine new rides.

The warbeast was actually meant to accompany some of my chaos forces, but looking at it next to the vehicles, I just had to add weaponry and a rider. But it still needs some green stuff work here and there.

But there is a bit of an awkward note to all this. Namely that I don't know what game system I am gonna use them for yet. The first and obvious choice would be Nuclear Renaissance, as that is a system I already own the rule book for, they have plenty of options for designing custom vehicles and their crews, along with rules for crashing, ramming and pulling tight turns. I would just need to downscale some of the measurements.

The second contender would be Road/Kill which I have already mentioned earlier. It is probably more "in depth" than Nuclear Renaissance goes as vehicles have different armour values for different sides of the car, you can blow up or damage components in them. And they have a scale of some 6 different gears you can drive in, changing the tightness of turns. They have available print and play sheets, so its not a costly thing to get into. However I would need to learn an entirely new and, from the looks of it, rather complex ruleset and then adjust all measurements to fit cars that aren't the size of pocket change.

Third option would be the X-Wing hack from the cool associated facebook group British Leyland Rallies 2042. Where you lock in maneuvers simultaneously, have to keep moving and use the official dice and mechanics of X-Wing, with a few additions and changes here and there. Sadly I don't have a clue on how to play X-Wing in the first place, and their dependancy on the games tokens and rulebook means I'll have to drop some bucks for a starter set if I wanna go that direction.

Photography by Joel Langford

So. Lots of thoughts, options and cars for now. We'll see how this pans out...