CSR #Wargame Challenge Saturday – Azhanti High Lightning (GDW,1980) & Car Wars (Steve Jackson Games, 1981+)

It was a bit cold and windy outside this weekend so it was a good chance to work off another few games of my 2019 Charles S Roberts Wargame Challenge.

Up first was Azhanti High Lightning (GDW, 1980). I played using the VASSAL module since my copy is all electronic on the Far Future Enterprises Classic Traveller CD. AHL is a very “typical” GDW wargame of the 1980’s – heavy on rules and procedures. While billing itself as a game of close quarters combat aboard large spaceships (as compared to Snapshot (GDW, 1979) for small ships) I couldn’t help but think AHL is a fair model of indoor skirmish combat. There are rules here for doors and corners (no, not The Expanse Doors & Corners although….) as well as consoles and elevators and the like.  I mean, the deck plans for the AHL-class of ships are building style since the ship is a tail-sitter (again, ala The Expanse). A part of me wants to rename this Die Hard – The Boardgame.

A very good rule I had forgotten about was Morale. I should not be surprised since Frank Chadwick was involved in this game and his designs always seem to emphasize the importance of Morale.

Here are the two most important sections as I see it:

C. Procedure: Roll two dice. If the number rolled is equal to or less than the character’s modified morale value, the character passes the check. If it is greater than the character’s modified morale value the character fails the check. All positive leadership bonuses are added to the checking character’s morale value (not the dice roll), and all negative bonuses are subtracted from the checking character’s morale value.

A character with a leadership bonus (referred to as a leader) uses the bonus to modify the morale values of all friendly subordinates (all who check morale after that leader) within the leader’s line of sight, but only if the leader did check morale that step. A leader may not apply his or her bonus to his or her own morale checks.

If the leader passes all morale checks, that leader’s bonus is added to all subsequent morale checks of friendly subordinates; if the leader fails a morale check then that leader’s bonus is subtracted from all other morale checks of friendly subordinates. The effects of several leaders in the same area checking morale are cumulative.

For example, lntruder officer 3 (bonus of +2) and lntruder NCO 2 (bonus of +3) are leading an assault party across an area swept by covering fire. Officer 3 fails his or her morale check and thus NCO 2 checks morale with 2 subtracted from his or her morale rating. Assuming NCO 2 passes the check, all of the other members of the assault party check morale with a positive modifier of 1 (+3 from NCO 2 and -2 from 02 for a net modifier of +1).

The penalty for failing a morale check is harsh:

D. Effects of Failed Morale: Failure of an exposure to covering fire check causes the character to avoid exposing him or herself; any other movement (or allowable combat action) is permitted as long as the character does not enter a danger space of a covering fire. Failure of a moving adjacent check will cause the character to stop moving before coming adjacent. The character will stop with at least 3 APs left (if possible), and if 3 APs are left will execute a snap shot at the character to whom he or she was intending to move adjacent. Failure of a casualty or unexpected fire morale check will cause the character to panic and flee. Regardless of what was chosen for the character in the decision phase, the character must, in the action phase(s) immediately following the failed check, run away from the location of the enemy characters until he or she reaches a position of complete cover (referred to as cowering). The character will then remain there until he or she successfully makes a morale check. This morale check is made at the start of each decision phase. Any friendly leader who moves to the square containing the cowering character may apply his or her leadership bonus to that character’s morale value. In this case, it is not necessary for the leader to pass a morale check before applying the bonus to the cowering character. Note that any leader may carry out this function for any friendly cowering character. This is the only time that the leadership bonus of a lower-ranking character may be used to assist a higher-ranking character in making a morale check.

The second CSR game of the weekend was Car Wars. I have the original pocket box first edition from 1981 but for this game I pulled out my Fourth Edition, Third Printing from 2015.

I was surprised that the rule book for 4th Edition clocks in at 64 digest-size pages! In reality, the “game” itself is not that long as the rules for movement and combat are covered in 37 pages (18 pages if full-size) and the balance is mostly Characters (psuedo-RPG?) and Vehicle Design. I chose to concentrate on the simple game and created a three-way Amateur Night scenario featuring a stock Killer Kart ($3,848), a Stinger Option III ($3,989) and a Stinger Option IV w/spikedropper ($4,293). The game was fun but it does take work to use the Movement Chart with its five phases. I do not have the latest Sixth Edition but I wonder if Steve Jackson Games has leveraged any of the new approaches to graphical play aids like Jim Krohn did for Talon (GMT Games, 2016). Both Talon and Car Wars use “impulse” movement but the new graphical play aid in Talon makes the flow of the turn go much quicker.

With these two games I have now worked played off six of 20 games in my CSR Challenge. In my other 2019 Challenges I still have to play 13 of 15 in my Golden Geek Challenge and 14 of 16 in my Origins Challenge. All that while playing new games too. Ah, the challenges of being a gamer….

Feature image – Azhanti High Lightning VASSAL module