First off, we'd like to welcome another new club to the fold:

Vehicle Design Clinic
Dr. Clint Burnett, President
11 Woodlands Road, Gillingham,
Kent, England ME7 2BT

Next issue, we'll have our annual list of chapters. Find a duellist near you!

SEAT Championships

Got a few more accounts from last summer's duelling action that didn't fit into the last issue. Magnus Karlsson sends this report of the SEAT club championship all the way from Sweden:

The participants were:

Michael Spangberg (last year's Champion) in a Sedan with X-Ray Laser front, Infrared Sighting System and a Heavy-Duty Smoke Screen back (with two extra magazines).

Claes Eriksson in a Fireproofed and Sloped Midsize with Twin Laser in turret.

Magnus Hansson (a first-time player) in a Luxury with a Gauss Gun in turret, Ice Dropper back and Heavy-Duty Ice Dropper left and right.

And me, Magnus Karlsson in a Luxury with a Targeting Laser and Rocket Launcher in turret and two Variable-Fire Rocket Pods front (with Blow-Through Concealment); all rockets Laser-Guided.

We played in a new arena, featuring lots of checkpoints and a second level accessible only by ramp with higher-value checkpoints and minefields. The first five turns were uneventful, with all four players driving off in different directions to collect checkpoints, but on the sixth turn Claes, Magnus H. and I came close enough to exchange shots. Claes and Magnus H. first exchanged a couple of long-distance shots and chipped some armor off each other while I sent off one RL rocket towards Magnus H. without success. On the first phase of turn seven, Claes tried another long-distance shot on Magnus H.'s front, while Magnus H. and I turned straight towards each other at close range. Magnus H. tried a tire shot but missed, and was very surprised when my front suddenly erupted with the firing of 12 missiles. All 12 and a RL rocket hit, and turned his front armor and driver into shreds.

Claes turned away from the massacre and hid in the smoke Michael left in his wake (the HDSS was put on automatic the first turn). This left us with another ten turns of checkpoint gathering (with the exception of when one of my wheels was shot off by Claes while I was traveling on a second level bridge; Claes was still hiding in smoke so no return fire was possible).

On the 17th turn, Michael and I started firing on each other, he from one second level building and I from another. I slowed down to 5 mph and turned my front towards him at the same time as he shot off another of my wheels, leaving me facing him. My first volley of rockets had missed, but the second one blasted away his front, but didn't penetrate the Component Armor protecting his X-Ray Laser.

Next turn, Michael made an error in judgment and continued driving towards me, which resulted in his driver's death from the my last VFRP rockets. At this time Claes had also entered the second level and shot at my turret a couple times before deciding to try to collect as many checkpoints as possible before the time limit of 30 turns was up. He managed three before he spun out into a wall, leaving both surviving vehicles immobile and waiting for time to expire.

When the points were tallied, Claes Eriksson and Magnus Karlsson finished in a dead heat for the Club Championship. Congratulations to SEAT's finest!

Hot Asphalt

Timothy Jacques sends this report from GenCon's Hot Asphalt tournament:

The tournament was broken down into a series of preliminaries with each winner advancing to the final round. The early matches were marked with nasty crashes and aggressive tactics. Included in the highlights are:

1) "Ramfest '96" In the earlier preliminaries, contestants discovered that their firepower was less than adequate. Hand weapons were not that much of a help either. As the duels progressed, many duellists resorted to old-fashioned "bumper-busting." The results often backfired, but it was entertaining to watch.

2) "Abandon Ship" In every preliminary, at least one duellist abandoned his vehicle to duke it out on the arena floor. One duellist (who wishes to be anonymous) almost pulled off an amazing upset by leaving his crippled vehicle for another. When his second vehicle was destroyed, he tried to commandeer yet another, but his luck ran out when he was ventilated by an AVR round.

3) "Grenades are not your friend" Out of options, one duellist tried to use a grenade to dispatch an oncoming foe. He should have checked his grip. His die roll was so bad, the grenade landed right on his lap!

When the smoke had cleared, four contestants had advanced to the finals. They were Peter Kamuf, Donald Jacques, Chris Vanover and Garth Anderson. Each contestant was supplied with an identical vehicle (Agincourt) and was armed with a HAVR. The facility used was the Golden Nugget, a top-rate facility in Las Vegas. The Nugget is best known for its booby-trapped floor tiles that can spray a variety of liquids and gases from flaming oil to cloud bombs. no one was safe from an unpleasant surprise.

The duel was slow to start as contestants dropped a series of spikes and kept a respectable distance from one another. But the quiet peace was quickly shattered four seconds into the event as lasers flickered and rockets slammed against metal plating. The first victim was Peter Kamuf, who was the first to feel his armor buckling under the stress. Desperate for relief, Peter tried a crazy tactic of hiding his car in a flame cloud! The tactic worked as enemy targeting lasers failed to penetrate the flames and smoke, but the heat got too much to handle and Peter abandoned the cloud. Chris seized the opportunity and put a fatal rocket salvo into Peter's damaged side.

The second victim was Donald Jacques. With his front armor badly mauled, Donald realized that desperate times call for desperate action. He abandoned his vehicle (which was right next to an active flame cloud!) and tried to fight on foot, but an alert Garth send two rockets into Donald's burning body. It took the groundskeepers a week to clean up the smudge.

The last two duellists (Garth and Chris) both had a kill and continued the fight, but it was an impossible task. With the duelists out of ammo and unable to take a shot, the arena management called a truce to rearm the contestants. After being properly armed, both competitors raced towards each other for a final confrontation.

Chris took the worse of a rocket volley and came to a screeching halt. Meanwhile, Garth fell victim to an FOJ trap and was suffering a tire fire. It looked bad for the both of them.

Although it looked like another stalemate, Chris decided to go for an impromptu tactic. With Garth's vehicle only going 5 mph, Chris abandoned his vehicle and leaped on Garth's top! Chris held on and managed to plug a few HAVR rounds into Garth's top armor, but the success was short lived. Garth hit the accelerator and slammed into the arena wall. Chris lost his grip and ended up as a piece of art.

Victorious, Garth entered the pits and into the media limelight. Hot Asphalt officials were pleased by the turnout and plan to run the tournament again next year.

2047 Tournaments

We're not ready to finalize any of this (in fact, you'll get your chance to give your input see below), but here's where we're leaning for the 2047 tournaments:

Club Championships. Not very many Club Championships got held last year, and we'd like to improve that. We're not sure exactly what we're going to offer, but this year we'll be providing special recognition to Club Champions it won't be extravagant, but it will be unique a pin or a patch or something. Any currently active club that holds its Club Championships (in both Duelling and Racing) between January 1 and June 15, 1997 (and reports those results to SJ Games by June 30, 1997) will be eligible.

Each club is free to set their own rules for each event. Pick any division level, any arena, any ground rules. Our only suggestion (and this is a strong suggestion) is that the Duelling event be combat-oriented and the Racing event by speed-oriented. You can award bonus points for all sorts of things (checkpoints crossed, ramps jumped, etc.), but the main object of the Duelling event must be the elimination of other players in combat while avoiding elimination yourself. And the main object of the Racing event must be speed and handling, completing a course in the fastest time or traveling the farthest distance in a specified time period. Combat should not be prohibited, but it shouldn't be the main point.

World Championships. This isn't final yet, either, but we're seriously considering switching our two events this year putting the World Racing Championships at Origins '97 (July 17-20 in Columbus, OH) and the World Duelling Championships at GenCon '97 (Aug. 7-10 in Milwaukee, WI). We also haven't decided whether to run the tournaments as two-round events or three-rounders. I like three rounds, but they only work if enough people show up. I still want to seed Club Champions and the defending World Champion, but nobody should get a free ride to the Finals. The seed should be no higher than the second round in a three-round event; No one would get a seeding advantage in a two-round event.

The NOVA Club did a fine job running the Racing World Championships at GenCon last year; I'd love to have interested clubs volunteer for this year as well. Drop me a line if you or your group want to help out.

Time to Vote!

Please send us your vote on these questions. While we've expressed our preferences above, we're also willing to listen to our constituents on these important matters. Let us know what you want!

1. Where should the 2047 AADA World Championship tournaments be held?
2. How big should the World Championships be? 3. Should Club Champions be seeded at the World Championships?
4. Should the Defending World Champion be seeded in his event?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Build Your Car on the Web!

Aaron Mulder is a Car Wars enthusiast with a penchant for web page design and Java applications. His latest work can be found at:

http://www.princeton.edu/~ammulder/java_cw.html

This site on the World Wide Web will let you create a legal autoduelling vehicle in any of seven divisions, Div. 5 to 30 plus Unlimited. It works great and is well worth a visit, though you do need a Java-capable web browser to use it. If you don't do Java, you can still visit and take a peek at dozens of vehicle designs that other visitors have created and posted for everyone to enjoy. Check it out!



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