Autoduel Quarterly

Car Wars

1983 Edition cover
Designer(s)	Chad Irby and Steve Jackson
Publisher(s)	Steve Jackson Games
Publication date	1980
Genre(s)	Post-apocalyptic
System(s)	Proprietary

Car Wars is a vehicle combat simulation game developed by Steve Jackson Games. It was first published in 1980. Players control armed vehicles in a post-apocalyptic future.

In Car Wars, players assume control of one or more cars or other powered vehicle, from motorcycles to semi trucks. Optional rules include piloting helicopters, ultralights, balloons, boats, submarines and tanks. The vehicles are typically outfitted with weapons (such as missiles and machine guns), components (like heavy-duty fire-proof wheels, and nitro injectors), and defensive elements (armor plating and radar tracking systems). Within any number of settings, the players then direct their vehicles in combat.

The published games use cardstock counters to represent vehicles in a simulated battle upon printed battlemaps. While the game rules allow for any scale, most editions of the game were published to use a 1-inch = 15-feet scale (1:180 scale), although the Fifth Edition switched to 1-inch = 5-feet (1:60 scale). At this larger scale, players can use miniature toy vehicles such as Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars, S gauge model railroading scenery, or 28mm-30mm scale wargaming miniatures. Some play at yet other scales by using toys such as Micro Machines, or even 1/25th scale models in the game.