I’ve been describing miniature wargaming as “toy soldiers with rules” foe year. So why not bring another perennial childhood joy into the fold? Gaslands: Refueled gives you THE reason to take our your old model cars, glue on some guns and skulls, and give it post-apocalyptic paintjob. That’s right, Death Race comes to your tabletop!
Gaslands: Refueled may not be the first car battle game (Steve Jackson released Car Wars in 1980 and it featured cars, submarines and… balloons?), but it’s probably the most wildly successful one. I had never seen an Osprey-released game get such buy-in our parochial lil’ Lithuania before. The appeal of easy rules that lead to deep vehicular mayhem is just that strong. At the most basic, a player starts with 50 cans to build their crew with. A regular, no-frills car costs 12, so you can cram 4 into your team if you want. However, additional weapons and upgrades also demand your attention. Between mounted machineguns, blunderbusses for the crew, RC car droppers, explosive rams and nitro boosters, you could feasibly spend all those funds to build the only car safe to drive in SUV-ridden streets of the USA. But mixing it up is safer – and a lot more fun. The rules for actually racing and fighting with those death cars is simple. A turn in Gaslands: Refueled starts at 1st gear. Players alternate activating cars that are in 1st gear or higher. Activating player chooses one of the movement templates available for the gear the car is in, rolls the handling die, applies potential effects, moves the car, and then uses weapons. If the car is in 2nd gear or higher, it will be activated again in those gear phases. Simple!Now, in most miniature games, it’s the shooting phase that matters the most. In Gaslands: Refueled, movement is king. Most rules (and shenanigans) concern driving – this includes no only turning and speeding, but also ramming, slipping flipping, etc.. The weapons phase is simple in comparison: choose a weapon, see if the target is within its arc and range, roll dice, and the target gets to evade (by rolling d6 times their gear and looking for 6). Easy! Granted, just like car upgrades, some weapons can have limited ammo or work in weird ways, like the BFG pushing the firing car backwards. Most cars are resilient enough to take some hits and keep going. As you get into weirder vehicles, you get to choose between durability and upgrade slots and speed. A heavy truck is a beast, but it can only ever reach gear 3. A motorcycle will disassemble after a hard sneeze and doesn’t have space for gubbinz, but is extra fast and maneuverable. You can go for even weirder choices still: gyrocopters (and helicopters – no balloons, though), drag racers, militarized 18-wheelers…If there’s a downside to Gaslands: Refueled, it’s that none of the sponsors – factions you can belong to – are that inspiring in the fluff. There are some mildly funny or inventive ones, but really, the meat is in the gameplay benefits (and drawbacks) they give that will shape the way you play. Oh, and sponsors are the only way to get driver skills!Gaslands: Refueled whips, slaps and rules. Driving cars and shooting at other racers has never been this much fun. The only reason no major game studio has licensed it to make it a boardgame set with pre-painted cars and guns you can glue to them is because they’re cowards.
