Car Wars – Sentinel Arena
This was written way back in 2002. It is being posted here so that I don’t lose it.
St. Louis, Missouri PR 1
“In the bad years, St. Louis was home to numerous riots, several of them causing massive amounts of destruction in the city that has never been repaired. The wealthier neighborhoods walled themselves in, creating a series of tiny fortress towns surrounding the devastated downtown area. Even today St. Louis is home to numerous street gangs and the downtown area is only accessible by ferry from the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.
— The AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guide
NOTE: Each square on the arena map is 3″. The heavy black lines are walls and cannot be destroyed. For more arenas and some basic instructions on arenas in the Car Wars game see Car Wars Arena Book 1.
Constructed in 2048, the Sentinel Arena is one of the newer and more modern arena facilities in the United States. Unfortunately, poor connections and the pressure of state government officials have kept the arena from getting a broadcasting deal suitable to their size.
Constant financing problems threaten to close the arena down and management are always launching some insane marketing scheme after another. Poor attendance has led to lower gate prices which have led to more money troubles. It appears to be only a matter of time before the arena is closed or bought out.
Arena Events
The Sentinel runs a fairly standard set of events (see Car Wars Arena Book 1) but all of them feature the pride of arena management — the sentry guns.
Sentry Guns: On each corner of the central obstruction a military-grade machinegun is mounted in a turret. The turret’s firing arcs are marked in green on the map. Each weapon has an amazingly high rate of fire and may fire once per phase. The sentry guns always fire at the closest vehicle meeting their targeting requirements for the current event.
Each weapon has a to-hit of 7 and does 2 dice of damage. The weapons have so much ammo that it isn’t necessary to keep track of their current supply. The weapons fire at the beginning of each phase before any vehicle moves.
The turrets may be targeted at a -3. Each turret has 20 DP and once the last point is gone the turret is destroyed. Targeting the turrets may or may not be allowed during an event. Check with the referee before the duel starts.
No Grandmas: The sentry guns are set to fire at any vehicle with a speed of 50 mph or lower. In addition, any vehicle with a handling status of -6 is automatically fired on. No grandmas!
Bigger Fish: This is an event for vehicles of mixed divisions. Before the event starts each player chooses to use a Division 5 or Division 10 vehicle. Division 5 vehicles will not be attacked by the sentry guns but they won’t hesitate to fire on any Division 10 vehicle that enters their firing arc. The event is otherwise a normal one.
Arena Tactics
If the turrets are going to fire at you try and camp in the dead zones between their firing arcs. This will force you to move at a very low speed or to remain stopped and you will not gain any popularity with the fans (-1 prestige for every three turns a duellist remains in a dead zone). Though the arena is fairly open you will want a high handling to keep moving. An excellent tactic is to load most of your armor on one side and then circle the arena at high speed, keeping your heavy armor facing the turrets at all times.
