Thursday 31 January 2013

Dark Future



As part of my 'play more games' approach this year, I've been looking out for boardgames that I can pick up and play with the kids and at the club. I've long had an interest in Mad Max style automotive mayhem, having been an avid Battlecars player in my mis-spent youth, and having established small collection of diecast Hotwheels conversions that I put together for Axles and Alloys a couple of years ago.

I've also been inspired by orlygg's excellent Route 666 blog, which is definately worth a look:

http://route666darkfuture.blogspot.co.uk/

This is a great example of wargame recycling, using an obsolete but perfectly good set of rules as a basis for the re-animation of long forgotten but once 'trendy' gaming systems. I really like this approach and have always tried to follow the same philosophy, with the Darkest Africa and Back of Beyond projects as good examples.

Why jump on the bandwagon while it's at full steam ahead, when you can climb on board at a leisurely and parsimonious pace, once it's been shunted into a rusty siding somewhere?

Anyway, I now have an almost mint condition Dark Future box set, complete with unpunched counters, weapons sprues, bikes and cars, all for not much more than twenty five quid. The cars are assembled but not glued together or painted, so can easily be pulled apart and rebuilt with added extras. I've also downloaded the free version of the rules and the White Line Fever supplement onto the Kindle Fire HD, giving me the opportunity to work through the rule manual in my spare time, whenever that is?

A bit of a result and a very promising project for the future, dark or otherwise.

7 comments:

  1. I loved this game as a sprog and had forgotten all about it.

    where can you d/l the rules for free?

    ReplyDelete
  2. PLayed along time ago. Got out of it because of the "you must stay on the road or explode" rule.
    -J

    ReplyDelete
  3. used to love this game, but if you wanted a real Mad Max game get Car Wars a brillent game that gets better the more people you have playing. It is a bit more involved than Dark Future so if you are introdcing a new gamer I would stick with DF but in the long run try Car Wars
    Peace James

    ReplyDelete
  4. I keep on hearing people mentioning this game, wonder if FFG is going to get on the case of an eventual reprint.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The DF rules are available via boardgamegeek.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I used to play Car Wars, too. Sometimes, we had more fun building our cars than having battles. A friend and I ran a Mad Max sort of campaign one summer.

    ReplyDelete

Labels

Bag The Hun (746) AK47 (488) Books (480) Ironclads (474) Wings at War (392) Back of Beyond (234) Pre-Dreadnoughts (228) Coastal Warfare (225) Britain's Small Wars (199) Bolt Action (175) What a Tanker (170) Target Locked On (162) Victory at Sea (155) MiG Alley (150) Knights of the Sky (149) Old West (146) Chain of Command (145) Napoleonic Naval (144) Find Fix and Strike (137) Sandbox Skirmish (119) Naval Command (118) Bag The MiG (117) Naval Thunder (117) Pirates (116) Indo China / Vietnam (114) Air War Over Khalkhin Gol (108) Fistful of Lead (108) 15mm Sci-Fi / Near Future (95) Darkest Africa (91) VBCW (89) Strength and Honour (84) Shows (79) Ancients (78) ACW (77) The Football War (75) France's Small Wars (67) Boardgames (66) Corsairs and Cavaliers (66) Shipwreck! (66) BKC (65) Rapid Fire (63) Saurian Safari (61) Cruel Seas (60) Saga (60) Air War C21 (58) Journals (57) The Men Who Would Be Kings (57) Nimitz (55) Flashpoint Alto Cenepa (53) IABSM (53) Flashpoint Taiwan (50) Finest Hour (49) Gladiators (48) International Naval Wargaming Day (47) Red Actions! (47) Scramble for Britain (44) Flashpoint Baltic (42) Fortifications (41) Cold War (39) Duel of Aces (36) SCW (36) Thud Ridge (36) Desert Spitfires (34) Flames above the Falklands (34) RCW (34) War of the Pacific (34) Death in the Dark Continent (32) Atlantic Wall (31) Post Apocalypse (31) Iron Cow (30) Lion Rampant (30) Bag the Springbok (29) English Civil War / Anglo Dutch War Naval (29) Algernon Pulls It Off (28) Mexican Revolution (28) Normandy Firefight (28) Full Thrust (27) It Rolls For Ivan (26) Bulldogs Away! (24) One Hour Wargames (24) Samurai (24) Jet Knights of the Sky (23) 28mm English Civil War (22) Imaginations (22) Achtung Kommando! (21) Flashpoint PVO (21) PITS (20) Galactic Heroes (19) Steamer Wars (19) Strontium Dog (19) Ancient Naval (18) Iron Cross (18) Winter War (16) Aeronef (15) Aircraft (15) Imperial Commander (15) Rate of Fire (15) 2mm English Civil War (14) Aliens (14) Dragon Rampant (14) Mad for War (14) Arctic Eagles (13) Black Ops (13) CY6 Jet Age (13) Congo (13) Impetus (12) Wars of Insurgency (12) Zulus! (12) Flashpoint Fleet Air Arm (11) Gaslands (11) 633 Squadron (10) Franco Thai Air War (10) Jungle Green (10) Sharp Practice (10) 28mm Future Wars (9) Bohica (9) Dux Britanniarum (9) Merry Xmas Mr Sankara (9) Adventures in Jimland (8) Cry Havoc (8) Dreadnoughts (8) French Indian Wars (8) HYW (8) Renaissance Naval (8) Star Wars Legion (8) Sword and Spear (8) Through The Mud and Blood (8) Frostgrave (7) Target for Tonight (7) Five Parsecs From Home (6) French Resistance (6) A Mighty Fortress (5) Air War Angola (5) AirWar:1918 (5) Bombers over Germany (5) Check Your Six! (5) Five Men at Kursk (5) Fivecore Skirmish (5) Maurice (5) Seven Days to the River Rhine (5) Three Musketeers (5) Arab Revolt (4) Continuation War (4) Corvette Command (4) In Her Majesty's Name (4) Infamy Infamy (4) Medieval Naval (4) Never Mind The Billhooks (4) What a Cowboy (4) Battletech (3) Gangsters (3) HOTT (3) Hind Commander (3) Lord of the Sea (3) Luft 46 (3) Mourir Pour l'Indochine (3) Sturmovik Commander (3) Wings Over Suez (3) Blood Red Skies (2) Chincha Islands War (2) Crom (2) Disposable Heroes (2) Fire and Steel (2) Fivecore Company Command (2) Iron Stars (2) Judge Dredd (2) Lethal Skies (2) NUTS! (2) No Go Zone (2) Pulp! (2) Starfighters! (2) War in El Dorado (2) Whispering Death (2) A Billion Suns (1) Air War 1940 (1) Battlegroup (1) Black Powder (1) Dropzone Commander (1) Falklands War (1) Harpoon (1) Load and Return (1) Missile Threat (1) Missiles at Sea (1) Naval Wargames Society (1) Norway 1940 (1) Spanish American War (1) Sunray is Down (1) Ultracombat Normandy (1) Xenos Rampant (1)