Car Wars Compendium

About this board game

Car Wars Compendium is a comprehensive Car Wars rules volume for 2-8 players, with a listed play time of 45 minutes. Released in 1989, it brings essential rules and reference material together in one organized and indexed book.

This compendium includes the rules from Car Wars Deluxe Edition, Boat Wars, Dueltrack, and the Uncle Albert’s Catalogs through 2039. It also incorporates clarifications, improvements, and new rules from the pages of Autoduel Quarterly, streamlined for faster play.

Players can design their own wide range of vehicles, from conventional road machines to specialized craft. The included options cover:

• Cars, cycles, trikes, vans, and trucks
• 18-wheel tractor-trailer rigs
• Boats, helicopters, and hovercraft

Eight extra pages of charts and tables provide additional reference material, supporting easier access to the rules during play. The result is a single source for the combined systems and additions gathered from earlier Car Wars material.

Three versions of the Car Wars Compendium were published. The first edition appeared in 1989 with a blue cover and combined rules for cars, trucks, and cycles from prior editions into the Third Edition of Car Wars. The Second Edition followed in 1990, adding errata and race cars from Dueltrack and becoming the Fourth Edition of Car Wars.

A fifth printing of the Second Edition was released in 1996 with a black cover, more detailed errata, and almost entirely new artwork. Often called CWC2.5, this version represents another notable form of the Car Wars Compendium and remains part of the broader Car Wars series.