Two Drifters decide to settle once and for all which one of them is the best racer, they are good friends but when it comes to racing in the local settlement and city races that friendship is put on hold until the final lap, for this race it has been decided that the winner would buy the other a beer!
They have been allowed to use the Old Chapel race track in the old part of the city, the track is fast but it has some nasty bends and a ramp so the race is bound to be full of excitement.
As the two cars line up at the start on the long straight both drivers are looking for a win here today, even though they are friends neither one will hold back, they will both be driving flat out and will be giving it their all.
Well that’s the simple story behind this race, I needed to find something quick to do and it was a good excuse for another rules test using the new supplement for the Last Drifters rules.
I wanted it to be quick and simple so I decided that I would only use just two racers this time, this way I could concentrate on how the rules work as well as driving the cars.
I gave both cars as many of the new upgrades as I could which meant these cars don’t have a lot of firepower and certainly don’t have much armour… very little armour indeed.
The points for these cars come in at just under 1,200 points each which is over what the supplement recommends, but as this was another playtest I wanted to use as many of the new upgrades as I could.
They have things like racing tyres, larger engines, fuel injection systems and of course nitrox plus one or two other upgrades which means these cars are super-fast, with top speeds and acceleration far greater than the cars in the main rules.
This does of course mean while travelling at these greater speeds the handling of the cars becomes harder and the drivers are more likely to make a mistake and lose control.
So I have my two cars and their drivers, Spider and Ace and of course the track, this is a track that is meant to be in an older ruined part of the city and the track goes around parts of an old ruined chapel and through a graveyard!
There are several tight turns on the track which will become even more hazardous travelling at the faster speeds, and of course it has the really nasty ramp for the cars to jump.
The timing for the jump across the ramp is really hard in a normal race so you would normally allow the cars to be able to get around without the need for the jump ( or if they realise that they can’t make the jump ) but this track doesn’t have a way past so the drivers have to be spot on with their run at the ramp or they will crash and be in a lot of trouble.
Well I have the track set and my cars ready so it’s time to start those engines….
And they are off, both vehicles power down the straight eating up the road very very quickly with the super high acceleration these two cars have!
As they go into the first turn at the end of the straight Spider gains a slight lead hitting the turn just ahead of Ace.
Both drivers panic a little as they roar around behind the small apartment block, anyone living in there will have a great view of all the excitement here today.
And Spider times his jump across the ramp perfectly and gains a little more speed as he lands, showing what a skilled driver he is.
Ace gets across close behind but doesn’t get as smooth a landing as Spider, but still manages to squeeze past Spider on the inside just missing the old grave stones that are very close to the road, I think he scraped a little paint off of Spiders car!!
But Spider is having none of that, he somehow manages to get even more speed from his big engine and powers past Ace heading towards one of the tightest corners on this track.
Spider flies around the tight bend perfectly getting a great line to start the long straight, seeing the open straight road Spider hits his nitrox switch and his vehicle screams down the road away from the corner and Ace.
Ace takes off the safety from his nitrox switch and uses it to power down the long straight chasing Spider, but Spider is still just ahead and keeps the lead as he goes into the far bend.
Ace keeps to a good line as he approaches the same bend but he is now a little behind so he fires off a few shots at Spiders rear just to let him know he is still in this race and is satisfied to see a couple of shots hit their mark.
Ace powers around the bend on the outside of Spider giving his friend a small wave as he goes past, but not giving his driving his full attention may have been a mistake as the car slips a little on the dusty gravelly track and he hits the brakes a couple of times to keep control.
Spider sees his opportunity and puts his foot flat to the floor asking even more out of his car’s big engine and the machine obliges and he roars past Ace again and turns in perfectly lined up for the jump across the ramp.
Ace is not so lucky, he can’t seem to get in the correct position for this ramp, he says a quick prayer and hits the nitrox again to make sure he has enough speed to clear the ramp and he makes it, just!!
Spider sees his opportunity to get away from Ace and powers through the cemetery bend heading for the last hairpin before the finish, he has this race in the bag.
Ace not giving up roars through cemetery bend as well chasing after Spider, he sees Spider’s car almost going around the final bend and fires off a few more rounds at the fast-disappearing vehicle… and sees all his shots bounce off Spiders rear armour.
Ace ignores his bad luck with his shooting and pushes past Spider again to take the final bend in front…
Spider keeps his cool and pushes his car to the limits as he screeches around the last tight turn and crosses the line a split second before Ace!!!
Ace can’t believe it he was so close, he just lost control slightly on the dusty bend and that lost him the race… oh well he will have to buy Spider that beer for winning, he didn’t mind that, it will be all the times he knew that Spider would remind him that he had lost this race, that was going to be very annoying…
Wow that was so close! Ace lost control once on that last corner and panic braked which meant he didn’t have enough speed left to cross the line!
But to be fair Spider was almost perfect on most corners and timed the jumps over the ramp extremely well, Ace had trouble both times he jumped the ramp which didn’t help him at all, the second time he had to use nitrox to give him enough speed just to be able to clear the gap!
The speed tests that the drivers need to do when manoeuvring at the super-fast speeds worked extremely well, I was worried about this but playtesting shows that the new test works really well.
Spider did have the slightly faster car at 30” top speed but that didn’t make an awful lot of difference in the race.
Ace’s vehicle was slightly slower with a top speed of 27” but that wasn’t what let him down, it was all down to the fact that Spider had better control during the race, simply put his driving was better!
The main thing I learned from this playtest is that you have to pick your vehicles upgrades very carefully, if you just add on upgrades to give you loads of extra speed and then don’t bother with upgrades to give your vehicle better handling, you will probably not even get around the first corner without losing control of your vehicle!!
Handling and driver skill really makes a difference now with these faster speeds.
Well another great playtest done and the supplement is one step closer to being released, I still have a few bits and pieces left to do including having to read through the pages about a dozen times checking everything again and again 😒
Hopefully I will be able to release the new supplement very soon.
Come on over to my Discord server to chat about your games of the Last Drifters and show us some pictures of your battles or races, or show us some pictures of your vehicles, or just come and chat about the rules.
You will find the link to the server on the community tab at the top of this site.
