Hoverball

By Karen Bingham and David N. Searle
HTMLized by Gustav Dahlström

Editor's note: The "rubber armor" rules in here are official, but given the general uselessness of the stuff, it probably won't be included in future Car Wars products.

Setup

Each team consists of four stock Sulacco hovercraft and one Mangler (the goalie), with all torpedoes replaced by heavy rockets. Each team member has Hover Pilot + 1 and Gunner +1, and each team's goalie has Hover Pilot +2, Gunner +2. The "ball" pilot is Hover Pilot +1, Gunner. None of the players wear body armor or have hand weapons.

All vehicles in the game have paint pellet ammunition; the FCEs are replaced by smokescreens with ten rounds of special "flash" smoke ammunition that flares harmlessly one phase after it is released and glows for two seconds. Arena computers keep track of damage, and shut a hover's engines down when it's "killed." It is quite possible to play this game with real weapons and armor, but the battle that results tends to be too bloody even for duelling fans!

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Rubber Armor

All the vehicles used in this game have rubber armor. This costs and weighs the same as normal plastic armor, but takes 5x damage from weapons fire, takes and gives 1/2 damage in collisions, and no damage from rolls. The Arena computers keep track of armor damage as if the armor were plastic (i.e., 1 point of damage removes 1 point of armor.)

The Ball

The ball is a stock Skimmer hovercraft with rubber armor and paint pellet ammunition. It is also limited to a top speed of 40 mph, which can only be exceeded if the Skimmer is rammed. When pushed to higher speeds than 40 mph, it will decelerate automatically by 10 mph each turn until it is back at 40 mph.

Rules

Hoverball matches start with a coin toss. The winner of the toss chooses to be Offense or Defense for the first round.

Each quarter consists of six rounds of 30 seconds each, with the teams alternating offensive and defensive positions for each round. When an offensive team has scored or been eliminated, the round is over. This also happens if there is no score after 30 seconds of play.

The Defense player controls the ball.

In the beginning of each round, the ball starts in the center circle. The teams start with their hovers in their respective goal boxes.

The goal of the Offense is to score against the other team. Points are scored in this manner:

A goal is scored whenever the ball counter crosses the goal line

The Playing Field

Hoverball events are held at arenas across the country, but the most popular one is the George Brett Memorial Arena on the outskirts of KG. 1, Kansas. The arena also holds straight duelling and racing events, but is specifically oriented towards team events of all kinds; multi-vehicle duels, team races, moto-ball, voilent and non-violent pedestrian events and, of course, Hoverball.

Arena Notes

The outer oval is steeply banked. The inner oval is banked, and interrupted at both ends by the gol exits. Moving from the central playing field to the banks is a D2 hazard for wheeled vehicles, and a D1 hazard for a hovercraft. The goals at oppsite ends of the arena extend through the normally-banked portion of the tracks and leads to the pits. The pit gates are 20 DP and will open automatically for fleeing vehicles in most normal events; in the death macthes and Amateur Night events, the gates remain closed for a minimum of 30 seconds.

Seating for 5,000 is located on both sides of the arena. The outer walls of the arena have 30 DP. Any vehicle that breaks through the walls will sail into the bleachers, disqualifying that participant.

Banks and Hovercrafts

The banked and steeply-banked tracks around the central playing area affect most vehicles normally, but hovercraft have a hard time with banked tracks. The normally-banked lower tracks inflicts an automatic 15 mph acceleration towards the inner edge of the tracks; the steeply-banked upper track inflicts an automatic 40 mph accelertion towards the inner edge of the track. This acceleration is applied the moment the hover counter is fully on the bank section, and at the start of every turn that the hovercraft stays there. Hovercraft gain no D bonuses or penalties to maneuver taken on banked tracks.