PASSCAR - Test Drive

I have a workable first draft to my NASCAR themed, compact, grid based (war) game.  Below are some quick pictures showing just how compact it is.  What you don't see in the pictures is a separate page of notes describing driver/car skills, current focus points (bonuses), and wear points for each car.  In the future, I will likely design information sheets for each car, hopefully playing card size, to replace the notebook. 

Table Space Requirement about 6"x12" grid and one sheet of paper

The game played pretty well.  I set it up a few times for some of the more complex decisions.  Sometimes the AI doesn't act like I want it to, but it did OK for a first run.  The player controlled decisions seemed interesting but not paralyzing, a good sign.  Because I didn't play a whole game end-to-end, but set up small vignettes of potential situations, I didn't get a good feel of how the narrative aspects would play out.  

Down the Front Straight

Close-up of Lead Pack

The cars still need some work.  I haven't decided how I'm going to handle the windshield/glass painting.  I have a sky blue and the gray on the gray/blue car.  I've tried mixing them, but the gray is a better brand of paint and overpowers the blue the point that it is barely distinguishable from the natural gray at concentrations of only 10%. I also have vinyl stickers cut out for numbers and simple sponsor logos to put on the back of each car.  It doesn't impact the game at all, but gets players a little more invested in their car's success.