In Cool Car Battles the idea is to win all your opponent’s cars for your garage, and to score as much as possible while doing it.
The pack is divided in two so you have half the cars each. Player 1 chooses a specification. If it’s better than Player 2, Player 2 can choose to Battle or Boost to try to retain their car and win your car, or they can forfeit (concede) their car. There are only a limited number of Battles and Boosts per game, so use them wisely.
Strategy and Point Scoring
Greater risk = more points
The riskier your move, the more points you earn. Each winning move scores a number of points. If you pick the best specification, this will not get you the most points because it’s not risky. You get more points for choosing a more risky specification.
For example, if your engine size is 9000cc, that’s big – in fact, there aren’t many cars that will beat that in most Garage Packs, so there’s very little risk because you are almost guaranteed to win with that spec. However, your car’s weight is likely to be 1600kg or more because it’ll be a big lumbering muscle car or truck, and that’s heavy. In fact, many cars will beat 1600kg, so weight is a risky spec to choose. If you do choose weight and win, you’ll get more points than choosing the obviously strong spec (engine size).
Boosts and Battles
A Boost gives you an instant improvement to some of your specifications. A Battle is a challenge to the other player to an event – your car against theirs.
You can only Battle in response to the other player being about to take your card (i.e. you don’t need to Battle if you win the first challenge against your car). You can Boost either as Player 1, or Player 2. Boosting improves horsepower, weight and engine size by 10%. If your horsepower is 400, it’ll now be 440; if your weight is 700, it’ll now be 630, and if your engine size is 8000, it’ll now be 8800. You only have a limited number of boosts, so use them wisely and only if you really want to retain that car.
There’s a fixed score for winning a battle. Winning using a boost gives you a slight penalty. If you have any battles remaining at the end of the game, you get a bonus for this.
How many Boosts and Battles per game?
You get three Boosts (one each for horsepower, weight and engine size), and one of each Battle (drifting, circuit racing, drag racing, car show and off-road).
How Battles are calculated
Each car is assigned a Battle score which you don’t know. In a Battle you’ll either win, lose, or it’ll be too close to call (in which case you still lose the car). We have personally seen every single car in these Garage Packs, and have talked to the owners, so we have a very good idea of their performance.
Each car is graded based on what we know about its performance in the different disciplines. If your car beats the other car in the Battle by enough of a margin, you win; if it’s too close, or the other car beats you, you lose that car. An example of too close to call is if a car in real life does an 11.2-second quarter mile and you challenge it with your 11.5-second car, that’s too close to call and you’ll lose (even though technically you could possibly win). However, if you challenge a 12.4-second car with your 11.4-second car, you’ll win. The problem is that you don’t know the times of the cars, so you’ll have to guess based on power vs weight for drag racing. If a car has a high power and low weight, and if it’s on slicks (or if it’s specifically a drag car), it’s going to have a good drag score.
When to use Boosts and Battles
If you are on your last one or two cars, use either boost, or the strongest battle you have remaining
If you are on your last few turns (e.g. you’re in a 40-card match, it’s fairly even and it’s turn 36), use any remaining boosts or battles to try to improve the number of cars in your garage
If you have a car with an awesome spec, but you just got beaten with it in the first challenge, that extra 10% might ensure you keep it. For example, a car that weights 700kg is already very light. There might be only one or two cars that would beat that. Using the Boost to get it down to 630kg could mean you keep that car.
Don’t use a Boost or Battle early on in the game except to try to retain a strong car – you want to try to avoid your opponent having two really strong cars in a row.
Types of cars and the battles to fight with them
4wd cars (e.g. rally cars) and those with tall suspension tend to be better at off-road battles; dragsters, race cars with slicks and ultra-low show cars are the worst. Unmodified 2wd cars will often beat modified 2wd cars that have been lowered. Old cars are surprisingly good off-road even with narrow tyres.
Japanese rear-wheel drive cars usually are best for drifting (as well as dedicated drifting cars); high power muscle cars are average. Don’t even think about drifting a front-wheel drive car or a dragster.
High power muscle cars and dedicated dragsters are best in drag racing battles.
Racing cars are best for circuit racing battles, followed by highly modified lowered street cars – drag racers, off-roaders, older standard cars and low ‘n’ slow muscle cars are the worst
For the car shows you’ll have to guess – as well as having witnessed and photographed all these cars, we assembled a panel of 4 experts (including a car show judge) to determine who wins and it’s based on a number of factors including how modified the car is, its condition, its desirability, any recent sales of a similar car for a lot of money, and so on!
Other strategic decisions
If you’re playing a 20-round game, you’ll be using a Boost or Battle on many of your turns, perhaps even most of the turns where the other player chooses. 40-round games require more thought about when to use them, and particularly which cars become unbeatable in certain specs when using a Boost.
Don’t be afraid to concede an average car, rather than waste a Boost or Battle.
If it’s your turn and you suspect that your opponent has a weak car, try to pick a more risky specification to get a higher score. If you’re good at counting cards then you’ll have an idea of what cards haven’t come up yet.
If you want to win achievements, you’ll have to carefully consider how you are scoring, and whether you choose to Battle or Boost on that car!
If you are playing a car and you know that your opponent has already used a Boost or Battle with a particular strength, you could choose your specification based on knowing that their car wouldn’t be able to be strengthened in a specific area.
