I’ve seen the “Code War” game in Origins and Gen Con programs in the past and thought it sounded like an intriguing idea for a board game. The event catalog describes it this way:

Program a robotic tank to traverse a rally course, passing check points as you go. Bump other players’ tanks or blast them with your cannon to gain a competitive advantage. The player who completes the course first wins. Ten minutes to learn. One hour to play.

That’s a pretty good description of the game. You play on a board which has 5 checkpoints placed on it. There are also several brick walls which serve as navigation obstacles that your tank must maneuver around. A number of orange cones are placed randomly on the board as well.

Each player has a tank, which starts the game on one edge of the board. On each turn, the players compile a “program” to run the tank for that turn. This is done by arranging the following seven card types in any desired order:

Move 1: The tank moves forward 1 square in the direction it’s currently facing.

Move 2: The tank moves forward 2 squares in the direction it’s currently facing.

Back Up: The tank moves backward 1 square in the direction it’s currently facing.

Turn: The tank turns 90 degrees to the left or right (at the player’s discretion at “run time”).

Fire or Lay Mine: The tank fires its gun or lays a mine (at the player’s discretion at “run time”).

Side Slip: The tank shifts left or right one space without changing the direction it’s facing.

Repeat/Repair: If your tank has been disabled because it ran into a wall, cone, or mine, this instruction will return it to operating status. If your tank is in operating status, this card will instead repeat the previous instruction it performed.

You only get one of each card. Depending on your position in the race through the checkpoints, you may choose from 3 to 5 of the instruction cards to use in your tank’s program. If you’re in first place, you may only use 3 cards. If you’re in last place, you may use 5 cards. Everyone else uses 4 cards (or less).

At the start of each turn, all the players arrange their instruction cards into a program for the tank. For example, I might compile a stack like this:

Move 2
Repeat/Repair
Move 1
Fire or Lay Mine

This program would have my tank move forward two squares, then move forward two more, then move forward 1 more, and fire its gun (or lay a mine). However, the reality is that my tank may not get to do these things. On each turn, a different player moves first. If I’m the one who moves first this time, then my tank is almost guaranteed to do what its program says it should. If I’m the last player to move, however, that may not happen. For example, if another tank moved first and bumped mine next to a wall, my “Move 2″ instruction might disable my tank for that turn, preventing it from doing anything else.

That’s part of the strategy in this game. When you move first, you have the option to pretty much do whatever you like. If you move second, or third, or last, you have to try to anticipate what the players before you might do. If you think they’re going to push you in front of an obstacle, you might start with a Turn instruction instead of a move. If you think one of them might wind up in back of you, you might want to drop a mine.

With a name like “Code War” you might expect this to be a violent game, but it’s actually not. When one tank shoots another, all it does make the tank spin around a bit (the player who fires gets to decide which direction the tank faces after being shot). When a tank runs into a wall, it’s flipped onto its side and damaged, not destroyed. In reality, this is a race game with a “wargame” name.

Code War is an enjoyable, simple to play game. It would be suitable for children or adults, and doesn’t require any computer skill to understand and play. I recommend checking it out if you find it on a convention schedule and have an open slot available. GM and creator Tom Cleaver does a great job explaining the game and the mechanics are simple enough that you can focus on your strategy rather than making sense of the rules.