TANKS The Modern Age by Galeforce 9

 

A closer look at the new starterbox for Galeforce 9's new game "TANKS The Modern Age".It is a remake of TANKS with an advanced ruleset. This game is a spinoff of Team Yankee, the tabletop game based on this book. I did not read it, but I have this one in my library and it seems both books almost happen in the same fictional universe.

In a future post I will go in detail with the rules, in this post it is only about the content of the starterbox.

A quick look on the back offers a first impression of the game. It is a fictional world war three scenario, I copied the official introduction from the game's website:

Sunday, 4th of August, 1985 the Soviet Union attacks.
The attack came quickly after news of the Soviet advance reached you. Your men have been preparing for this battle, but the reality of it actually happening is still hard to comprehend. But they’ve really started it -World War III.

Your orders are to hold the ridge, no matter what, and that’s what you plan to do. Scanning the battlefield you see your ITVs open fire on the advancing Soviet tanks as they pour out of the distant treeline and into the valley. Now is the time to act.

They may have started this war, but you’re going to end it!

The content of the box. All gamematerials are included, only some glue is needed to build the tanks and start playing.

Let us take a look at the plastic first:

Three tank model kits are included, one M1 Abrams and two T-64, all three in 15mm scale. All parts are nicely sculpted and casted with no sinkholes or flash, after construction no ejector markings will be seen.
The assembly instructions are simplified, to build other versions than the M1 Abrams you have to look online for building instructions, which sure can be found at the Team Yankee website.

Next to the tank kits and the booklet with rules is the rest of the needed material. The stuff that is included looks fine, some terrain pieces and the needed game counters and markers. Both made from durable cardboard. I would use the terrain if I would not prefer "real" terrain. Luckily I gave this stuff not away, now I can use it for the game.
Also 12 12mm D6, 6 for each player are included.
On the last picture you can see the aviation marker for the helicopters and the advantage marker, two new elements of the game.

Since every tank uses a stats card, let us look at them in the next section of my closer look at the new starterbox for Galeforce 9's new game "TANKS The Modern Age".

The unit cards of the United States of America's army.

This introduction can be found on the official "TANKS The Modern Age" website. There are 10 units to choose from, including one helicopter. It is possible to use models from other sources with these cards.
In the second row you can see the three possible variants of the M1 Abrams kit included in this game.

The unit cards of the Soviet Union's army.This introduction can be found on the official "TANKS The Modern Age" website. There are 9 units to choose from, including one helicopter. It is possible to use models from other sources with these cards.

I do not like the fact, that there is only one card available for the two T-64 tanks, what means, I will have to make a second card by myself.

The unit cards of Great Britain's army.

This introduction can be found on the official "TANKS The Modern Age" website. There are 8 units to choose from, including one helicopter. It is possible to use models from other sources with these cards.

Not much to say about these forces but they offer a nice selection of light vehicles.

The unit cards of France's army.

This introduction can be found on the official "TANKS The Modern Age" website. There are only 5 units to choose from, but it includes two helicopters to choose from. It is possible to use models from other sources with these cards.

Including two helicopters offers an interesting choice, would you use a heavy tank hunter or would you use a helicopter with strong weapons against light vehicles.
Also the French are at the moment the only nation whicht can use artilly units.

The unit cards of the Federal Republic of Germany's army.This introduction can be found on the official "TANKS The Modern Age" website. There are only 4 units to choose from, including one helicopter. It is possible to use models from other sources with these cards.

At the moment West Germany offers the smallest choice of vehicles but with the Leopard 2 they have one of the strongest tanks of the whole game.


Each nation also has a platoon card with its special advantage. This would have been a pretty nice addition to the original TANKS game, I will prepare those cards in the near future and offer them for download.

The last section shows the included gamecards, starting with the damage deck.

The damage cards offer some lucky hits and a lot af critical hits, each with it's different effect on tanks or helicopters if needed. There are some pretty mean damage effects you can draw.

15 crewcards are included, 10 generic crew members which can be used by all nations, 4 American Heroes (the crew of #66 from team yankee?), but only one Soviet hero. I do not like this, I think it is onesided compared to the contents oft the ww2 TANKS game.

I made a quick comparison of the generic crew members of the ww2 and the ww3 TANKS games, 9 of them were included in both games.  

The last cards are the equipment cards of which 17 are included. 16 generic equipment card which can be used by all nations, and only one card for the American forces. Another thing I do not like, why not at least two things for both, Americans and Soviets?

I also made a quick comparison of the generic equipment cards of the ww2 and the ww3 TANKS games, 9 of them were included in both games. 

As usual, when I take a closer look at things I want to state that this is not a review, it is only my first impression of this box.

This box is a solid starter. At the moment I have no time to read the rules, but if you want to check them out, you can download the rules at Beasts Of War after registration. The first impression is that the new gameplay elements like missiles and helicopters will make the game more dynamic. Seems like a nice game like it's predecessor.
Since there are some cards used in both TANKS games, it is possible to use dublicates from the ww2 in "TANKS The Modern Age".

What I do not like on this box is the fact, that there are almost no nationspecific crew members and equipment cards, to get more of them you will have to buy more extensions.

Finally I have to say that this game is a good addition for my collection, next year (hehe) the tanks will get some paint and then it is time for a first game. I have the Revell Cobra and Hind kits, both in 1:100, and it seems like they found their destination.
Too bad that I have no crew or equipment cards for them but I will make some private backups of the cards from the official website until the helicopter kits are available at my favorite shops.
But more on that in a future post.