TANKS The Modern Age: Let's Start A War ! The First Game

The first match of TANKS The Modern Age between me and my mate Olli. We decided do do a 100 point match, using all tanks I have at this moment. We both had 68 points in tanks, leaving 32 points for crews and upgrades.

We talked about what to do with missiles since now we got no feedback from the official Facebook group. But it is only logical if they can not be blocked. There are some other small rules changes we made, but that were the same changes we do for the ww2 version of this game.
-
Update:
We got an response from their official Facebook group. They state:

"the target would get normal defense rolls. the missiles 

rules don't say anything about ignoring defense dice."

Hm, seems I was wrong with my interpretation of missiles rules.

-
The dice decided that Olli had the initiative advantage for the first round.

The attacker, this time it was the Soviet army, was played by Olli. It contained the two T-64 from the starterbox, a T-72 and a 2S1 howitzer, which is a custom unit, you can find its card in this post.

They were pretty good equipped and ready to fight. Since there was only one T-64 card in the starterbox, I went to the local copyshop and made a copy of the T-64 card which I already had.

The US troops had the role of the defender and were played by me. I had 4 tanks to dispose, two M1 Abrams, an M60 from the Plastic Soldier Company, I took a closer look at it in this post, and also I had a custom artillery unit, the M109, you can find its card in this post.

I almost got the full crew of Alpha 66, but also the other crewmembers and extras were a nice addition to the strong Abrams tanks.

The use of modified tradingcard hulls made the handling of the cards a lot easier.

The pictures were made at the end of each round. The initiative counter should lie on my site of the table on some of the pictures, but we forgot about it.

Round 0:

The fight is ready to begin. After we placed the scenery, we deployed our tanks and were ready to start the first round.

Round 1:

Nothing big happens, the US artillery got its first shot but misses almost completely. Except for one M1 Abrams and one T-64, no other tanks had the opportunity to fire.

Round 2:

First blood. The Soviet artillery was crushed by its American counterpart. It is getting warmer since the opponents get closer, more shots were fired.

Round 3:

The Soviets bring their tanks in position to rush a fast counterstrike but the Americans hold their ground. No casualities in this round.

Round 4:

The first kill for the Soviet tank platoon. The M60 got wrecked by the T-72. Now it is 3 versus 3.

Round 5:

It is getting hot. Both T-64 got destroyed, but Alpha 66 and his brave crew got also destroyed. This had a drop on the morale of the Americans since not only a heavy hitter is gone but also its valuable equipment.

Round 6:

The last remaining Soviet tank tried to rush and to destroy the remaining Abrams tank, the M109 would be an easy target. But the dice decided that the battle would went on for another round.

Round 7:

In a desperate attempt the T-72 held position and tried another time to score a close range hit but missed with all its dice, just as its opponent, the M1 Abrams. But the American artillery scored a fatal hit on the last Soviet tank and blew it away.

A first victory for the Americans in this new war. But US intelligence warns that the next attack may be be supported by heavy helicopters.

-

This game made fun, just as its predecessor, the rules are easy to understand, if you played ww2 TANKS then there are not much new rule elements. The use of artillery, even when they are custom units, has a big advantage, the US M109 destroyed two tanks.
Now since we played a first game, it is time to finish the 1:100 helicopters I already started, pick up the heli expansions at the Tactica to get their cards and then it is time for a revanche.
Will the Soviets dominate next time?

But before we will do that, we have planned to play a TANKS fun game of a ww2 tank platoon versus a ww3 tank platoon, just to see if the games are compatible. A coin will decide which ruleset we will use for that.

1:72 Modellcollect Fist Of War E-75 128mm Flak Zwilling

A closer look at the E-75 128mm Flakzwilling, produced 1:72 by Chinese manufacturer Modelcollect. Their "Fist Of War" range includes lots of walker styled tank modelkits and a lot of "What if..." kits. If you visit their homepage you will get an overview about their www2 range.

Let us take a look of the content of the box.

Beside the well made full colored construction manual, the box was filled with a lot of sprues.

The first two sprues belong to the main hull of the tank, or whatever you may call this. The cast is very nice without any flaws or visible ejectormarkings. A nice highlight are the tools which are casted as single parts.

The following sprue is included twice and has all parts to build the legs of the tanks, two per sprue. According the the construction manual, they can be build movable. As mentioned before, the cast is flawless.

The next sprues are for the main arnament of the tank, the 128mm Flakzwilling.

The sprue including the barrel comes twice, the remaining parts for the gun are included in a third sprue. These nice casted parts will sure result in an impressive double-barreled gun.

The final sprue included in this kit includes all parts for the close range weapon of the tank, a Kugelblitz turret at the bottom of the hull. The muzzles of the barrels are finely casted. Using this gun against infantry seems a little overkill to me, but maybe in Modelcollects 1947 some things went different then in our 1947.

Last but not least there is a set of decals included which contains some generic tanknumbers and Balkenkreuze, there are also two pairs of unit insignia decals including custom turret numbers. They will be stored in the scrapbook, maybe I will use them on another kit. This kit will be built without any decals or markings.

This is a nice modelkit, produced in high quality, with a strange weird world war two theme. I can recommend it, seems like it would make a lot of fun to build.

Even if you would not build the kit, you would get a nice 128mm Flakzwilling which could be used as stationary gun for a diorama, and the Kugelblitz turret would theoretically on a Panzer IV hull. And then the walker parts are still left for a kitbash.

1:100 Soviet Tanks For TANKS The Modern Age

The second battleforce for "TANKS The Modern Age" is painted and ready for some action. The Sovietunion got its first tank platoon while the Americans got their first opponent.

The two T-64 tanks from the starter box. As all other tanks in this post, they were painted in a simple scheme. Primed with AK Interactive Russian primer, followed by a basecoat of Revell Aquacolor Bronzegrün. The final step was drybrushing the tanks with Revell Aquacolor Olivgrau.

The machineguns got painted black, then I used a pencil to add a layer of graphite for a decent metallic look.

The T-72 tank on which I took a closer look in this post. Painted as mentioned above. His decals and all other decals I used on the four tanks from this post came from the "Gvozdika" kit, which I show in this post.

Before I applied the decals, I added a layer of clear gloss varnish on the spot where I wanted to have the decals, normally I do this with the brush. Then I applied "Mr Mark Setter" from Mr Hobby before I set the decals.

After the decals were dried I gave some "Mr Mark Softer", also by Mr Hobby, over the decal. In the past I had some issues with this stuff, once it dissolved some decals while I applied them what caused a mess. But it improves the final look of the decal.

Finally all kits were sealed with Revell Aquacolor matte varnish, mixed 1:1 with water. I also have some thinner laying arround, but I prefer to use water, it had never  disappoined me before.

The last Soviet Tank is a custom unit, find all infos in this post, it is the 122mm self-propelled 2S1 howitzer. As I mentioned in the closer look at it, I changed the headlight for an AA machine gun from the leftover bits of the T-64 kit.

Next week we will play a first game, maybe I have the Cobra and the Hind finished until them, but there is still one questions from the rules, which seems unclear:

If I attack with missiles, does the target tank throw his defence dice or will he not ?

As I understand the rules, he will not. If the target tank would throw his dice dice, I would see no practical use for rockets, since they have a movement penalty.

If the attacker moves twice before he shoots his missiles, they will hit on 6 only and can not cause any critical hit. If the target has defence dice in this situation, this will make a hit very hard to get, you will need more than the usual luck.

I am gonna ask in their official Facebook group, maybe I will get a proper answer from there.

Update:
We got an response from their official Facebook group. They state:

"the target would get normal defense rolls. the missiles 

rules don't say anything about ignoring defense dice."

Hm, seems I was wrong with my interpretation of missiles rules.

TANKS The Modern Age: Custom Unit #2

Once again the Montagsmaler went rogue and met on a Saturday. I continued the work on my Galactica model and the Meng Tiger, my mate Olli gave some of his tanks a repaint. After that I finished the next custom unit card for "TANKS The Modern Age".

This time I wanted to create an artillery unit for the Soviet army, at the moment only French troops have access to artillery units. For the Soviet troops I took the 2S1 selfpropelled "Gvozdika" howitzer kit from Zvezdas "Hot War - Battle For Oil" range which offers some nice potential gaming pieces.  I took a closer look at this kit in this post.

The first custom unit I created for the game and additional informations can be found in this post. At the moment no further cards are planned, except for some custom platoon cards for the "classic" TANKS game.

Here are the new custom cards for "TANKS The Modern Age". At the moment I will offer them as uncompressed bitmap only, just rightclick and save them.

UPDATE:
A remade card is now available in PDF, just follow this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hkFMz5MOns_h2MmKIn7JpWW1UpiiwDqg/view?usp=sharing

This is Version 1.0
The final version will be released as PDF file.

Space The Final Frontier

No, this aint' Star Wars. It's better.

Work in progress pictures of my Battlestar Galactica kit, it is made in 1:4105 by Revell with molds from Moebius Models, who design a lot of starship kits based on the remake of the Battlestar Galactica tv show and other science fiction series.

The 2004 remake of the classic Battlestar Galactica show, get some background informations about BSG in this PDF, is my favorite tv series ever, I could write much about it, and I was lucky when I got the Revell version of this modelkit for a low price at the bay, even when it was already started and 2 small parts were missing.
It was built but then I stashed it, I had other kits to finish on my priority list.

The first thing I did last weekend was to give the kit a layer of primer, for this I use some cheap stuff from the discounter, this stuff is pretty good but needs some time, I gave it 24 hours to dry.

The next step was adding grey, first a complete base layer, then I highlighted the armourplates with a lighter grey. After this I gave the kit a good layer af matte varnish, normally you use glossy varnish, later more on that.

And I absolutetely recommend using a airbrush for kits of this size.

This was followed by a premiere, for the first time I used a selfmade wash based on black oilpaint mixed with lightergas. I read so much about this that I had to try it for myself.

In German it would be easier to describe this than in my crappy English. If you want to try it for yourself , just look for tutorials on youtube.

Usally you need to use gloss varnish for a protective layer, the glossy surface protects the acrylic color from the solvent of the wash and of taking the oil color, but I used matte varnish because I wanted give the whole ship a dirty look.

You can find much better tutorials on this but all you have to do ist to apply the wash, wait some minutes and then start to rub it off with papertowels and cotton swaps.

Depending on the pressure and the rubbing  you will get the result that you want. The final step before you continue to paint this thing is to add another layer of glosscoat, because the oilcolor will not dry completely, it will cause a mess if you do not do this. Use only matte clearcoat if you want the colors to get dull, I used matte because I wanted this effect.

After that I applied some generic grey, not completely, only a very heavy highlighting. This is the actual building state of it.

A detail shot of my Revell Hind kit give you a better view of the look of the highlighted panel lines. The rest of the black was rubbed away. It is not perfect and I may redo some spots, but for my first real try (with glosscoats) of this technique I am pretty satisfied with the result. More on that and (of course) the Hind will come in future posts.

The big advantage of this is that the oilpaint will not completely dry, you can pause whenever you want, all what may be needed is some lightergas to get the paints wet again. And will need a proper stock of cotton swaps since you will need a lot of them.

The base of the stand was painted in Antikbronze, sealed with glosscoat and then I added a layer of oilwash. It was the first time I used metallic color through my airbrush, I had some concerns about cleaning the pistol after that. Maybe I will redo this thing, there are 2 spots that I messed up.

Beside of finishing this kitten, this weekends task is to finish the Galactica, instead of the red decal stripes I will use paint for them, this will definitely look better. I have to go through my source material since I have questions about coloring of some of the details.

At the moment I am preparing some posts, they will appear this weekend.

So say we all.

TANKS The Modern Age: Custom Unit #1

While I was browsing through the units of "TANKS The Modern Age", I noticed that the French army is the only one which can use artillery units. This brought up the idea to create a custom artillery unit, based on the values from the French unit, for the other armies of the game.

For the new custom unit I choosed a kit of Zvezdas "Hot War - Battle For Oil" range which offers some nice potential gaming pieces. The American side will get the M109 selfpropelled Howitzer, on which I took a closer look in this post. 

I found this template but decided against it and made my own template card from scratch. Of course I used a picture of the kit which I built. Even for an low experienced software user like me it was possible to do, using only MS Paint and Paint.net. The only problem was to find a fonttype which is readable at lower sizes.

The other minor problem was the scaling of the card. The template I created while I wrote this post was too big, because I mismatched the lenght of the card. But this was fixed.
The final card as seen on the picture is a little too small, but this happened because I forgot the autosizing of the printing software which my local copyshop uses. The card itself is in the right measurement.

The M109 with its comrades, I hope it will meet its expectations.

Now no more words, here are the new custom cards for "TANKS The Modern Age". At the moment I will offer them as uncompressed bitmap only, just rightclick and save them.

UPDATE:
A remade card is now available in PDF, just follow this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XVljlYe99oMufFm9zYUMShzp3MgoXtnP/view?usp=sharing


This is Version 1.0
The final version will be released as PDF file.

There are 3 possible ways to print the cards, you can use your homeprinter if you own one. If you choose to print the files at home, you may setup a textdocument with the files and export it as PDF before.

The second method is to go to the local copyshop and let them get printed there, that is what I did.

The third method is to go to your local drugstore, it may offer to make prints from your digital photos. This was tried also, I have to change one or two things on the card, and then I can try to print them on glossy or matte photopaper.
On the second picture of the post, prints fom the copyshop (2,4) and photoprints (1,3) are shown, I prefer the photographs.

I never thought about the possibilities of photo printing services, this may get a seperate post in the future, maybe when I will design the next custom unit, this time the Soviets will get their artillery unit.

1:100 US Tanks For TANKS The Modern Age

I recently build and painted my first tank platoon for "TANKS The Modern Age". It is made of two Abrams from Battlefront Miniatures and one M60 from the Plastic Soldier Company, all in 15mm scale.

The Abrams tanks from the Starterbox and the expansion pack. The upper model was build as the IPM1 Abrams while the other kit was build as the M1 Abrams. Ingame I will use them for all available Abrams variants for the game.

The M60E3 by the PSC. I took a closer look at this model in this post. I thought the tracks were wrong but after a quick internet search I found out they were accurate, at least for that scale.

Except for the primer I used only Revell Aquacolor paints and Vallejo washes on these. After the models got primed, I used Olivegreen for a basecolor, drybrushed with Feldgrau. The camouflage pattern was painted with Leatherbrown and Tar Black. Then a thinned black wash was applied. A last step was to paint the machine guns black, the I added graphite via a pencil for its metallic look.

Before I sealed the kits with matte varnish, the tracks were painted  with Olivegreen and Steel, followed by a first wash of thinned black, followed by some spots of Vallejo Rust wash.

No decals were used, but I may add them later.

No I will only have to finish the Cobra helicopter, it is already built and basecoated, and this time I tried something new, but more on this in a later post. Maybe this weekend, but before I will do this, it is time to continue the work on the Meng Tiger I showed in a previous post.

TANKS By Galeforce 9

A closer look at the new starterbox for Galeforce 9's  game "TANKS The World War II Tank Skirmish Game". It is a spinoff frome Battlefront miniatures "Flames Of War" tabletop game, but TANKS uses simple rules for tankbattles in 15mm/1:100 scale. This game is easy to learn and takes not much time to play.

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

The introduction on the back of the box says:

Through the pouring rain, you can just make out the smoke billowing from your platoon commander's tank. You are next in command. As if on cue, the radion buzzes. Corporal Stevens, always the cautious one, wants to retreat and regroup. But you know this is your time to strike. The enemy thinks they've got you on the run, got you cornered. It's time to show them what happens when you poke at the hornet's nest.

It's time to lead your men to victory!

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

Let us take a look at the plastic first:

Three tank model kits are included, two Sherman tanks and one Panther/Jagdpanther, 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 pictures obove show the Sherman sprue which is included twice while the pictures below show the multiple sprues of the Panther/Jagdpanther kit.

The assembly instructions are simplified, to build other versions than the tanks from this box you have to look online for building instructions, which can be found at the "Flames Of War" website.

I built the Panther, the 75mm Sherman and the uparmoured 76mm Sherman from this kit. All three kits were built without any issues, all parts fitted well. In future posts you will see them painted.

Next to the tank kits are the booklet with the rules and the rest of the needed materials. 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.

Also 12 12mm D6, 6 for each player, are included.

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

You get 4 German tank cars and 3 hero cards from this expansion. Compared to the Soviets, the selection is small, but it is a good start anyway. There are more tanks available for each nation, but you have to buy these expansions seperately.

The next nation are the Americans. They get cards for both possible Sherman variants from this box and two more tanks. 4 hero units are included and this is, as for the Germans too, a small but solid start.

The Britons also get 4 tank unit cards from this box but no hero cards. While they get 4 tanks as the Germans, this absence of hero cards limits their playability from this box.

For the Soviets are 8 tanks available. This is a big selection and I think I will get some Plastic Soldier Company or Zvezda tanks to use with these cards. No hero cards are included, but the Soviets get the most units in this box.

Also, each nation gets its special ammunition card.

Beside the ammunition cards you get a lot of global crew and upgrade cards usable for each nations tanks. No doctrines are included in the "TANKS" starterbox.

The final thing from the box are the damage cards. The offer some lucky hits and a lot af critical hits, each with its different effect on your tanks. There are some pretty mean damage effects you can draw.

This box is a solid starter. I have read the rules and they seem easy to understand, but if you want to check them out, you can download the rules from the official "TANKS" website. My mate Olli and I like it and we will play more tank battles in the future. And maybe we will find more players for this.

What I do not like on this box is the fact, that there are no hero cards for the Soviets and the British tanks. One or two of them would have been a nice addition.

Finally I have to say that this game is a good addition for my collection. You will read more about this game in the future, just as I am going to write more about its follow-up "TANKS The Modern Age".