PAH Helicopter Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the PAH helicopter expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" by Galeforce 9. It is a remake of TANKS with an advanced ruleset. Also, it is a spinoff of the tabletop game Team Yankee, which is based on the same named book. I still have to read it, but I have read "The 3rd World War. The Untold Story" by General Sir John Hacket and it seems both books play in the same fictional universe.

First let us take a look at the 1:100 BO-105 PAH modelkit which comes with this expansion:

Once again Battlefront miniatures offers a nice modelkit without any issues. Not this, not that, if you read one of my closer looks at other BM modelkits you should know everything about this kits quality.

The flightbase is casted in good quality, gives you two height options and offers the choice for magnetization, but it works fine in my Cobra/Hind helis without magnets. This are not the actual parts included in the box, but the parts in this box are identical to them.

After a look at the included modelkit, now let us take a look at the unit itself:

The BO 105 PAH shares its Initiative of 7 and its Armour of 3 with all other helicopters from the game (except for the French 20mm Gazelle helicopter). With 3 hitpoints it is pretty weak and except for its 5 dice missile attack it is unarmed. This restricts its attack abilities because of the special rules for missiles but for 23 points this is strong unit for every German platoon when eqipped with a good crew and extra equipment.

The other cards included in this expansion are:

6 crewcards are included, first there are 2 hero cards for German use only.

The pilot "Günter Weber" offers for 5 points not only an initiative boost of 2, also you may roll a dice after an attack, at a 5 or 6 the helicopter can change its elevation. This seems very powerful for hit and run attacks.

"Friedrich Wulf", the German gunner, gives 2 initiative in the shooting phase and lets you re-roll 2 Attack dice when the helicopter has a speed token. This is strong crewmember especially since this helicopter is only armed with missiles which have special rules.

The remaining crewmembers can be used by all other nations. The "Dead-Eye-Gunner" lets you upgrade one hit to a critical hit, for only 3 points, this gunner may get down helicopters pretty fast. The "Sharpshooter Gunner" could be a pretty powerful addition, its pretty high cost gives you the advantage that your enemy has to draw 2 cards when hit critically and you have to decide which card counts and which would be discarded. The "Inspired Commander" grants additional 2 Initiative for 4 points.

While these 3 crewmembers can join every vehicle, the "Cunning Pilot" can only give helicopters plus 1 initiative in the movement phase. This is is a cheap (only 1 point) but relatively useful pilot.

Finally 4 equipment/doctrine cards are included in this box.

As also included in the HIND and the Cobra expansion, "Countermeasures" and "Defense Maneuvres" cards are included in this box, both are very useful for defending attacks, worth 2 and 3 points this equipment may save your helicopter in critical situations.

"Spearhead" gives the vehicle which has equipped the card the chance to move before the game starts. This may be ok for 2 points, I still did not figure it out, its use may depent on the actual game setup. The last card included is "Ambush", when discarded this card grants you a massive initiative boost in the shooting pase of the actual round. This may not only be useful for the PAH, as I would use it on low initiative tanks like the T-55 variants.

Overall this is a pretty nice unit when equipped with the right stuff. Following the German "First Panzer" (hehe) special this could be a powerful unit for a reasonably price, compared to the point costs of equal equipped other nations helicopter, for example, a fully equipped HIND may easily cost more than 50 points compared to this little thing with only 43 for a well equipped PAH.

The difference could be a Marder or even a Leopard 1.

The modelkit included is made in good quality. What could be seen as an issue is the fact that there is neither a clear canopy nor a cockpit included, but since this is a gamepiece, it is ok.

With the experiences made from a first game with air units, in future games these small flyers will be tough opponents with a potential high killrate. 

For a rough size comparison I re-uploaded the picture below of the PAH with a Revell 1:100 from this post. The final picture of the post comes from my mate Olli and shows the helicopter in finished state.