AMX-10P Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the AMX-10P tank expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" from Galeforce 9. Set in a fictional 1980ies world war 3 background, this game is the followup to ww2 "TANKS" (also made by GF9) with an slightly advanced ruleset and air units.

As usual, this kind of expansion contains a 1:100 modelkit made by Battlefront Miniatures and some cards for the game. First a look at the kit which came in this box:

The kit comes in one green sprue containing all parts needed to built this tank. I can not see any flaws, there are virtually no mouldlines to remove, no sinkholes were found and any ejectormarks would not be seen when this kit is built. As usual, this is a nice engineered kit, like all of the newer BFM kits.

After a look at the plastic, next are the cards included in this box, first we have the card for the unit itself:

The French AMX-10P is a light support tank with a relatively high Initiative and the "Scout" ability which means this tanks should stay in cover. It has with its Rapid Fire ability 5 dice against unarmoured vehicles and helicopters, and if it is equipped with MILAN missiles it has the ability to attack any unit on the battlefield. But this arnament is needed since its base attack is only 2. For 13 points (including the missile option) you get a light tank which is pretty fragile with only 3 hitpoints and 0 armour, but it may be a threat to any enemy unit.

Beside the actual card for the unit itself, the following crew and equipment cards are included in this expansion:

First there is the equippable "MILAN Firing Post" missile launcher for only 2 points which adds the option to  attack with 4 missiles. This may be a nice option, but I think it will not be used often, to be honest, I think that the French forces for "TANKS The Modern Age" can rely on the AMX-30 with its Rapid Fire 5 ability.

Then there are (as usually) the hero units for the French.

The driver "Henry Delacroix" offers the possibilty to re-roll one Defence dice when the tank has a speed token, this is not bad for the cost of 4 points. When you discard the card, this ability is gone but the tank then can do an additional single move in the movement phase without adding a speed token.

"Andre Mareau", the gunner, adds an additional Attack point and gives the ability to re-roll up to 2 Attack dice when the target is in close range. Costing 5 points, this seems like a must-have for any French platoon, since this card offers a big advantage.

Next is a card which the (French only) "charging" pre-fix, this time it is the "Charging Gunner" for 3 points. He adds an additional Initiative point during the Shooting Phase. Since this is one of those revealable cards, when this is revealed, for that round the tank gets an additional attack die when shooting the side of the enemies tank for that round.

The last card included is the "Artillery Observer", which is well known from the ww2 TANKS. Just read the text on the card for yourself , this card is very useful, if you rely on artillery tanks this is a must have worth two points.

There it is,  a closer look at the third and final expansion for the French.

It offers a light support unit capable in bringing down helicopters. The kit of this model once again has a high standard and the grade of detail in fine for its scale. The new crewmembers offer more tactical choices, especially the "Artillery Observer" is very useful, since the French are the only nation which can use artillery.

But the usefulness of this unit is unclear. For only 2 more points you could choose the AMX-30 which has way better stats. But since all reviews for the French expansions are done, it is time to get a view at the possible tactics and platoon builds for them in a future post.

This has nothing to do with the AMX-10P, but since the tank got painted in the same style and I am to lazy to take a picture of it, here is a picture of the 3Dprinted/bitsbox AMX-AUF1 artillery tanks for my French platoon, in the foreground a potential custom unit can be seen.

It is possible that I will add one or two additional posts tonight, at the moment the "TANKS The Modern Age" Cobra helicopter and another 3Dprinted/bitsbox hybrid are waiting for their sealing with matte varnish.

AMX-30 / AMX AUF1 Tank Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age & Team Yankee AMX 30 Tank Platoon

A closer look at the AMX-30/AMX AUF1 tanks expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" by Galeforce 9. This game is a remake of ww2 "TANKS" with extended rules, and a spin-off of "Team Yankee". It contains a 1:100 model kit and some cards for the game.

First let us take a look at the plastic model kit that is included:

The kit comes in 2 green sprues containing enough parts to build either an AMX-30 or an AMX AUF1. Whatever you choose, there will be one complete turret left over for the bitsbox.

The kit came without any flaws. It is made in the same high quality as the other newer BM plastic kits I know. Neither sinkholes nor flash can be found on the sprue, a quick look offered that there are no ejector marks that would be seen when the kit is built.

After a look at the plastic, let us take a look at the cards which are included in this expansion. First there are the cards for the available units from this box:

The French AMX-30 offers with an Initiative of 6 and an Attack of 4 a solid base unit. Having an armour of 1 is ok, but only 5 hitpoints makes this one of the weakest battle tanks in the game. Sure, it is not the best tank in the game, but it is better than it may seem because of the AMX-30 special ability.

This tank is equipped with the "Rapid Fire" ability, granting this tank 5 dice against helicopters and unarmoured vehicles. For 13 points, this tank is a must-have for the French, even when there would be more battletanks to choose from.

The French AMX AUF1 is the only official artillery unit in the game. With a defense of 0 and only 3 hitpoints this thing is at the same level as most light tanks from the game. It has the lowest initiative in the game, with only 1 it moves first but shoots last what is a big disadvantage.

Its strenght is the "Artillery" ability, which lets it shoot over other tanks. "Brutal" is very useful too, it lets you change one hit to a critical hit.

With 10 points this unit is very cheap, but its usefulness may not be given in every game.

After a look at the units, let us see which other cards come with his game expansion:

There are 4 crewcards and one equipmentcard in this expanxion. First there are two French hero cards.

The commander "Paul Durand" adds 2 Initiative and 1 armourpoint. You also may place up to 2 tanks not before the game starts but in the first rounds repair phase. For 5 points this commander should join every French Platoon.

The gunner "Laurent Dyre" adds 2 Initiative during the attack phase, its special ability, just read it for yourself, is useful for any tank with a high Initiative. Pretty good for only 4 points.

The next 2 crewmembers are French use only and the new type of "Revealable" cards.

The "Charging Commander" adds for 3 points +1 initiative while the movement phase. When revealed, the tank gets +1 Armour for that round.

Next is the "Charging Driver" who adds +2 Initiative during the movement phase. When this card gets revealed, the tank gets the "Fast" ability for that round. This is a nice addition for only 3 points.

Last there is the "Bomblet Bombardment" for 4 points. Usable only for artillery tanks, it grants you an unmodified D3 attack versus the target tank and all other tanks in close range when discarded. This could be a big gamechanger, especially when combined with the "Artillery Observer" which is included in the AMX-10 expansion.

This expansion is solid, the model comes in a high quality and offers two choices to build. The units for the game are not bad, but I hope that GF9 will make more French battle tank expansions. The addition of the new French crewmembers with the "Charging" tag is nice, I will see how useful they are.

As usual, the only negative point on this model are missing crewmember figures, at least one figure would have been nice, and also there are no decals included.

The main battle tank costing only 13 points, makes me think that the French are a mass army compared to the USA or germany.

I got 2 AMX expansions, but only two of them are not enough for a good game, especially since they are not the best units available and they have a quite low cost of points, that is why I had to get some more AMX tanks trying to score victories by strenght in numbers. Getting a Leopard 2 or an M1A1 down one on one seems pretty impossible, but what if the ratio would be 3:1?

A closer look at the AMX-30 platoon for "Team Yankee" from Battlefront Miniatures. Team Yankee is a ww3 tabletopgame in 15mm/1:100 scale which uses the same models than "TANKS The Modern Age". That is why I choosed this box to improve my French tank platoon.

This box contains 5 AMX-30/AMX AUF1 sprues, which were already shown in this post.

Also included are some unitcards for "Team Yankee". At the moment they do not interest me, but since my mate Olli and I have rulebooks for the game, it is not impossible, that you may read some Team Yankee battlereports in the far future.

More interesting than the unitcards are the other things which came with this box.

First there is a small sprue with 6 tankcommander figures. It is made from the new plastic which is used for Battlefronts Miniatures figuresets. It feels minimal softer than resin or the Restic stuff used by Mantic.

This addition is very useful because the figures could be used for other nations.

Finally there is a small decalsheet with names for the tanks included. I did not test them, but I know, there are two different types of decals available from BM.

They are very thin and either they will need very long in the water, like the "Flames Of War" decals, or they need only a short period of watering before they can be applied, like their "Team Yankee" counterparts. No matter which type they are, all BF decals I used before were pretty fine even when sometimes it got tough to apply them properly.

I already started to work on the first tanks from these boxes.

On the picture you can see another bitsbox/3Dprint hybrid.

Due to the fact that I will get 7 spare turrets when I will have built all of one or the other AMX variants, I searched through Thingiverse, looking for possible spare parts and found this AMX AUF1 file.

Printing the hull took about 4 1/2 hours, but when it was finished, I saw that I will have to recallibrate the 3D printer since the surface details were not printed properly.
I can replace this anytime with a better print, but for now it is ok, I think the big turret distracts from the hull. The turret was magnetized using the method I used before.

I think I will print 3 more of these hulls, a platoon of 4 AMX AUF1, each under 20 points with useful equipment, may be pretty fragile, but with the right support units they may be a tough challenge.

A simple desert pattern was chosen, at least for the AUF1. The paintjob is not finished yet, there are some things left to do, highlights, decals, varnish, all that stuff.

All artillery units will get commander figures. To have something different, I used a "Flames Of War" tank commander with a French head with Kepi (also FOW), just  to let them look like the troops of the French Foreign Legion.

After I have uploaded the next closer look at the last remaining French expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age", after that and the first games using them I may write a post about the French forces for the Game. And since the amount of available choices for the Germans and French is very low, you may expect some more custom units for the game.