Gazelle Helicopter Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the Gazelle helicopter expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" by Galeforce 9. It is a remake of TANKS with an advanced ruleset and additional air units, and a spinoff of Team Yankee (based on this book). I did not read it, but I have this one in my library and the scenario seems equal to me.

As all other "TANKS The Modern Age" expansions, this pack contains an 1:100 model kit, taken from the "Team Yankee" range, the matching unit card(s), additional equipment/crew/doctrines cards, and a flyerbase for the model.

First let us take a look at the kit from this expansion:

The kit comes in one green sprue which contains all parts to build the Gazelle. The casting quality is good, there is minimal flash to remove, but there are annoying ejectormarks on the bottom of the rotorblades and the HOT launchers.

But except for that, the kit comes in the usual good quality as the other 1:100 kits for the game. I think, that building this kit would go fast and without any issues.

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, they are identical to them.

After a look at the included modelkit, now let us take a look at the cards which are included in this expansion. First there are the cards for the unit itself:

The French Gazelle 20mm has a initiative of 10 what makes it the last to move but first to fire what is a clear advantage. Beside that it shares its Armour of 0 and only 3 Hitpoins with all other helis except for the Hind. Its "Rapid Fire" ability offers 5 dice against unarmoured vehicles and helicopters, but that is needed with an base Attack of only 2. For 21 points you would get a basic helicopter hunter for the French.

The Gazelle HOT version shares its Initiative of 7 and its Armour of 3 with all other helicopters from the game, except for its 20mm version. 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 a strong unit for every French platoon.

After a look at the unit cards, now let us take a look at the equipment/crew/doctrines cards which are included in the Gazelle expansion.

7 crewcards are included in this expansion. As in the other helicopter expansions there are 2 heroic crewmembers for this specific nation and some crewcards usable for all nations.

The French pilot "Baptiste Deschamp" offers for the cost of 6 points not only 2 additional initiative points, also you may change the elevation of the chopper at the end of the movement phase without to add a speed token. This sounds very useful.

"Clement Martin", the French (helicopter only) gunner changes every attack into a Sideshot what is a high advantage, reducing the opponents defence dice by 1. With 8 points this card is pretty expensive, I will see how useful it is.

Then there are the cards which can be used by all nations.

First there is the "Defensive Pilot" which lets you reroll one defense dice for the cost of 4 points,  the "Risky Pilot" gives you a bonus if you attack at close range for the cost of 3 points. Both are good alternatives if you play more than 1 Gazelle helicopter in a game.

The remaining 3 crewmembers are not limited to helicopters. The "Inspired Commander" offers 2 additional initiative points for the cost of 4 points, but I would prefer "Baptiste Deschamp", who offers for 2 additional points and a very good advantage.

Two gunners are included,  the "Bloodthirsty Gunner" adds 1 attack dice at close range. For 3 points this may be useful for a tanks, but in comparison to the fragility of helicopters the only helicopter which may have use for this card is the Soviet Hind.

The "Sharpshooter Gunner" could be a pretty powerful addition, its cost of 5 gives you the advantage that your enemy has to draw 2 cards at the first critical hit and you have to decide which card counts and which would be discarded.

Last, there are 3 equipment/doctrines cards included.

"Extra Ammunition" lets you reroll your attack dice when discarded, for 2 points this card is useful for every unit in the game.

As also included in the HIND, the PAH, and the Cobra expansions, "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.

This expansion is a nice addition for each French platoon. The kit is almost without any faults, and the cards included offers some nice options to customize your Gazelle.

The only negative point on this and all other TANKS games expansions is that there are no decals included in this box and this sucks. I am still looking for a cheap kit to loot for some French decals.

But except for that an additional air unit is always welcome. Based on experiences from earlier games, helicopters are strong units and the Gazelle is no exception.

I will build the Gazelle equipped with HOT launchers, since the French main battletank has the "Rapid Fire" ability, what you may see in one of the nexts posts when I will take a closer look at the next French unit for "TANKS The Modern Age".

-

Beside that, I continued some work on new custom stuff for "TANKS The Modern Age". As I mentioned in earlier posts, I would like to try to write a plane expansion for the game.

Originally this was planned for the ww2 version of TANKS but there is no reason why the planned rules would not fit in a ww2 setting with the matching models and cards.

Just for fun as the other custom units which were made before, but containing not only attack planes, but also new units and some additional equipment like new air-to-air missiles for helicopters and matching new rules for all of the new stuff.

But that means that I would have to think about new game mechanics, for helicopters, you may choose not move, but a plane has always to move, and I think it would have to move in the attack phase too. As also in the command phase.

And it should have only maximal 45 degree turning abilities, since it is a plane and not an UFO. I do not want to make it too complicated because this is just a fun project. Maybe it turns out stupid or it may be a big fun. When it is finished, you will find it in this blog.

The other thing I would have to find a solution for are the pointcosts for the unit itself and all its armament, pilots and equipment. As I wrote in the SU-25 post, a potential game unit, the point costs for this stuff have to be well balanced.

This would be powerful units, that is why I decided so set the costs for ground attack fighter higher then the costs for a well equipped Hind, in other words, would you rather take 2 M1A1 or would you take an A-10.

TANKS The Modern Age: Custom Unit #5

Tonight I bring you another custom unit for "TANKS The Modern Age", the Raketenjagdpanzer Jaguar 1. It is already the fifth custom unit card which I created with some help of my mate Olli, and there is at least one more which I will do.

The choices for Bundeswehr players are limited with only 4 available units, that is why I made this one. One additional choice is always welcome. Armed with 4 missiles this may be a threat to every unit on the battlefield but as usual, it is only a reskin of an existing unit. For this tank I used the US M901 TOW system as template.

The new Raketenjagdpanzer Jaguar 1 also gets a custom equipment card, which will be pretty useful when equipped.

The PDF file with the new units can be found in my Google drive at this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12e0DQCNMjtVVSAVJ1ghTX1xYlQ-Ke6K8/view?usp=sharing

In the previous post you can see the model which will be used in the game, it was 3D printed. More informations where you can find nice models to print also can be found.

By the way, the French tank troops are on their way, and it will not only bring new closer looks at them, but also it seems that one of the kits offers the possibilty of making 2 kits from one box with some bitsrecycling methods, as I already did for the BMP and the M901/M163 expansions. Another try of magnetizing may be done too.

And after I did this, there may be a chance for a bigger expansion for the game. As a small hint I will only mention Frogfeet and Warthogs, a rough draft is already finished.

More on that soon.

3D Printed 15mm Raketenjagdpanzer Jaguar 1

While browsing through the net I found this very great collection of 3D printable cold war vehicles at Thingiverse and thought, maybe I could try to print one or two of them, just to check how good our cheap little Anet A8 would handle them.

Since this is a very low-end printer, I would not be surprised if the finished print would look crappy. But as you may have guessed this time the things went fine. I choosed this little thing, the Raketenjagdpanzer Jaguar 1, for a first try.

The piece directly from the printer. It took 3 1/2 hours to print and weights only 12 grams. I did not calculate the energy cost but the material cost for the Jaguar 1 is arround 25 cent which is not much, compared to the 20 Euro we paid for the whole filamentspool of 1000 gram.

I would like to know how many modelbuilders are using 3D printing technology since it is effordable for almost everyone. I think our A8 costed 250 Euro, including all extra parts, the printer itself was at 150 Euro, and this was 1 1/2 years ago. Nowadays you should get better models for this price.

But as I wrote before in previous posts, even this low-class 3D printer makes so many things possible. Maybe one day you will see the glorious troops of NOD defeating their foes in a game of TANKS.

After a cleanup the Jaguar is ready to get some paint. The quality and the grade of detail is good. I had nothing more to do then to remove the residue. A rought check of the measurements shows that the models height and width are in scale but its hull is 3 mm too short.

But I do not care about this, it would only be seen with another 1:100 Jaguar, e.g. from Battlefront, in direct comparison, that is why I definitively will print more vehicles from this collection.

As you have seen on the first picture of this posting, the tank has already got its paintjob. More pictures of finished Raketenjagdpanzers Jaguar 1 will follow when my mate Olli has painted his model.

Maybe I already made and uploaded a new custom unit for "TANKS The Modern Age" inspired from this, we will see in the later evening ;) when I will be compiling some future posts, but do not ask what I will be posting later, I am still unsure about it.

TANKS The Modern Age: Custom Unit #4

After I took a closer look at the BTR-80 apc by Zvezda in the last posting, I made a custom unit card for it, as I did for the Zvezda M2 Bradley too. Once again a new custom unit card for "TANKS The Modern Age" was created.

This new unit is a reskin of the US LAV-25, with the same values, it offers a high initiative AA unit. Compared to the original tank, the values are not accurate, but I wanted to give the Soviet player a new unit as I did for the US forces before. I think you can not have enough choices to choose from.

As the 3 units I created before this one, you can find the PDF file with the new card at my google drive by following this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YcvFV4eeOjZTdmv7-6RmBngo77FHWbvw/view?usp=sharing

For the moment that are all custom units that I created until now. To give you a litte foresight, there may follow a German artillery unit in the future, but for the German version of the M109 I will have to do some modifications to the barrel of the Zvezda M109 kit.

Zvezda 1:100 Soviet Personnel Carrier BTR-80

A closer look at the Soviet BTR-80 armoured personell carrier model kit. This 1:100 kit is produced by the Russian manufacturer Zvezda for their game "Hot War - Battle for Oil". But as all 1:00 Zvezda model kits, this model could be used for any game with a matching setting.

As also the Bradley, I got this one for a discounted price. So let us see, what Zvezda has to offer with this modelkit:

The kit comes in 2 sprues. The cast is good, without any issues. A minimal amount of mouldlines has to be removed, but there are no sinkholes. 

This BTR-80 is made up from only 8 parts plus the 8 roadwheels, the turret is casted as a single piece.

Also included is a set of generic numeric decals. These decals are printed in good quality, there where no issues when they were applied.

Note that this is a different decal sheet than the sheet included in the 122mm "Gvozdika" howitzer.

After a look at the parts, it was time to get this model built:

Building this tank took me about half an hour. See the finished model on the pictures above, also you can see all tools which I used to complete this kit.

This is another nice kit by Zvezda. It could be built without the use of glue, the fit of the parts without glue is excellent. There are 2 things I do not like about this kit, first, the wheelhubs have almost no detail. Second, you will have to careful with the turret, the main gun is very fragile, but this is a matter of scale.

Overall, this is another nice kit from this range. 

But be aware, some of the "Hot War - Battle for Oil" kits are not as nice as the kits I already showed in previous closer looks at.

TANKS The Modern Age: Custom Unit #3

The Zvezda Bradley which I showed in the previous post offers a good base for another custom unit for "Tanks The Modern Age". 

The new unit card is based on the Soviet BMP-2 tank and offers the same values, also included is a weapon card for the TOW launcher, which can only be equipped by this vehicle. At the moment we did not find the time for a playtest, but this should work fine.

The PDF including the new cards is available from this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dUV45YQemgKF8rwEUKqF1NzE-39w2DFF/view?usp=sharing

A good moment to mention, that the two previous made custom unit cards were redone and now published in PDF too.

The 4th and last custom unit, at least for this moment, will follow tomorrow.

Zvezda 1:100 M2A2 Bradley

A closer look at the US M2A2 Bradley APC from Zvezda. This Russian producer not only makes scalemodelkits, also it has several ranges of wargames with mostly simplified models, usally, like this, in 1:100 scale.

This kit comes from Zvezdas "Hot War - Battle for Oil" wargame.

Normally the modelkits from this range cost twice as much as their "Art Of Tactics" counterparts, but I had the opportunity to pick up 3 of them for half the normal price.

This offers the chance to take a (closer) look at this kit:

This kit comes in 2 sandcolored sprues, containing 14 parts to complete the model. All parts are nicely sculpted and casted, I did not find any sinkholes or visible ejectormarks on all 3 kits. There is almost no flash, but minimal cleanup is needed before putting this thing together.

This kit can be built without using glue, the fit of the parts is very good.

The decalsheet seems like it is printed in the same good quality than the M-109 sheet, I had no time to test them at the moment, but there should be no issues with them. But both include the same set of generic tank numbers and tactical signs.

Also there is a mistake in the spelling of Bratley, spelling it Bredley as you can see on the picture above.

All in all once again Zvezda offers a nice, easy buildable model with this Bradley. One minus are the frontlights which are casted as solid blocks without any details, but otherwise I could not find any issues with this kit except for the fact that it comes will all hatches closed.
Compared to their first 1:100 gaming pieces, this is a step forward, especially the tracks got more care by Zvezda.

Anyway, this kit is a nice addition to any 1:100 cold war/modern US army.

After about half an hour, this kit was built. Even when I built it only temporary without any glue, there are almost no gaps which would need filling. A rough measurement shows that is kit probably hits its scale. I would like to mention that this model has slight differences compared to the picture on the boxtop.

I like its look and will have a proper use in the future. You should have read it in the post above.

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.

Hind Helicopter Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the Hind helicopter expansion pack for "TANKS The Modern Age" by Galeforce 9. This game is the follow-up to "TANKS", set in a fictional ww3 in the 1980ies.

This expansion offers one plastic 1:100 Hind kit, also usable for "Team Yankee", a flightbase, the unit card and some crew and equipment cards for the game.

First let us take a look at the kit:

The kit comes nicely casted and almost flawless, there is minimal flash to remove, neither sinkholes nor visible ejectormarks were found on the sprues. Also there are virtually no mouldlines. As other kits from Battlefront Models, the quality is top.

The flightbase is casted in good quality, gives you two height options and offers the choice for magnetization, but it works fine in my Revell Cobra/Hind helis without magnets. With a small layer of tape it also fits in Battlefront helicopters without using the included socket piece.

Compared to the 1:100 Revell Hind kit, there are almost no panel lines on the Battlefront kit. Except for this, the grade of detail is nice for a gamepiece.

After a look at the plastic let us check out the cards. First we have the card for the unit.

The Mil Mi-24 Hind is a beast, with 5 hipoints it can take some hits. Sharing an initiative of 7 and 3 armorpoints with all other helicopters, its special strenght is the Predator ability, where you must move each turn but you can ignore the "shooting on the move" rule for missiles, AND you can reroll 2 attack dice each attack. The additional Rapid Fire ability offers 5 dice against unarmoured vehicles and helicopters.

28 points without any equipment or crew may seem quite high, but this thing is worth its price.

4 cards for equipment/doctrines are included, first there is the missile armament for the Hind, the "AT6 Spiral" missiles for 4 points are a must-have because of the Predator ability.

The "UB-32 Rocket Launcher" seems pretty useless, for 3 points you gain the ability to attack all enemies in close range with 2 dice when you discard the card. All targets only throw their base defense dice. This may seem pretty weak but if you attack a bunch of Marder or M-901, there is a chance to erease them all.

As also included in the PAH and the Cobra expansion, "Countermeasures" and "Defense Maneuvres" cards 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.

The next cards included in this expansion are 6 cards for crew members.

Two Soviet heroes are included, first there is the pilot "Vasily Popov". Not only he gives you points 2 additional initiative points, he also adds an additional attack dice versus heavy armored tanks.

Beside him comes "Alexander Gagarin", who pushes the initiative in the shooting phase, he also grants the ability to exchange two hits for a critical hit. For 4 points this is a good gunner for your helicopter.

The rest crewmembers can be used by all nations, the gunners could be used in tanks too.

The "Ressourceful Gunner" may be useful with the UB-40 rockets, and the "Assassin", useful to get rid of enemy crewmembers, are nice additions.

Last but not least there are two pilots in this expansion, the "Risky Pilot" gives you a bonus if you attack at close range, and the "Daring Pilot" lets you reroll one defense dice if you are not in cover. Both cost 3 points and may be good additions depending on your playstyle.

In the next days I will prepare some last closer looks at "TANKS The Modern Age" expansions for the moment, a closer look at the PAH and the LAV expansions are almost finished.

The kit built and painted. Building this thing went on without any issues. As usual the model was painted with Revell Aquacolor paints.The main color is Sand with Leatherbrown (or Dar Earth) spots, the bottom was painted Light Green. Most decals were taken from the Revell Hind decalsheet, the "33" was taken from the Zvezda 1:72 Hind.

Revell 1:100 Mil Mi-24D Hind

A closer look at the 1:100 MIL Mi-24D Hind model kit by Revell. Looking at the informations from Scalemates, it seems that this kit was published by Revell for the first time in 1993, this kit is the 2016 version with a full color instruction manual. It was one of the first helicopter kits I bought, and when "TANKS The Modern Age" was published, it seemed pretty clear what I would do with it.

Included in this kit are 4 sprues full of parts, including one sprue with clear parts, and a nice decalsheet with a lot of decals for just one version.

The kit looks good at the first look, no flash or visible ejectormarks. But there are some minor sinkholes which I found when I basecoated the model. Also, when built, there are some small gaps which could need some filling with putty.

But except for that, the overall impression of this model kit is good and building this kit went on without any big issues, more on that later.

The clear parts for the cockpit canopy and the side windows are relatively thick and distort the view slightly. Since I built this as a gamepiece, I painted the clearparts black from the inside and masked them before I painted the kit. This way they will keep their shiny look.

The pretty extensive decalsheet is produced in the usual good Revell quality and offers one version, from this kit you can build a Mi-24D of the 335th Aviation Regiment stationed in Kundus/Afganistan in 1980.

When I built this kit, I had some smaller issues building the main rotor, the way it is shown in the instuctions is not the easiest way to build it, but beside that the kit is nice. Also, a little bit annoying is the plastic which is used for this kit. Smaller parts get pretty soft when glue is attached and need some time for drying.

With its minor faults, this is a nice model kit, especially for its price. I got three of them and paid an average price of 5 Euro. Two are already built, the third will be kept for later.

Both are used for "TANKS The Modern Age", and they are accompanied by the Battlefront Miniatures (Team Yankee) kit from the game expansion.

As you can see, I made new base pieces for the clear rods of the flightbases, the reasons are that there are 2 clear rods but only one base piece included (what a waste), and the the included base pieces were a little uneven. The new bases are very simple, a plastic disc with some grass mat attached, but they blend in nice on our battlefield.

Their first deployment will be "OP Easter Front" next weekend, when we will have another 4 player game.