Cobra Helicopter Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the Cobra helicopter expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" by Galeforce 9. The game is a follow-up to "TANKS" with an extended ruleset. While in the old "TANKS" you have only control over ground units, in "TANKS The Modern Age" you can also use air units for you platoon.

As usual, in this expansion one 1:100 model kit, taken from the "Team Yankee" tabletop game and some cards for the game are included, a flyerbase for the helicopter is also included.
First we take a look at the plastic, this kit comes in 3 different sprues.

The kit is 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 this range, the qualitiy is top.

Different weapon configurations can be attached, the instructions, as usual simple but well made, show only one version, for other weapon configurations you have to search the web. At the end of this video the leftover bits are shown and partly explained.

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.

The last picture of the plastic shows a comparison between this Cobra kit and the 1:100 Revell Cobra kit, can you see, how oversized the panel lines are? I am no aviation expert but it seems like that the kits show different versions of the Cobra.

Beside the model kit some crew and equipment cards for "TANKS The Modern Age" are included in this expansion.

First there is the card for the unit itself:

The Bell AH-1 Cobra offers an Initiative of 7, what is pretty good, its Attack of 2 is very low but you may equip the missiles included in this expansion. The armour of 3 is pretty high but the helicopter has only 4 hitpoints. Its rapid fire ability offers 5 dice versus unarmoured vehicles and other helicopters. For the cost of 26 points (both missiles included) you get a unit which can attack everaything on the battlefield.

The included equipment offers the additional armament for the Cobra, the "M159" gives you a 3 dice attack against all vehicles in close range, the targets can only roll their base defence. The "TOW" missiles give you a 4 dice missile attack for 2 points.

The other two equipment/doctrines cards are "Defensive Manouevres", which gives you a reroll of your defence dice when you discard it, and "Countermeasures", for 3 points you may discard this card, this defence throw 3 also counts for defence.

After the equipment and doctrines  cards, there are only the crewcards left. First the 2 US heroes included, "Harry Stevens" gives you for 8 points an additional armourpoint and you may change elevation without taking a speed token. This is perfect for the heavy use of missiles.

"Connor Styles" gives you an additional dice if you use rockets and you have the possibility to reroll a sucessless attack. For 6 points this gunner is a very useful addition to any US helicopter crew.

Then there is the "Defensive Pilot" which lets you reroll one defense dice for the cost of 4 points.

Last but not least there are 3 different gunners included, the "Risky", the "Ressourceful" and the "Bloodthirsty Gunner", all 3 can be used by all nations for all vehicles. The "Risky Gunner" would work fine with the M159 missiles.

Again this is a nice addition to the game, the modelkit is fine (except for the oversized panel lines), and the cards will offer additional choices to equip your troops. The cobra must prove its worth, but I think it may stop the enemies Leopard 2 tanks when the Americans will try to conquer Germany after the Soviets are defeated.

Next in line are some more closer looks at some helicopter kits, pictures of the Hind expansion and the Revell Hind are already uploaded, both will come this weekend, and then we will return to Sassnitz, showing the miniatures I prepared for last years first game of "Rügen'46".

Update:

The kit was finished faster than this post. Take a look at the finished kit (and my chaotic hobby desk) at the picture below, only the heckrotor has to be attached, but it will get painted seperately and then it will get glued on the tail of the Cobra. 

1:100 Helicopters for TANKS The Modern Age

Some pictures of the 1:100 helicopters I (almost) finished for use in "TANKS The Modern Age". Since I am not satisfied with the Battlefront models of these helis, a closer look at them will come soon, I am using 1:100 "true" model kits.

First I finished the Revell 1:100 Mi-24 Hind, a closer look at this kit will come in the near future. The building of the rotor was a small struggle but finally all parts fitted as desired. While I built this kit some smaller parts disappeared but I did not care about it since it may not get noticed and this heli is for gaming use only.

Both helicopter models were painted with Revell Aquacolors, the most work was done using my airbrush.

The camouflage pattern was created with liquid masking solution, using Sand and Fern Green. The bottom was sprayed Torquoise toned down with a minor amount of White. Before the model got an oilwash, it was sealed with a layer of clear gloss paint, this picture was made when I did it.

Some decals went to the sparebook, after the rest of them were set, the whole model was sealed with matte varnish, then I removed the tape from the cockpit, which was masked the whole painting process. The cockpit panels were painted and sealed by hand, but I am not too happy with the results.

The rotor was magnetized, I glued a screw in the body and a magnet on the rotor. This works fine and makes storing this model much easier.

The other helicopter kit I finished for the game was the Revell 1:100 Cobra, which got a closer look in this post.

This kit was built without any complications, then the canopy was painted black inside, glued in and masked, then the model got primed. For the basecolor I used Olivegreen, than the heli got a black wash with thinned oil paints. This darkened the basecoat too much, and I sprayed a very thin layer of Greenish Grey over the kit. Then came the usual procedure, glosscoat, decals, varnish. Too bad, the varnish got a little milky but it is not as worse as it seems on the pictures, at least the rotors will be repainted.

The canopy was painted by hand after the maskingtape was removed but I will repaint it soon with a better matching color, this should be done to the Hind too.

I still have to magnetize the rotor using superglue a screw and a magnet. At the moment it is only plugged in. I should have this earlier, the paintjob may get damaged because I have to widen the opening in the body.

As final step both model got the flyer bases which were included in the heli expansion boxes for "TANKS The Modern Age", I drilled a 6mm hole in the bottoms of the helis, after some little sanding of the base insert, it was glued in.

Both kits are ok, but I think I could have done better. Since I still have a Revell Cobra and 2 Revell Hind kits unbuild in my stash, I will try harder next time.

But not only I am building my helicopter forces, my mate Olli finished a BO-105 PAH, see how tiny this thing is, comparded to the Soviet Hind gunship.

I am taking some time to reorganise the postlabels of this blog, then one of the next posts may lead us into the ruins of the undead infested Sassnitz.

Revell 1:100 AH-64A Apache

A closer look at the AH-64A Apache attack helicopter by Revell, made in 1:100 scale. I got it from my local model supplier as most of my 1:100 helicopter kits.

This kit appeared 1990 for the first time, this version is the 2016 reissue. And there exists a quickbuild 1:100 Apache, also produced by Revell, but I can not say if this kit is the base for it.

The two sprues of the kit are produced very well with no visible ejectormarkings or sinkholes. The amount of flash is almost zero. Also there should be almost no mouldlines to remove when it will be build.

If I had not two already started helicopters and a big pile of other started stuff, I would already have built i, but this kit must wait.

The clear plastic sprue contains the canopy, it is pretty thin and does not distort the view too much when you look through it.

And this brings up the big minuspoint of this and the three more Revell 1:100 helicopter kits I own, there are no crewfigures. There is a nice cockpit clearpart but no crew that could be seen through it. Even when there are alternatives, I think this sucks.

The last missing bit are the decals. As usual they come in good quality but offer only one version to build from, an Apache of the 3/227th Aviation Regiment, stationed in Hanau, Germany 1988. This would fit pretty well in the "TANKS The Modern Age" scenario.

All in all a nice kit. As written, the only negative point for me is the absence of crewmembers. I am no aviation expert, but after a quick websearch I think this kit is accurate. Or at least accurate enough for me.

I think I may create a custom card to use it as a proxy unit for the US Cobra helicopter, it will get its own post, when it is ready. At the moment I am working on ways to optimize my custom cards, but this goes on pretty slow.

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.

Revell 1:100 Bell AH-1G Cobra

 

A closer look at a kit which I got from the local toy store. I am trying to buy at least one modelkit from there each month and get most of the colors I use from there. I remember, almost 30 years ago when I made my very first modelling steps, this store had a very big assortment of so many model kits which impressed me much.

Now it is (literally) a small corner.

Their model railway department, my only local source for basing materials, closed two years ago. And my stocks are starting to run out. If they would discontinue their modelling sales, I would not get any Revell Aquacolors (which I prefer to use) locally, I would have to look for online sources or modelshops in other towns.

That is why I try to keep their modelling section "alive". Support your local modelstores.

I could not find pictures of this kit in its unbuilt stage on a quick Google search that's the reason for me making some pictures of it. First of all, this is no review but the pictures may help other modellers

These two sprues belong to Revell's AH-1G Cobra modelkit. As I an absolutely no expert in helicopters I can not say anything about its accuracy, but the sprues almost have no flash but some hidden but viewable ejector marks. On the body where you attach the skids are minor sinkhole effects, as on the weapon wings.

The clear part for the cockpit is at least one millimeter thick and distorts the view. Since there is no crew I decided to paint it from the inside with some kind of blue when I will build it.

The decals, printed in the usual high quality of Revell, offer only one option, the helicopter from the box top, a Cobra located in Bien Hoa, South Vietnam in 1967.

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At the moment I am enjoying  the first day of my (home) vacation, and I just finished a miniature which I will show with it's companions later this evening