First Planes Playtest for TANKS

Finally I had the chance to make a first playtest of my custom (work in progress) planes expansion for TANKS by Galeforce 9. After I wrote the last post, I had a friend for visit and invited him to a small game of TANKS.

Luckily he has some experiences with the modern variant of TANKS, having been part of the battle at the Easter front.

I built 2 small platoons and set up an improvised playfield in my hobbyroom, made from a blanket and some pieces of styrofoam. Not the prettiest battlefield, but it is ok for this quick test. We decided against any crew or equipment cards to keep it simple.

My friend played the attacking forces. The German platoon included one Panther (A) and two Panzer IV, all made by the Plastic Soldier Company.

As new custom units he had a Ju 87 in 1:144 scale and a 3D printed SdKfz 7/1 for air defense. I think I did not show the halftrack in any post, the only thing I added after printing were some figures from the bitsbox.

The defending British platoon was played by me and included a Sherman Firefly from an old "Flames Of War" starterbox, and the Comet and Achilles tanks from the game expansions.

My new additional units were a Hawker Tempest in 1:144 scale and an 3D printed M17 halftrack for air defense.

A look at the battlefield before the game started. It looks pretty simply but I may build some snow covered scenery pieces (and wash the blanket) because I like this winter look.

By the way, today I won an ebay auction, when the thing arrives, a new battlefield for "TANKS The Modern Age" will be build soon, maybe usable for ww2 TANKS too.

Having only sightblocking elements and no cover pieces, the game would have a touch of an arena fight. The first two rounds were pretty unspectacular but it seemed that at least the movement rules for the planes would work as supposed.

Would work as supposed in future games. Experiences from this first game showed that a special movement template and its own movement arrow is needed for games using these new rules. Wish I would have built them before, following some older drawings in my notebook.

The selfmade bases were impractical, I already replaced them with bases matching to the standard "Flames Of War" flyerbases.

That the halftracked AA vehicles would work was pretty clear from the start of the game, Actually the only new thing to them was that they got an ability known from ww3 TANKS.

Giving them "Rapid Fire" was an easy solution for their arnament, a thing I had issues with from the beginning.

I think, at this point I should state out that most of the rules were written before "TANKS The Modern Age" hit the market, and even when I took some elements from the TANKS followup, most of the planes rules were written at least one year ago.

While the battle on the ground went as usual, we started to attack with our planes. Not only the equipped weapons were used, we also made some theoretical dice throws to test several variants of bombs and other stuff.

And this also worked almost as supposed.

The planes landed some hits and the AA halftracks gave their best to shoot them down. Since there are no effects for planes in the critical hits cards, we found a simple solution for this. A conversion list will be included in the actual rules addon.

And I think that we have found some good equipment pieces for planes, even some pilots and doctrines will be available. I do not want to spoiler this stuff but after my mate Olli and I discussed the pointcosts for the new stuff, it seems that a big part of this project is already done.

The game took about 2 hours, ending with a victory for the German troops. I decided that when all enemies ground units are lost, the game is over, no matter if there are enemy planes left or not.

Having planes available adds some new tactics and advantages to the game, even when this was a very first test it made fun.

And I learned a lot of things that will have to be included in the rules to make this whole as easy to understand as possible.

 

At the moment I think I am going to create units (for this expansion) only for plane models which I have in my collection, what means, the first edition of the planes expansion for TANKS will include 5 to 6 planes and other units, that at least each nation will get one new type of AA unit and plane available. There will be different planetypes available, but I will keep this for a future post.

Maybe some readers will allow me to use pictures of their plane models for new cards.

But since the expansion is just a fun project, it takes some time. Some more playtests will have to happen, the final costs for all the new cards will have fo be found, and than I can start to write the actual expansion.

Maybe some more units may find their way in future revisions, once all the digital work is done, it will be no big issue to create new cards for them.

Cards Usable For Both GF9 "TANKS" Games

This is a list of cards which can be used for both "TANKS" games of GF9. While a lot of the crew cards got lower point costs in "TANKS The Modern Age", the cards listed below have in both games the same costs and effects.

Crew:

Agressive Commander

Altruistic Commander

Cunning Commander

Superb Commander

Daring Driver

Determined Driver

Racing Driver

Assassin

Bloodthirsty Gunner

Resourceful Gunner

Agressive Loader

Clever Loader

Hasty Loader

Resourceful Loader

Artillery Observer

Upgrades:

Fire Extinguisher

Improvised Armour

Liquid Courage

Medical Kit

Supercharger

This list may be incomplete, if I will find more (on both games usable) cards, they will be added. The reviews from this blog and the official website of the games were pretty helpful to make this list.

The picture in this post shows one of my mate Ollis Leopard 2 tanks, in "TANKS The Modern Age" these beast costs 32 points per unit. We will see if they are worth their price. Maybe I should work on a Hind only list to beat them with pure air advantage.
In the closer look at the Hind expansion for the game you will see, that these things are very strong.

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".

Upcoming Releases For Tanks By Galeforce 9

The Galeforce 9 website lists the upcoming expansions for "TANKS". A big surprise is the addition of a new nation, the Italians are coming. I may take a closer look at them in the future.
As I understood, they will not be playable as solo force but the can be added as allies for the Germans.

The following stuff will be available in the first half of this year:

I am looking forward to the upcoming releases and can not wait to add some priest tanks to my British tankforce.

More informations can be found on the official Tanks website.

CIVIL WAR !!! This Years First TANKS Game

Olli and I finally found some time for our first game this year. As usual we played with our house rules, but this will be a topic for another post. We played 100 points each side with no special rules. The hills you see on the pictures count as woods.

Sorry to say but my cameras batteries went empty and the pics from the mobile were not the best quality. I hope Olli has made better pictures with his mobile. If he has I will add them

This year's first game of tanks was fought by two opposing German tank platoons. My mate Olli played the attacking forces (Tiger, Panther, Panzer IV, StuG) while I was playing the defending troops with two Panthers and two Panzer IV.

In the first round nothing much happened but in the second round all tanks had the opportunity to fire. Only 3 of the 8 firing tanks scored a hit, but the StuG was almost knocked out.

The third round was the same as the second round, many shots were fired but only some of them hit with minor damage.

 

Round four started with the first of my Panthers being destroyed by the enemy Panther and Tiger tanks, with three frackin' critical hits. My other Panther managed to get out of the Panther's and Tiger's sights and to destroy the enemy's StuG (three critical hits, too) but got a critical hit which set his motor on fire.

In round five and six I managed to get my surviving Panther out of all enemies line of sights while my two Panzer IV attacked Olli's Panzer IV. In theory this should have been a garantied kill but the whole game I had bad luck with the dice that I did not get the enemy's tank destroyed.

At the end of the sixth round another try to repair the burning motor of my remaining Panther failed with the result that it got destroyed.

In the seventh and in the eight and final round all attackers went on my two Panzer IV and both got destroyed.

Germany wins.

The game made a lot of fun even when it was unclear in which order the tanks should be moved in the command phase (thanks to their Blitzkrieg special ability) because both sides had this ability. Our solution was to use the same order which we had in the movement phase.

We also changed the rules for hits on the rear of the tanks but as I wrote before, this will be posted seperately.

The next time we play will be a playtest of our first rules addon for Tanks. It will include Planes and their weaponry and mobile anti air weapons. At the moment we are still struggling with the stats for the new vehicles especially the point costs.

When this is done I will make the rules and new cards for the new vehicles available in pdf that you can downoad it, print the new cards, find and build the new models and have fun with integrating these new toys in your game.

3Dprinted 15mm Scenery for TANKS, Flames of War and other games

This "kit" came fresh from the printer when I made the picture, the brim element is applied. I downloaded the .stl file for this house from Thingiverse.

It was made in 28mm scale but I scaled it down 60 percent to make it roughly fit into 15mm scale.

After removing the brim elemant and separating the parts I was positively surprised about the quality of this print, even the wooden structure of the doors very good to see.

After a little sanding I used cyanacrylate glue (I hate this sticky shit) to build the pieces  to one whole piece. The roof came from a old H0 model house kit. I am not too satisfied with the door, I think it will be replaced by another door, but the rest of the house is fine. The mini and the tank are made by Battlefront Miniatures in 15mm scale.

I will add a base with some interior before  this model will get painted.

A small update on the printed T-34 hulls, I applied the basecolor. The next step will be a layer of drybrushing before I will add a black wash. Maybe I will do some highlights after it, but I have to see the results of the next steps.

TANKS By Galeforce 9: Bad Pictures Of A Forgotten Battle

There is much work here at the moment plus one of my mates is moving and I was helping out.

But while I was browsing my pictures on my mobile, I found pictures of a game of Tanks I played with a friend.

I can not remember the whole battle, but I remember it was a nice game (that I lost). The attackers platoon consisted of 4 T34/76 and a SU76, while my defending tank platoon had 2 Sherman Firefly, a Comet and one Cromwell.

My mate Olli and I are still working on our "secret project" but this will take some weeks until we can present it here. Meanwhile I traded my old Playstation with some games for a better compressor with 2 good airguns, I can't wait for this to arrive.