TANKS: The Modern Age

[Whiterook]

This is a system I started buying into a few years ago. It extends in a fashion, from my love of the WWII A is & Allies Miniatures land based game, but into the modern age with the same scale I love, 15mm. I started with a few Starter Kits



…as shown above, the kit brings you American M1 Abrams vs Soviet T-64’s! The kit also gives you the cards to control them, terrain tiles to play upon, and a nice sized rulebook for basic play. A beautiful offering by Gale Force Nine, it was pretty popular for awhile, but the company petered out, as most game companies seem to do these days.

TANKS: The Modern Age is an easy to learn, quick-play, small-scale game, where you take command of a Tank Platoon, seeking to destroy your opponent’s tanks and secure victory. TANKS is a flexible game with lots of ways to create a finely-tuned platoon that fits your play style. The game is fast and furious, do-ordie. In an hour, you can pick your tanks and crew, upgrade them to your specifications, defeat your enemy (or die trying), and be ready for the rematch!

—description from the designer

The minis are gorgeous…





The minis come on sprue, and you assemble them much as you would a simple model… also requiring your painting skills, as well! For modelers, this is a nice combo of model and game; though it does leave a lot of gamers who are not skilled in model kit building, behind.

These miniatures are controlled through use of unit cards…





Personally, I love the whole system, and I’m glad I bought what I did at the time, as these are getting harder and harder to find, especially at wallet-friendly prices!

[mikeh]

Do you think having to complete the paint jobs on the tanks was part of the reason they "petered out" that wouldn't bother me but if you do not build and paint kits I can see where that would be a drawback. Although I remember with the A&A minis that even though they came all painted up there were people that complained about the paint jobs. Seems you just cannot win anymore.

[Whiterook]

May 3, 2022 16:54:27 GMT -5 mikeh said:

Do you think having to complete the paint jobs on the tanks was part of the reason they "petered out" that wouldn't bother me but if you do not build and paint kits I can see where that would be a drawback. Although I remember with the A&A minis that even though they came all painted up there were people that complained about the paint jobs. Seems you just cannot win anymore.

I think that was a major contributor to the games’ demise. Honestly, it’s hard enough painting realistic camouflage on a 1/35 scale model kit tank, never mind a 15mm tank! How many people do you think have not only the skill, but the paint and airbrush, etc.? Not many, in the gamer world in my opinion.

The major reason for the game going to dust though, is the Modern version was an extension of the WWII line of what was Flames of War gong from solid resin to hollow build-you-own-models… and it didn’t sell as well, most likely… and the death knell was when the WWII TANKS! line was dumped for the new World of Tanks line, and Modern versions never following suit. Yet another example of a game company that dumps and runs for what may be a better seller…leaving the faithful customers alone on a deserted island with their defunct tank stash.

[Whiterook]

Of note, besides the starter kits, I did buy several individual blister packs of each type tank listed above, as well as some others, including helicopters!

Also of further note, my strategy was to use these miniatures with my Team Yankee system, as the miniatures themselves are mostly compatible… kinda a twofer!

[mikeh]

Got to like those twofers! Any infantry or just tank at tank?

[Whiterook]

May 3, 2022 21:55:38 GMT -5 mikeh said:

Got to like those twofers! Any infantry or just tank at tank?

Just armor… tanks slamming away at tanks. A simple game, in many respects, of small scale actions where it’s maneuver and shoot. Small armor platoon actions against your opponents’ force. 

For infantry, you’d have to move up to the Flames of War system.