Have been playtesting my rules for Cruel Seas and some of my rules for Flotilla Forward. On friday wanted to get my german minesweeper on the board so tested my torpedo rules. Not much of a report so thought I would finally post my thoughts on Tanks: The Modern Age as well.
Sorry forgot to right the picture before I loaded it but you get the idea.
Received this game for Christmas. Have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It comes with three models which pays for itself right there plus 6 soviet and 6 US dice. ( mine didn't have the dice but battlefront said they sent them on friday.) I thought it would only have cards for the 2 tanks but it actually has the base cards for all the vehicles in the game. Pretty cool since I have all the models already. It doesn't have all the upgrades, you need the vehicle packs for those but still does give the game more legs than I thought. How does it play? If you have played X-wing you get the idea. If you can suspend your idea that an anti tank missile hitting a tank does 3 points of damage instead of blowing it up then it is a highly enjoyable game.
While
What a Tanker is a dice management game
Tanks is a game about picking your platoon then maneuvering your forces. [ Currently you can't play
What a tanker with modern tanks. Rich said they would include my
Cold War Tanker in the last special but they didn't for some reason.] Both are fun but certainly different.
Played on a 3x3 foot table. Also on display are the ruined chimneys I received for Christmas.
2 tanks and a hind looking for trouble.
2 Leopard IIs and a Marder. The base marder doesn't carry Milans so this one didn't because of point limits. It would be easy enough to figure out the upgrade though. It was there for anti helicopter defense. There is no infantry in Tanks. Again easy enough to figure out if you wanted to though it would slow the game down.
The russian tank takes 3 points of damage and a critical hit. ( every 6 rolled causes a critical.)
The Leopards advance. 1 Russian tank decides to flank.
The battle heats up as the hind hides behind a chimney.
Flanking position achieved!
Ouch!
Soviet die rolling is abysmal all game
The 2 Leopards go to work on the remaining russian tank while the Hind goes toe to toe with the Marder.
The Hind rolls terrible ( probably too much pre flight vodka!) so the russian tank solves the Marder problem himself while using the chinmey as a block to the Leopards! Tanks move very short distances so cover is key unlike X wing. ( 2 hexes in this game.)
The Hind sobers up enough to return the favor and takes out a Leopard. ( house rule helicopters always shoot at the flanks to represent top armor. )
So what looked like a blow out by the Germans turns out to be drunk Hind against Leo II. Hind already severely damaged but Leo only has HMG to fight with. ( Hind apparently has unlimited AT missiles. Might need a house rule here.) The rules say play for 30 minutes and it had been 40 so I let each have one shot and they both missed. Draw game but the German is holding the ground.
Very fun game if you view it as a game with modern armor overtones. Plays quick and has strategy. I like that you get base cards for all the vehicles including the West Germans and helicopters. For me I see this as a perfect game with my son or after a FoF game played real fast and I have the board set up with extra time on my hands.
With the models, dice and cards well worth the money.
Now to pivot to Cruel seas.
Main reason to play was to get this beauty on the board! Slowly my modeling skills are improving. The figures look better. The flags look better and the dirt looks better.
I am use to 15mm where close ups look great. The ship actually looks better than this picture!
So 1940 and the German is laying mines in the English shipping lane. ( I don't know why there is only 1 minesweeper- just go with the story!)
Visibility 1 mile. I forgot to roll for sea state. 3 MTBs to the rescue. ( I made the later Vospers into MGBs but for our purposes today it is an early MTB.)
Also got to try out my FOW cards for the first time. 2 were drawn during the game. The very first one drawn ever was...
Rain squall coming in from the north.
Torpedo away! ( Need to paint up some more torpedo markers.) It missed
Blimey we both missed! Now run for that rain squall coming towards us. That minesweeper actually has 4 inch guns despite what the card says!
This vosper found out about the 4 inch guns as it was hit. ( I give 4 in guns -1 to hit a small craft as they were hard to train.) 27 points of damage later it decided to fire its torpedoes while it was still afloat. Of course a stern shot missed.
Great playtest. I like my torpedo rules and my FOW cards. The whole thing took 20 minutes. I am currently writing up my house rules entitled
Crueler Seas. Look for then shortly.
Cheers
Joe
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