I bought this a few weeks back at Claymore 2019 (an annual Scottish gaming event), and thought I’d write about it. Unfortunately, I decided to get stuck straight in and built the minis (as I usually do, got to love those shiny new tanks!), so there are no pics of the sprues. As a result, this isn’t technically an unboxing, more like a “here’s what you get” article.
Contents: Upon opening the box the first thing you’ll notice is that there’s quite a lot inside for £20. A US M1 Abrams and two Soviet T-64 Main Battle Tank sprues, a playing card- sized deck of stat cards (for far more vehicles and types than you’re ever likely to use, I might add), two smaller decks for upgrades and damage, three heavy-duty punchable sheets of terrain and tokens, six D6s in two colours, a 26-page A4 rulebook, a quick-assembly guide, and a flyer for Team Yankee/Flames of War. Not bad, not bad at all!
Components: The decks are all printed on decent card stock and come nicely laminated should you want to track anything such as damage on them using a grease pencil (just like a real tanker!), while the terrain and token sheets are all done on heavy duty card that will be easily durable enough for hundreds of plays. I know that some players prefer to replace card tokens with plastics, but in this instance at lease, there’s really no need for it. The rulebook is in full colour, and seems to be fairly easily navigable. Whilst it’s only printed on simple glossy paper, I really don’t see this as being an issue, as the game seems to be simple enough to pick up that you’ll only ever need to refer to it for your first two or three games.
The Miniatures: The sprues that these minis come on are moulded in coloured plastic (bright green for the Yanks and dark green for the Russkies), so that even if you have no idea about modern tanks, you will still be able to tell which ones are yours at a glance. They come with far more options than you need to use or are given in the assembly guide: I assume that these sprues are the ones you would get if you bought a platoon box of the relevant tank for Team Yankee. The minis themselves went together nice and easy and with minimal cleaning, although be advised that some of the pieces (machine guns, I’m looking at you) are quite small and fragile. Once completed though, they look great, really clean and detailed- I’m definitely going to pick up some more of the T-64s when funds allow.
The Rules: Whilst I haven’t actually played a game yet, I *have* played the WWII TANKS game also by Gale Force 9, and from a quick skim of The Modern Age, I don’t really see anything particularly game-changing (with the possible exception of the addition of helicopters, but even that I’m not convinced about).
Summary: A great little game in a box, giving you everything you need to get started in TANKS The Modern Age, and might even give you the bug for Team Yankee. More models would have been nice to start playing with, but this is clearly a set designed to initiate newcomers into the world of modern tank combat games. Also, like I said before, it’s only twenty quid, so you really couldn’t ask for more.