Tanks Modern Age is based upon the WW2 version of the game and the rules are almost identical. This time the setting is mid 1980's Cold War gone hot, with a conflict between the Soviet Union and Nato in and around West Germany.

A game will take about 30 minutes to an hour, with about 5 or 6 vehicles on each side.

The starter box comes with two Soviet tanks and a single American tank. Tanks are plastic kits on sprues. The instructions are not the best, but on the whole the kits go together quite easily.

The box contains all the counters, 2D cardboard terrain, and range ruler that you will need to play the game.

The game is very simple. Movement is done using a cardboard arrow, and most tanks have a maximum move of 2 arrow lengths. There are no rules for range (other than a point blank shot giving a bonus). Movement is done is ascending initiative order, shooting done in the reverse. So quick tanks get to see what the enemy is doing, move accordingly and shoot first.

All in all the rules are clear, well written, and any ambiguity can be easily house rules at the table.

Where the game falls down is that it was not play tested. The unit point costs are not balanced. So much so that there are two tanks, with identical stats, that have different point costs. The real kicker is that the Soviet side cannot lose as they have a super cheap tank that can re-roll hit dice and a super helicopter that will just mop up all the opposing tanks.

Booster packs are available to buy as individual sprues that come with additional crew cards etc. Light tanks/vehicles are not worth buying as they are all completely useless in the game.

What should have been an inexpensive and fun game is let down by the unbalanced points costs. It hardly seems worth the effort to go through and try and fix it.

Avoid.