Myriad Games: Age of Tyrants Tanks Reviewed!

Today we will take a look at some of the Myriad Games - Age of Tyrants tanks! 

Would you like to field squadrons upon squadrons of huge, heavily armoured tanks? How about great batteries of massive field guns and rockets? Maybe legions upon legions of infantry are more your thing? You can have all these things in the new, massive-scale wargame, Age of Tyrants. Whatever your preference, it will be massive!

What's not to like, masses of small scale Urban War tanks and legions of miniatures fighting epic battles on your tabletop! The Age of Tyrants game and miniature range will be launched through an upcoming Kickstarter planned to launch on 14th of january 2016! So up to reviewing these splendid little massive tanks!

Age of Tyrants Tanks

The 6mm resin miniatures reviewed are prototypes but the actual production models will be of the same quality. The only exceptions are minor changes to the models to drop some small details such as satellite dishes and other bits. These changes aren't sure yet but all depends on the feedback received from reviewers and other sources.

For the review I have received three different tanks, each of a different Urban War faction: Junker Venator Tank, VASA Red Hammer and last but certainly not least the Viridian Dire Wolf Armoured Personnel Carrier. These miniatures are made out of quality resin and produced in Poland by the known Prodos Games company of Alien vs Predator and Warzone! As with most resin miniatures, they come on their casting sprue so will still need some preparing and clearing before the assembly.

As you can see in the picture you will need to clean the casting channels which attached the model to their casting sprue. Some of these casting channels are in my opnion sometimes a bit difficult to reach without harming the detail of the models. This was in my opinion especially the case with the VASA Red Hammer as you will be able to see that I have managed to sand of some of the details of the front hull! Not sure if the position of these channels is critical in those places for the casting but that said I'm not an expert in casting production and just wanted to mention this experience while assembling.

Before the assembly you will also need to first wash the parts with hot soapy water to remove unwanted casting residue. If you skip this very important step you may forget a nice paintjob as the primer and follow layers won't attach to the model. So wash the models, I did that before the assembly as it's much easier to reach all the parts in this way.

In the picture above my personal favorite, the mighty Junker Venator Tank! This particular model exists out of five different large parts including a rather nasty heavy weapon. The Junker faction in the Age of Tyrants universe is the numerically superior force that excels in medium to close range combat. The strategy of Junker commanders relies on suppressing superior ranged combat enemies with artillery, allowing their legions get to close quarters. Advancing into enemy fire can be hugely costly in lives, but one thing the Junkers have no shortage of is manpower. Support is in the form of crude but effective armour, artillery and troop transports. Below pictures of the assembled machine ready for total mayhem on the battlefield!

The model below is called the Red Hammer and is part of the VASA Faction in the Age of Tyrants setting. This model is equipped with two deadly missile launchers capable of easily striking long range targets. As close range protection this model is also equipped with several smaller weapons with the biggest being the top mounted turret.

VASA has by far the largest and best equipped army and fleet in Pan-Humanic Space, but it is currently badly overstretched, quelling uprisings and brushfire wars across the whole galaxy. The Protectorate bureaucracy is poor at prioritising and often slow to act, but it does try to respond to everything. Consequently, the resource allocation to any given conflict is unlikely to be enough for a decisive victory. However, VASA security forces are highly mobile, well trained and well equipped, and they excel at heavy armour support tactics. Their weapons are often the most advanced and high spec available and can deal effectively with all tactical situations.

Below picture of the mighty Red Hammer, ready to rain down death and destruction upon his enemies using its massive rocket pods each capable of delivering nine rockets. This models is also equipped with four set of tracks for quick movement. In the picture you can also clearly see the previously mentionned top mounted turret.

The last model is the Viridian Dire Wolf Armoured Personnel Carrier and exists out of four parts of which two are the small bits thay may disappear in the final production models during the Kickstarter. The Viridians have a respectable sized army and fleet, and their forces excel at long range warfare and combined arms tactics. Of all the factions, the Viridians have been most enthusiastic in adopting the doctrine of combined arms, borne of a desire to limit casualties among their own troops. They do this by engaging with light ground forces that are prepared to retreat at any moment, slowing the enemy down while close support and reachback capability surgically dismantles it from a distance.

Below the assembled model without the small bits as mentionned above as they were too fiddle for my personal taste and won't survive the battlefield with me as their commander!

The scale comparison

Here are some pictures of the models to show their scale along side each other. As you can see in the pictures the junker Venator tank is by for the bulkiest vehicle of the bunch followed by the Red Hammer and the small Virdian Dire Wolf.

Viridian Faction - VASA Faction - Junker Faction

The painted models

I haven't managed to paint my models yet as I'm still working out some nice color schemes but I have found the following pictures of the mentionned tanks by Le Temple de Morikun and they look ace. The Red Hammer looks truely great in the chosen Soviet color scheme and matching basing! Check more pictures of the excellent examples on the Le temple de Morikun blog here.

The conclusion

As you can see in the pictures above these model are very nice as finished models but need some work before and during the assembly. The casting is in general quite good with only some very minor airbubbles. The only thing that really annoyed my was the placement of the casting channels which seem to be different compared with those of other reviews I have seen. I think this is because their previous mold was declared unusable and they make a new one as is needed to maintain high quality casted resin models. Coming back on the small bits, I would say drop them from the production models as they are too fiddly to assemble and won't survive the rough life on our tabletop battlefields for long.

Looking back on the chosen scale I would say great choice, still plenty of detail and you can easily manage to play massive battles on smaller playing surfaces. Next to this they are also easier to transport and store which is a very big plus in my opinion. Not sure on the pricing of the little war machines yet but I guess I will need to buy at least some of the Junker tanks as they look ace! So now we can only wait for the Kickstarter launch on the 21th of january and see Age of Tyrants bringing small scale battles to your tabletop! In the meanwhile you can check the excellent Age of Tyrants website here for more information about the game and factions. Keep checking Wargame News and Terrain as we will also cover the Kickstarter launch here for your ease! 

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