OK, here goes: Why Tigers in the Mist is a good, clever or interesting game system: Succinct Answer: Integration of the various rules systems governing things like stacking, combat, movement, and the division of turns into impulses.
There are 3 impulses per turn. Units may only move and/or attack once per turn. This forces both sides to keep units in reserve. The Germans must have substantial reserves in order to exploit successful attacks on prior impulses. The US must have reserves in or to plug holes that open up in their lines. This is achieved without any special phases, the need to designate reserve units, or restrictions on the use of units.
Each side is free to use as many or as few units as they wish on any impulse. The Germans can land a very powerful blow against the US front line on the first impulse (assuming he deals with road congestion issues successfully), however he is unlikely to make much or any progress the rest of the turn if he blows 90% or more of his attack strength on impulse one.
Geographically, the Germans can not afford this. They will never get remotely close to their victory objectives by moving the front line forward one area per turn.
Similarly, the US can stack all or their units in the front line, hoping for the survival of stacked units that could then be sent elsewhere. However, there are penalties. First, there is a disengagement penalty, so units in contested areas will have less flexibility in their ability to respond to problems elsewhere. Second, the extra units are at risk because they can be attacked. This is very dangerous. This tactic is sort of like loading up against the run in football and daring the opponent to beat you by passing. If the stacked units are wiped out, there will be no reserves. Germans run wild on following impulse. Game over.
The need to exploit and plug holes in subsequent impulses of the turn is in turn frustrated by the deceptively simple traffic jam rule: It costs an extra movement point to enter an occupied area, whether friendly or enemy. This extra MP penalty hurts more than it might appear at first glance. It costs two to move along a minor road. Three if the areas on that road are occupied.
As an example, German foot infantry (those crappy volksgrenadiers) move at a rate of 5 MP per turn. What this means is that on minor roads, German VG units can not move 2 areas per turn if anything is along their route. Most of the roads on the map are minor roads. German infantry has a hell of a time keeping up with the advance, and is nearly useless as a reserve. Even on major roads, German VG can only move 2 areas if other units are present in areas along their axis of advance. And this will always be the case on the 2nd and 3rd impulses of any turn.
The Germans want to leapfrog their units forward in order to maintain as much mobility in their reserves as possible. The extra MP penalty to enter an occupied area makes this difficult to pull off. The first German impulse of the game always seems easy. The second impulse is where the German player then realises how badly he has mismanaged his resources on the first impulse. As for the US, they will often find their reinforcements and reserves getting in each others way. It can be very frustrating to not be able to get units where they are needed because some other unit is clogging up the road net.
The combat, step loss, and stacking systems similarly work together to frustrate the players, although the impact on the German player is much more pronounced. One can place no more than four counters totalling no more than 10 strength points in an area. The most common unit in the game is SP=3. The range is 1-5.
Now under the stacking limits, 4 counters of 1 SP each is a fully stacked area. This is a horribly ineffective attacking force. Basic US tactics are to whittle down the big German units. The combat rules result in constant attrition of the attacker. Unlike many, many games where the attacker smashing forward at heavy odds will suffer little or no losses, or maybe in an "exchange" they lose a weak volksgrenadier unit, in Tigers the German armored spearheads suffer constant and heavy losses throughout the game.
In the very early game on impulse 16-1 and 17-1 they may not lose much in the way of armour or Panzergrenadiers. However, on 16-2, 16-3, 17-2, 17-3 and most subsequent impulses they will take significant losses in their mobile units. This attrition results in the German spearheads becoming increasingly blunted as their combat power is eroded while their stacking impacts and effects on traffic control are not similarly reduced.
The quality mechanic objected to in previous notes is hardly ideal, but it prevents far worse abuses by US players who, if not so restrained, would wipe out the German engineers and armour and ignore the volksgrenadiers. The rule however, does not protect the panzers from damage. One has to only play a few turns of the game to realise this. In one memorable game, Kamfpgruppe Peiper (a 5 armour and a 4 mech unit of 1SS Pz Division) was wiped out on 16-2 after exploiting a breakthrough at Bucholz Station on 16-1. Peiper's gruppe passed through Bucholz and smashed a defending combat command of the 9th Armoured division at Bulligen, suffering some losses in the process. On the following US impulse, it was virtually annihilated by a counterattack of the 2nd Infantry division.
Thus the step loss mechanics do several significant things:
- 1. The attacker suffers considerable attrition, no matter the odds.
2. Attrition adversely affects a unit's staying power and hitting power.
3. Attrition generally has little effect on stacking costs and road congestion.
The combat system is heavily weighed against the attacker. This is due to the channelling effect of the very dense terrain in the Ardennes. Combat is not simultaneous. The defender's fire takes effect BEFORE the attacker gets to fire. Most attacks went down roads channelled by stone walls, narrow streets in towns, and tightly planted forests of conifers. Defensive cover was abundant.
To illustrate, a 1 SP defending infantry unit, not entrenched, not behind a river, will generate, on the average (with it's organic artillery support) 0.98 SP of losses to a 1 SP infantry attacker. Assuming the defensive fire misses (a not very likely event), the attacking SP will average 0.3 SP of damage to the attacker. Therefore, attacks in the range of 3 or 4 to 1 odds are necessary for the attacker to maintain approximately even attrition.
Finally, the unpredictability of combat in the game...there are no "lock points" because there is no CRT. This creates huge amounts of uncertainty on the parts of both players. How much strength is enough to take or hold a critical position? Ya can't tell until after the smoke clears. This is especially maddening for the Germans. You can have a big stack of nice shiny SS units waiting to exploit a hole on the second impulse of a turn only to discover the "virtually certain" attack you were making to open a hole for those guys to pour through didn't. Now what? Can those reserves get somewhere else, or are they forced to sit idling their engines or be diverted to another sector where road congestion along the way may prevent them from attacking at all that day? This hurts a lot, but goes with the territory in Tigers.
There are lots of decisions to make, lots of frustrating moments to endure, and lots of uncertainty to bear. And all in a very streamlined package of less than 8 pages of rules. Tigers may not be your cup of tea, but for those looking for an easy to learn, fairly quick playing, but frustratingly difficult game to master it may well be quite a treat.
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© Copyright 2000 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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