While Tigers in the Snow shows protential as a video wargame, it falls short in certain key areas.
Graphics: 6
Sounds: 3
Value: 8
Tilt: 6
It was a matter of time when board games will merge with the ever increasing video gaming market. Naturally there will be two sides to the story that either the video console can actually override board games or whether video games will be a totally separate medium. Chris Crawford from Atari thinks video games provides a totally different gaming experience hence one cannot replicate any board games however on the other side, a newly emerge company SSI thinks not.
The main concept of Tigers in the Snow simulates the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes of December 1944 to January 1945. Considering in the north, Operation Market Garden failed in the eyes of the allies, the Germans are having one last ditch to remove the American/British forces from the Ardennes by yet again, performing that Blitzkrieg approach. Historically the Germans would have succeeded if they had more supplies however it wasn’t the case. Tigers in the Snow duplicates this scenario as players can either play the Germans, the Allies or having the computer as your opponent.
The game's interface uses entirely keyboard commands and the display is probably what you expected to see if this game was made as a board game. On a hexagonal grid that spans 20 hexes wide and 11 hexes high, as the Germans your main goal is to exit the panzers out of the map by the allocated markers displayed (mainly north and west) whilst the main goal for the allies is to stop the Germans from doing this. The game will determine the winner by the number of points scored at the end of the 12th turn. Basing on the final score will determine whether the allies/Germans gaining total victory with several rankings between this.
There are many elements to consider throughout the game. If playing on the side of the Germans your game play style will be aggressive hence pushing forward quickly as possible will win the race. However fuel plays an important role as once this runs out the movement will become a crawl (as like in the real campaign). If you prefer a defensive approach, playing the allies will be your cup of tea. Your tactics will be mainly defensive and the allies’ only movement is retreat. The longer the game progresses will be more of an advantage to the allies.
I have played both the allies and the Germans and I must say the allies are easier to manage. Considering one of the main issues of the game is that it does not counter for unit stacking, the developers (like many other war games during this time) use the ‘zone of control’ (ZOC) concept. Without going into too much detail (as this forms part of the allies tactics) if you can manage to scatter the allies and occupy many ZOC points as possible, the chances are you will be slowing the advancing Germans (as speed is the key for the Germans). However the Germans having superior tank power and have a reasonable chance of mowing down the allies if not formed correctly.
Other elements to consider will be artillery strikes (favours more of the Germans however weather plays an important part), weather patterns (overcast is not good for air strikes), supplies (if your unit becomes partly or wholly isolated their combat strength will weaken), fuel (only for the Germans), whether the unit stands put for a long period of time (increases combat strength), terrain (governs the speed of movement), attack strategies (major to recon) and defensive strategies (counter-attack to delaying action). As you can see there are many decisions made before submitting your final orders.
There are weaknesses however when making your move. For starters, you cannot view the entire map on the screen as you can only view one unit at a time; so if your units are bundled in one neat corner then that’s what you'll going to see. This however exacerbates that you cannot view the next unit until you have made the final decision for that particular unit. This will cause major headaches when playing the Germans as at the start of the game your panzer units are tucked behind the infantry so expect plenty of collision. I can easily lost count of how many times I wished that my weak infantry unit will just die so I can send forward my panzers only to be consumed because of the allies ‘locking’ themselves at that particular hex (remember that no movement for a round increases the unit’s combat strength).
Another Achilles' heel of Tigers in the Snow is the idea of roads. Considering the game is trying to replicate in detail the surrounding terrain, there are no roads to speak off hence for the Germans expect very slow traveling through woods, steppes and riverbanks. Lastly in view of one of the German’s objectives is to capture key cities, the supplied hard copy map, even though shows the locations of these cities the actual screen map displays it differently.
Graphically the game is in good health. However it’s definitely not the prettiest game around but the icons do serve its purpose and for the most of the time identifiable. Bearing in mind that the game is written in BASIC, the Atari computers at the time are using the CTIA chip. That said, the more detailed the graphics, the less colours so in Tigers in the Snow is seriously lacking colours.
Also lacking are the sounds. Well actually there is none to speak off unless you call hitting the keyboard a form of a sound or that nasty ‘change tactics’ or that ever haunting ‘out of fuel’ a form of noise. So the entire game plays pretty silent. I guess you won’t be waking up the neighbours.
A typical game can last approximately an hour or so depending on how fast you place your orders. Once placed, sit back and relax as the computer will chug away the movements and combat instructions for each unit. If you think that’s bad remember that the game is written in BASIC. On the flipside, there are many options to choose from when starting the game ranging from handicaps (the more the easier naturally) and of course two player options (which is pretty neat). The package itself is quite impressive as it comes in a nice tin box with a colourful yet not totally accurate map. The manual is also easy to absorb so all is not lost.
At the time of release, SSI already had a couple of products under their belt however Tigers in the Snow demonstrates that maybe board games are things of the past. However due to the complexity of any board games, Tigers in the Snow even though shows strengths in certain areas it seems that there’s still many more elements can cannot be reproduced effectively due to the available technology and experience at hand. If you can overcome the flaws Tigers in the Snow it can be an enjoyable game.