1. Tiger Tank Battalions
The massively powerful Tiger tanks were virtually impervious to Allied tank guns and capable of dominating the battlefield.
You may build three tank units as Tiger tanks. A Tiger tank costs 8 IPC’s and may be built or rebuilt in Germany only. Tigers have a movement capability of 2, but cannot blitz as regular tanks.They attack and defend on a 4 or less in the opening fire step of combat. Any casualties are destroyed and removed from play, with no chance to counter-attack.
2. Tiger Tank Battalions
The massively powerful Tiger tanks were assigned to special heavy tank battalions to support and reinforce other units during a campaign.
You may build three tank units as Tiger tanks. A Tiger tank costs 7 IPC’s and may be built or rebuilt in Germany only. They attack and defend on a 4 or less. Moreover a Tiger tank give one matching infantry an increased combat capability; attack on a 2 (even if supported by artillery) and defends on a 3, for the first cycle of combat only.
3. Tigers Tanks
The massively powerful King Tiger was virtually impervious to Allied tank guns and capable of dominating the battlefield.
You may build three tank units as Tiger tanks, but only one per turn. Your Tigers cost 6 IPC:s, defends on a 4 and attack on a 4. Tigers may be built or rebuilt, if they are destroyed, in Germany only. One can use regular armor painted in black as Tiger tank units.
4. Royal Tigers
The massively powerful King Tiger was virtually impervious to Allied tank guns and capable of dominating the battlefield. A single King Tiger tank could halt the advance of a complete armored division.
You may build three tank units as Tiger tanks, but only one per turn. Your Tigers cost 6 IPC’s, attack and defend in the opening fire step of combat. Tigers may be built or rebuilt in Germany only. One can use regular armor painted in black as Tiger tank units.
Background
The influence of the Tiger on Allied morale, known as Tigerphobia, was so powerful that British General Montgomery banned all reports mentioning it’s prowess in battle. Perhaps the Tiger’s greatest fame was gained in a single action in Normandy where the famous commander SS Obersturmführer Michael Wittman destroyed an entire column of 25 tanks, 14 half-tracks and 14 bren-gun carriers in a few short minutes with one Tiger. Due to Allied air superiority, the Tigers in Normandy and France were employed mainly in a static defensive role. This conserved fuel as the Tiger normally consumed huge amounts of petrol. It also kept the mechanical breakdowns to a minimum.
Tigers were mechanically unreliable (mostly because of their weight, which strained the entire mechanical system) as compared to the Soviet T-34 or US M4-Sherman. More over they had a small radius of action in contrast to the aforementioned Allied tanks, and were so large that most terrain rendered them practically useless as breakthrough weapons for which they were manufactured. They could not cross most of the bridges in Europe, and had to be shipped by train to the battlefield (they would break down if they had to be driven for any great distance). They guzzled gasoline, were extremely slow (with an average speed of about 4-9 miles per hour on rough terrain or dirt roads - well below the stated maximum design speed of 25 mph), and had an extremely short combat radius and duration. The high kill ratios when they did engage in combat were offset by their tendency to either run out of gas or break down in combat, which resulted in large numbers having to be abandoned (more than were destroyed by Allied tanks). Also, U.S. and British forces had superior mobility due to widespread mechanization, as well as superior artillery and airpower. Because of the immobility and limited numbers of the Tiger tanks, it was possible to avoid confronting them with tanks, and instead, Allied forces would try to bypass and isolate them, or destroy them with heavy artillery or airpower.
The Tiger’s two greatest strengths were its main gun and its heavy armor. The combination of this massive armor and powerful gun made for an almost unbeatable tank. Enemy crews often watched helplessly as their shots bounced off the Tiger and their own vehicles were quickly destroyed, often from great distances. The Tiger I was very maneuverable for its weight and size, and it was only 2km/h slower than the Panzer III and Panzer IV.However the Tigers would have been much more effective if the mechanical reliability was higher.
Each Tiger I tank cost 800,000 Reichmarks, which was equivalent to the weekly wages of 30,000 people, and required 300,000 man-hours to produce. At those rates, the Tigers were very much high end super-weapons, equivalent on a cost basis to something like the U.S. B-29, which cost about a million dollars a piece, or a Navy destroyer.