The first strike ability is difficult for me, because even though the Tigers had outstanding kill ratios, those were in relatively close combat. A battle in Belorussia or the Ukraine, for example, covers vast distances. It is not so realistic to me that entire divisions of infantry (represented by the one or two casualties of the Tigers’ opening round fire) could be destroyed without response in such huge territories. The dice roll represents so much more than just shell range or armor- it also factors in weather, leadership, supplies and other logistics, intelligence etc. So therefore I don’t see the capacity for a Tiger unit to do that much damage without retaliation.
Basically the only unit in the game that can do it is subs, and they have been mitigated by destroyers and vulnerability to aircraft.
And also- so that people don’t get into a lather about “Tigers could actually do this and actually couldn’t do that…” why not just call them Heavy Armor units or something like that? Make them a little more generic so that the purists out there don’t pull their hair out… (insert emoticon implying that I’m not mean-spirited)