When David Elmore posted copies of his rules, Tigers & Stalins, for sale I wasn't initially interested. Just out of curiosity, I asked what level they were and was mildly surprised to find they were skirmish level. I immediately bought a set at the listed price of $6. USD Let me tell you, at $6 USD these rules are a steal.
David makes no bones about the fact that they are "introductory". He doesn't try to sell you on the realism, complexity, historical accuracy or anything else that bigger more expensive rules sets go for. In fact, his main selling point is their simplicity. His goal is to get new players hooked on microarmor, and these rules should do it.
The original rules focused exclusively on armor and AT guns. The actual rules were 8 pages, plus another 8 pages of tables and charts covering the most common/used German and Russian AFVs. Later, he expanded the rules to include US and British vehicles, infantry rules and aircraft.
Uniquely, the movement and firing is chit driven. Each side gets a number of chits equal to the highest number of vehicles and or infantry squads of either side (i.e., if one side has 5 and the other has 3, both sides get 5 chits). A player can move a unit, fire, fire and move, or pass.
The combat system is also unique as he obviously spent a great deal of time working out how to incorporate to hit and penetration in a single die roll. David did a fantastic job with this. To fire AT, you simply cross references the gun type against the range to obtain a To Hit number. You then subtract the "armor" value of the vehicle's appropriate aspect (each vehicle has 5 armor values: front, front quarter, side, rear quarter, rear) and add or subtract various modifiers to get the final To Hit. Roll the dice and you know if you hit and penetrated at the same time. If you do, another roll will tell you what the damage is – and this includes a 'no effect' result, so a hit/penetration does not necessarily result in damage.
Beautiful in simplicity, but it is not a beer and pretzels game – there's more involved than the average 'simple' rules set. You could teach kids to play this game or buy it as a Christmas present for that friend who's interested but can't bring himself to take the plunge. A couple of packs of GHQ and these rules will get him going. David includes a section on building a battlefield to play on – green felt with styrofoam hills, lichen forests and felt roads/rivers. Keep it simple, keep it inexpensive and let them spend money on figures. I remember using lichen forests and felt roads with my Airfix 1/72 when I was a kid.
The only disappointment was the lack of artillery rules, but aircraft are included so that somewhat makes up for it. I would love to see David adapt the rules for moderns as well.
Tired of long drawn out games full of referencing charts and calculating hits? Give Tigers & Stalins a try. I wasn't disappointed and I regularly play Tactical Commander, Battalions in Crisis and Tractics, as well as owning many other rules sets, as you all do. The difference is you could probably play two or three games in an evening here whereas you might get through one game with the other rules. Support the hobby and get a set.
Hope you enjoy it!
Meryl
makes corrections when some models don't turn out the way he expected!
