Tigers Unleashed (HPS Simulations) - Review

A detailed, high fidelity simulation of WWII land combat … Are you ready for the real deal?

At the time of this writing, HPS Simulations’ Tigers Unleashed (TU) is the most detailed WWII tactical land combat simulation out there. This simulation is data heavy, versatile, highly scaleable and offers an enormous range for customization of weapon systems. A greatly improved offshoot of the Point of Attack 2 simulation, TU's topic is tactical combat in Poland (1939) and the Soviet Union (1941-1942).

Tigers Unleashed is a simulation of tactical combat with 100 meter hexagons and 1 minute simultaneously resolved turns (WEGO). In most scenarios, the unit counters represent platoons of tanks and platoons of infantry. Although the units counters consolidate a group of individual real life fighting platforms, it is possible to split those counters into subunits. The included scenarios feature fighting forces that range from companies to demi-brigades. The maps are in the range of 5 square kilometers in size and adequate for the scale of the forces deployed in them. The longest scenarios run for 60 minutes of simulated time.

Each scenario can be played from either side, hotseat or against the computer. There is also an option to play by e-mail, which unfortunately I didn't have time to test. Once the scenario is loaded, the player is given the option to choose the so-called "expert level" (this affects how much data is shown to the player, fog of war restrictions, ability to select ammo for close air and indirect fire support, and ability to combine/break down units) and the fog of war level (ranging from all units visible to  complete fog of war including the player's units not always visible - AKA friendly fog of war).

Graphically, the maps in Tigers Unleashed look decent but they don't compare to other more flashy war games out there. The graphics can be moded easily, though. Moving around the map is a bit cumbersome with the default settings (there is an option to modify the responsiveness of the user's scrolling at the edge of the map). There are three levels of zoom for which the player has to click either the zoom in or zoom out button and then click on the map. The movement of units is plotted by clicking the movement orders mode button, which opens a windows that allows the player to select many options including the type of path (direct, best for speed, best for tactical movement, etc) and standard operation procedures (SOP, or what the reaction of the unit will be under fire, after taking a casualty or after being suppressed). After the player has plotted all movement for his units, hitting the next turn button will put the engine in action to resolve movement and fire for both forces in the map. A combat report window appears and in it the player can read how the events unfold. Each turn is solved in 4 phases, each one including movement, spotting, indirect fire, direct fire, movement and fire of air units (not necessarily in that order). Animations on the map are also shown in the form of lines connecting the firing unit and its target. The sound of guns for each firing weapon is part of the animations. The pace at which the combat report mission writes data can be adjusted by the player. I have mine to write the data quite fast but I can always go back and read through the report if needed. According to posts in discussion forums elsewhere, the long duration of the turn resolution has been an issue for some players. I have managed to keep the duration of the turn resolution within reasonable limits (an average of 70 seconds in the biggest scenarios) by tuning the fire and spotting calculations at mid to low fidelity and by getting rid of animations and sounds.

There is an enormous amount of things going on under the hood of Tigers Unleashed. The amount of detail in this simulation is astonishing. For example, spotting is affected not only by distance, terrain, atmospheric conditions and smoke as one would suspect in an hex-based war game. Factors like relative angle and individual buildings between the units are computed by the engine. Weapons details go down to the weight of each round and armor penetration is calculated taking armor slope into account. The simulation is completely open in terms of data: you don't like the muzzle velocity of this or that round? Change it! There is an editor for that included.

When the simultaneous turn resolution ends, the player starts over plotting new movement and fire orders. If higher levels of fog of war have been chosen, the orders may get delayed for units that may have stepped out of the command range or units that have lost communications and are out of visual range. If a unit has no radio communications available, it may take 15 minutes of simulated combat to reach that unit via a messenger. So watch out for those reaction orders or SOPs you give to your units: that's what they will do when you are not watching or when you can't reach them with fresh orders.

The pace of tactical combat is painfully realistic. For starters, getting your forces sorted out for an assault takes sweat and time. The assault itself will take a good chunk of time too as units get suppressed, fatigued or just start to conserve ammunition. Such combat friction and slow pace of events, although a delectable bite for the realism hungry grognard, sometimes doesn't pair well with the relatively short duration of the scenarios (60 minutes tops).

Tigers Unleashed includes a scenario editor that the player can use to start an scenario from scratch. The interface of this scenario editor is straightforward and offers countless options. One of the steps of scenario creation is quite revealing about the computer opponent: the game the computer will play against the player depends on the choices of the player for the quality of the leaders (tactical, command, order execution skills), and the type of stance (limited attack, attack, defense, delaying action) given to the forces under the control of the computer. This means that the strengths and weaknesses of the computer opponent do extend beyond mere fire and movement. It's great to have a computer opponent that can be programmed into a given fighting style and with an overall tactical mission. After all selections have been made for the computer opponent, the simulation engine automatically compiles an AI file, which is similar to a tactical template that takes into account the terrain and the objectives of the scenario. The computer opponent itself makes a reasonable OPFOR, but the shortness of the scenarios' time span frequently gets in the way of both sides' schemes of maneuver. In the case of the user generated scenarios, this caveat can be removed by choosing a longer scenario duration.

Another scenario editing tool in Tigers Unleashed is a geomorphic map creator that can be used to join smaller maps (called tiles) into bigger ones. I haven't dabbled too much into this part of the simulation, but I read elsewhere that map creation for Tigers Unleashed is far less convoluted than it was for Point of Attack 2. Time to dig up my copy of Aide de Camp!

The general impression of playing around with Tigers Unleashed is that the simulation engine doesn't like to be bothered with abstractions and with interacting with the user. The lack of abstractions is understandable and the main reason of existence of the simulation, but the enormous amount of data may result in some unwanted clog ups in the form of long processing times in scenarios featuring more than one battalion and C++ exceptions when the user ventures off the beaten path of the most frequently clicked forms. With my copy of the simulation patched to the current version, the C++ exceptions are rare and far less frequent than the ones I experienced with Point of Attack 2. As for the user interaction part, the developers have done a great effort to present information to the player by the use of standard Windows forms. There is a lot of information to browse while playing a typical scenario, and sometimes the most needed information is spread across several windows or tabs. For example, a composite infantry platoon that is presented as one icon is actually composed of several units (command, radioman, LMGs and infantry itself) and to access the information corresponding to each unit, one has to right click the icon, access the unit information window and keep clicking OK in that window until the relevant subunit's window is presented. In this information window, the field that shows the amount of men that the unit has occupies the same amount of real estate than the one that shows their altitude above ground level, or the one that shows their competence level. Given that Tigers Unleashed uses standard Windows forms, sometimes I wonder if it would be possible to have a customizable toolbar or a windows form where the player can consolidate information of his choosing. This simulation is complex, the variables and information are in high supply and different minds digest information differently. So here is my vote for a custom information window or toolbar!

Tigers Unleashed is a unique simulation that has no rival in its depth, expanse and ab initio computation of land warfare. Such unique features come at the price of some quirks here and there, but don't let the tree hide the forest. As any other in depth simulation there is a moderate learning curve for the player, mainly to get acquainted with the amount of data that the engine can handle and where to find it. But once the climb is over, the joys of commanding troops in such a detailed battlefield will put any previous pain in the rear mirror.

Cheers,