From: "William Sariego" <yogawass@mindspring.

com>
Subject: Stalin's Tanks

Stalin's Tanks

I was quite fortunate in picking up a mint copy of this on Ebay the

other day for only $5.50. Since it retailed for $3.95 when released, I
think I got a bargain on a 20 year old game. Part of Metagaming's
Historical series, it was a companion game to Rommel's Panzers.

Basically ST is a tactical game of combat on the Eastern Front, with one

hex equaling 50 meters and the counters representing one vehicle/gun, or
one squad of infantry. If you want realism, look elsewhere, for this is
no Squad Leader or even Panzer Blitz. It is a simple, fast and fun game
with a good introductory value for your non-wargaming friends.

I do not possess a copy of Rommel's Panzers, but it would seem a simple

matter to combine the two games for your gaming pleasure. The Soviets
recieved quite a few lend lease allied tanks over the course of the war.
You can throw in an occassional Valentine II, Matilda II, or Grant to
liven up things, for example. Likewise, you can have the Cold War
favorite Red Star/White Star thing, with the Soviets and Brits going at
it. Use the ST map for European battles and the RT map for battles in
Iran, which was jointly occupied.

Before throwing out my ideas to enlarge the scope of the game, two
pieces of counter errata must be addressed:

1] The armor value of all German Mk III panzers and the Mk IVd are
incorrectly listed as "6". This was a printers SNAFU. It should be "G"

2] The Elephant is given the same anti-personnel value as every other

German unit armed with an 88. All Eastern Front afficionadoes are
familiar that the beast lacked machine guns, and it was also armed with
far more AP rounds than HE than other German vehicles. Change the
anti-personnel factor to 5.

{#1 is genuine errata, #2 is simply strongly suggested}

New Units

Four blank counters are included, perfect four adding two new Soviet
units. Make two Cavalry units, with values of 3-5-4, with an
anti-personnel (AP in the rules) value of 4. It close assualts as a
German infantry unit (i.e. needing a 7 to destroy the defender rather
than a 6 for a Soviet squad). Also make two T-70 light tanks. Their
value is 16-G-6, with an AP of 10.

Fortifications

In set piece defensive battles, one side may have had time to dig in and
build gun emplacements. In Design Your Own scenarios (DYO) infantry and
guns can begin the game in this state by paying the purchase price,
which can be indicated by inverting the unit. The opposing player is
allowed to inspect the unit. Once a unit moves it is considered to have
left its positions and cannot enter them again or dig in again (this is
an oversimplification in the spirit of a simple game). The effect is to
double the units defense value.
Air Strikes

Players can purchase airstrikes in DYO games. The German palyer can buy
up to two airstrkes in scenarios set in 1941-1942, one in 1943-1944
scenarios. The Soviet player can purchase one in scenarios from
1943-1945. Airstrikes are similar to artillary barrages, but weaker.
They are not subject to scatter, however. An airstrike will destroy a
hard target on a score of 7 or less, a soft target on a score of 6 or
less.

Unit Values

Rather than write up endless scenarios, I've come up with a formula that
yields the following point values for each unit. It may not be perfect,
but puts units in proportion to one another. Players can agree before
hand on a point total for the scenario they want to play and build there
forces accordingly. In a perfect world both sides pick the same point
value. This works well for a meeting engagement but in battle
representing a definate attacker/defender situation, grant the attacker
a 3:2 ration to compensate for a definate objective needed to obtain
(i.e. "x" amount of units exited, a terrain piece captured, etc.).

German Units Soviet Units

Unit Value Unit Value

IIa 5 BT 7 9
IIIg 8 T-70 8
IIIj 10 T-34a 10
IVd 10 T-34b 11
IVf2 11 T-34c 12
IVh 12 T-34/85 13
Panth 15 KV1a 12
Tig I 13 KV1c 13
Tig II 14 KV 85 13
Stug b 8 JS II 15
Stug g 10 SU 76 9
Hetzer 11 SU 85 11
Nash 12 SU 100 13
Pz. Jg V 13 SU 122 14
Pz. Jg. VI 14 SU 152 14
EL (rev) 11 JSU 122 13
75mm 6 57mm 5
88mm 7 76mm 6
INF 4 Inf/Cav 4
Air strike 6 Air strike 7
lit barrage 6 lt barrage 5
hvy barrage 7 hvy barrage 6
fortification 3 fortification 2

enjoy,

Comrade Ilya Sariegovich

(aka Bill Sariego)