It looks safe but I have my doubts.

Tank Battle: 1944 uses a similar engine to the one that has powered HexWar's games from the wars of Hannibal to their sci-fi offering. All units from tanks to artillery are given ten strength points and as they are attacked this value decreases causing a subsequent decrease in the combat capabilities of the unit. It works well for a body of halberdiers but doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for vehicles unless you view it as a measure of combat effectiveness and not combat strength. Units in the game are rated for Defence (front and flank for vehicles) and their main weapon system has attack ratings, based on range, for soft and armoured targets. There is a fair bit of granularity available even with these coarse measurements but this isn't a title by Roger Keating or Ian Trout by any stretch.

Combat results are effected by cover, unit quality (Raw, Veteran or Elite), movement, cover (full or partial) and Hull Down status. You also get a combat bonus for flank attacks. Units in the game move to face their attackers so staggering your attacks to reposition your target can help generate flank attacks. The game has a Combat Intelligence display that will summarize all of these factors for you and give you an approximation of the possible results from any possible attack. This can be disabled if you want to have less information about the game or don't like the screen clutter.

Does the Combat Analysis dialog provide cover?

Tank Battles is less concerned with the specific mechanics of a 7,5 cm Kw.K. 40 L/43 against sloped front armour than it is with the application of mechanized and foot troops in terrain against an opponent. So while they give an approximation of the combat value of the Panzer IVH's main gun the game is really about finding your enemy and then using terrain and movement to inflict the most damage. There are also obvious trade-offs between real-world statistics and game balance. The M10 GMC and the Tiger are not as effective in this game as they were on actual battlefields and units like US infantry in M3s don't appear to unload their .50 cal guns to bring to battle with them.

The scenarios in this game, which take place between US and German forces in France and Germany in 1944, are often generic in nature and sometimes seem a bit cramped as the game hasn't had the high-definition remodeling that titles like Ancient Battle Rome and Tank Battle: Pacific have had. There is also no option to zoom in or out of the maps but this isn't really a problem given the size of the scenarios on offer. The lack of updated graphics does mean that the tanks and vehicles are significantly larger than many of the buildings in the game and this visual incongruity can be a bit distracting from time to time. This scale issue also contributes to make the maps seem a bit cluttered.