This review is for the newer big d12 game, not the one that uses six sided dice. I have not played the earlier version. I started playing this game regularly in late 2008. My knowledge of world war 2 at that point in time was very minimal. I knew about events like Pearl Harbor, D-Day, the Holocaust, etc. and knew that the war ended in 1945. I didn't have a very good understanding of who was in the war besides the major powers and I certainly had no knowledge of the military strategy and tactics employed by either side. My interest in this conflict has spiked dramatically ever since I started playing this game, a great sign in a game. This game really brings the conflict alive for me with a incredible depth of strategy and an an even stronger enthusiasm brought by the other players which include the creator of this game and his cohorts. Also, I believe my ignorance brings an interesting viewpoint to the table as I simply focused on gameplay (at first) without the fetter of history influencing my strategy. This review will be of the game mechanics then, although my ignorance of the war is clearing up as I have been doing a great deal of reading and am absorbing much history from the group.
The rulebook is something like 30 pages. There is a steep learning curve to the game but one must realize that it is a ww2 simulation board game. This is ameliorated with the reference sheets like battleboards, naval, air to air boards, build charts and political rules sheets. It takes playing this game several times to start to understand the rules. It will then take a few more games to understand the implications of the rules. I believe I now understand the implications of the rules very well, especially concerning zoc rules and the motion of the very comprehensive list of ground and naval units. There are a great many tactics employed in the game that come out naturally from the rules, a sign of greatness in my opinion.
The battles in the game are very exciting. Besides the incredible amount of movement choices you have that culminate to battle, you even have a significant number of choices to make during battle, I never get bored while playing this game. It is even exciting watching battles play out without rolling any dice yourself. It is still exciting to even look at the board for hours and hours on end between turns. There is just so much plotting that can go on and it is all so much fun.
This game is a really fun with a group as well. The more the merrier I say. With the extreme length of the game, it is common to dedicate an entire weekend to playing, which feels like one big party. If you like to talk and hear about the history of this time period, or battle tactics, technology whatever, and you have lots of friends who feel the same way, then get this game.
The game appears to be fairly balanced to me except there is an ongoing dispute about which side has the advantage, an extremely hard thing to quantify, but highly tunable since the victory chart is a function of the number of axis territories owned, thus, there is no impetus to change large parts of the rules infrastructure. This game is still constantly being playtested anyhow so balance is not really an issue currently. t is shocking to see a game of such a large scale, fun to play the whole time, and fairly balanced simultaneously.I sicken at the sight of axis and allies now, it looks like checkers to me now, I am just not interested in it's simplicity. This is the best wargame I have ever played, and I am familiar with quite a few. I am more of a Eurogamer at heart than an ameritrasher. But even though I prefer eurogames, I'd still have to say that this game ranks near the top as one of the best games I've played overall.
