Gary Grigsby's World At War gives you the chance to really run a world war. History is yours to write and things may turn out differently. The Western Allies may be conquered by Germany, or Japan may defeat China. With you at the controls, leading the fates of nations and alliances. Take command in this dynamic turn-based game and test strategies that long-past generals and world leaders could only dream of. Now anything is possible in this new strategic offering from Matrix Games and 2 by 3 Games.
I do not have the World War II knowledge that many of you do. Not even close. However, I am nonetheless very interested in the historical aspects of units and their use in combat. Why they were used, how, and to what historical advantage/disadvantage primarily.
I am really hoping that there is an in-game dictionary (or better yet) a historical description of each unit in the game? This would really add much meaning to the use and deployment of weapons/units for those of us who don't know a Panther from a Tiger (but DO want to learn!).
There wouldn't be much use of that in this game because WAW does not work with specific historic models, it works with generic semi-abstract units. In other words your tank in WAW is not a "Tiger", it's just a "very strong tank" with land attack value of X and evasion vaue of Y and so on. Of course many players will imagine their Tigers, Panthers, Stukas, Il-2s, T34s and whatnot, and use them to "beef up" their AARs, which is OK, but the specific models do not exist in game as such.
In other words: This isn't a game to use as learning tool for specific historic weapon systems like Tiger or B17, BUT is perhaps the BEST game to use as learning tool for anyone wishing to see how and why WW2 "worked" way it did on a global, strategic scale. Ie. WHY Japan had to get more rresources for their industry, why US production power was so overwhelming, what alternative strategies Hitler could have used in summer 41 etc.
Units generally represent corps sized units (or 500 aircraft or fleets of ships). You need to know the strengths and weaknesses in game terms of armor vs infantry vs artillery, but not differences in particular weapon models (i.e. Tiger vs. Panther).
All understanding comes after the fact.
-- Soren Kierkegaard
