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Honestly I cannot recommend either Commander: War in Europe or WW2: Road to Victory.

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

Who cares if it takes you as long to play the game as the war lasted? The trip along the way is so fun!

It might not be fun enough for everyone... [8|]

Easy, Matti, just because it isn't your cup of tea doesn't mean that you should be rolling your eyes at another person's suggestion... you can post your reasons why it doesn't do it for you, but to intimate that another person is nuts for liking it is not very friendly...

Hearts of Iron 2 + expansions (available now as a complete version for around $20 is various digital download locations) is a great pick and one of the most detailed simulations you will see. It is far more detailed than its cousin EU:3 and follows the "Victoria" school of thought that Paradox seems to be deviating from (luckily expansions are fixing that). Hopefully HoI3 (coming sometime within a year or so) will be as complex.

You have to credit Erik for his honesty, he could have easily tried to "sell" you on one of those two games, but did the right thing (he believes in customer satisfaction rather than the hard sale, a very rare and commendable trait). Both of those two games are equal to SC2 in abstraction and complexity. I am a big fan of SC2, but I can see why some might object. The expansions for SC2 added a lot of great details, and the new Pacific Theater release is quite nice!

Now GG:WaW is an interesting bird. It is fairly abstracted, but also fairly complex in other areas. It plays much like Axis and Allies with a bit more complexity (unit interactions, rail movement, espionage, supply, and infrastructure management). But it still has a very boardgame feel to it.

World in Flames is going to be a hugely detailed game. I am leery of it a bit, as I was disappointed in the terrible UI and poor feedback of Empire in Arms (also developed from a boardgame equally as complex as World in Flames). If the UI is workable and the game is made so that people who have not played the WiF boardgame canb easily learn the system (tooltips people, tooltips - is it that hard), then WiF is likely to be great fun. But the above posters are right, the release might be a ways off (although it was supposed to be close to release around now, before it got pushed more and more back - another flashback of my anticipation for Empire in Arms days).

EDIT: Re:Joe D - GG:AWD added a nice espionage system, an number of decision events, several tweaks to combat (and some additions to units and sea units). I like both, and I would say that AWD brings some very good things to the table. I suggest checking out the features list to see the changes.

SoM

Thanks a ton everyone for the advice. I will look into all the games listed.

I should note that I had World at War, the first one, and didnt like the area movement thing. I am more Hex oriented which I guess limits my choices, but I will try anything once. I didnt like HOI 1 that much and gave up on it because of the interface and the combat system.

But times change and games improve so I will check those titles out!

I should mention I need AI also, just in case

ORIGINAL: pvthudson01

... I didnt like HOI 1 that much and gave up on it because of the interface and the combat system.

HoI2 was a big improvement overall, and I understand there's an HoI3 in the works.
Stay tuned ...

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

HoI2 was a big improvement overall, and I understand there's an HoI3 in the works.
Stay tuned ...

There is also a major patch for HOI2DD Armagedon (1.3). It is a beta, but has some very big changes included.

ORIGINAL: 06 Maestro

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

HoI2 was a big improvement overall, and I understand there's an HoI3 in the works.
Stay tuned ...

There is also a major patch for HOI2DD Armagedon (1.3). It is a beta, but has some very big changes included.

I have HoI2DD; is Armagedon a mod, or yet another HoI2 version?

ORIGINAL: Joe D.
I have HoI2DD; is Armagedon a mod, or yet another HoI2 version?

Armageddon was a major expansion for HOI 2 DD. It costs about 5 bucks at Gamers Gate. Although there are mods that still work with DD, the new ones (most older mods were modified for Arma) are for Armageddon.

From your wishlist and the fact that you like hexes, I'd check out Matrix World in Flames. It has finally an (apparently) firm release date of Jul 27 this year and promises to be epic.

Cheers, Neilster

Schwerpunkt's Russo-German War, (RGW), and Anglo German War (AGW).
 
Detailed, but not as detailed as WITP.  Interface is a little different, but no more difficult to learn than GGWAW.
 
Doesn't cover entire globe, but it's plenty big enough.  Nice spiral bound manual with seperate reference card.