ORIGINAL: super400
How do you guys like it? Lot better than the first? I loved Axis and Allies, and have been looking for a computer game like it. Also, is the 1st game included in this release, or just discontinued? I can't find it anywhere, not even on the site for purchase.
GGWAW-AWD is much better than plain old GGWAW1, and I loved the first one.
It is nearly the perfect level of complexity for me, enough to make things pretty realistic while still being able to handle the global conflict over 7 possible years of war without getting bogged down in the details. If you loved Axis and Allies but always wanted just a little more realism in supply and industrial aspects, or in tech upgrades, then you'll love this.
The things that stand out to me that make GGWAW-AWD better than GGWAW1 are:
1) politics/diplomacy. Its pretty rudimentary, but its a good thing. It gets the job done and provides some variability without distracting from the main foci, which are war, production, research. It also allows the game to start in 1939, whereas GGWAW1 had to start in 1940 after certain pieces had already fallen into place.
2) revised combat for air units. It's much more realistic than GGWAW1. In GGWAW1 bombers would routinely wipe out land units (most typically artillery), now this is much less frequent. But air power is unquestionably a requirement for other reasons. Also, defending bombers now stay on the ground in air-to-air combat, so they can't be annihilated by attacking fighter sweeps but now must be hit by air-to-ground in the airfield. This gives bombers a much better defensive survivability.
3) other combat revisions. There is the introduction of "bombardment attacks" and "suppression fire", which allows some good complimentary relationships between artillery and other land units. There is a Combined Arms bonus so that you want a good balance of armor/infantry/artillery/air.
4) amphib assaults are modified. It is harder to do long distance assaults, and you can no longer "land and run" in spoiling attacks like you used to be able to do. Op-fire against landing units has changed to include air-unit op-fire, again increasing the value of air.
5) map mods. In particular, the Russian Far East is fixed so that the route from Japan to Moscow is not so short as it used to be, and Scotland is no longer 1-sea-zone from Europe, so Sea Lion is now more likely to land in England than Scotland.
It is definitely more complicated than Axis and Allies. If that doesn't turn you off then I think you'll like it. I hear that the AI is decent, but that's subjective. It is improved over GGWAW1. I never play against it. You'll find it good for at least a couple training runs, but ultimately you'll want to play humans in PBEM.