Hello CPT B,
I have been playing WiF since 1991, with pretty much the same group of friends. It is my second favorite board game (after chess). If you have a couple of hundred hours free and a 5'X9' playing surface, I recommend
WiFFE Deluxe very highly. The game is complex, but not needlessly so.
A very innovative feature of the game is its sequence of play. A game consists of 36 two-month turns covering all large-scale theatres of the war from the invasion of Poland through VJ day. Each turn is further subdivided into multiple
impulses, the exact number being unpredictable. Essentially, the longer the turn goes on, the more likely it will end. I would guess the average number of impulses is 5 or 6, but there tend to be more during summer turns (campaign season) and fewer during winter ones.
The sides alternate impulses, and weather is rolled every other impulse. During a side's impulse, each major power chooses a type of action that restricts their activities limits; options include land, naval, air and combined actions. Each of the first three allows unlimited activity of that type, whereas the combined action allows limited activity of all three types, depending on the major power taking it.
Land combat is pretty standard wargames stuff, with HQs that trace supply and reorganize disrupted units, but the naval and air combat systems are both innovative. Although hexdots regulate aircraft movement at sea, boats utilize an abstract system of large sea areas and sea boxes that very effectively simulate opposing navies having to search for eachother. Aircraft fight it out often in any activity, and the air-to-air system is exciting and simple, allowing a variety of "bombing" missions, escorting fighters at full range, and interceptors at half-range.
The counter mix for each power is updated annually to reflect improving technology, and older units can be "scrapped" so as to avoid drawing them during the end of turn build phase. Units vary in the time it takes to build them, as well as their cost (and oil dependency if you are using that rule).
One feature that keeps the game from bogging down is the use of
offensive chits. A major power can use an OC in any type of action. In all but a combined action, the OC is played on a particular HQ, doubling the factors of some units as appropriate, or reorganizing lots of ships if in a naval action. If used in a "super-combined" action, the chit allows that power to perform unlimited activities of all types during that impulse. A fifth alternative for an OC is using it to reorganize all of a power's HQs. Since they are so powerful, OCs cost a lot -- 15 build points (as much as five infantry units).
WiF also includes simple but effective political rules that in some cases allow major powers to align minors provided certain conditions are met. The effects of neutrality pacts are included. I find the Nazi-Soviet rules to be especially well done. U.S. entry into the war is separate for the European and Pacific theatres, and is an aspect that provides a lot of the play balance: if the Axis are too aggressive the Americans tend to enter the war early, and if the Allies are too aggresive early (or the Axis timid) the Yanks can enter it quite late.
Victory is expressed in terms of objective cities controlled at the end, and a bidding process at the beginning allows players to choose the major powers they want at the cost of increasing their anticipated objective total. Obviously, the U.S. and Germany are very popular powers, as is the Commonwealth, so they usually go with pretty high bids. The change left over from all the bids is subtracted from the final power's bid (in a six-player game that is most likely going to be Italy), so that power can sometimes finish the game with victory points even if they have no objectives!
WiF, and especially WiFFE Deluxe, is to me the ultimate wargame. I love the challenge. So many variables exist that optimizing your play is a goal you can never achieve completely. I find it completely immersive and totally enjoyable. No wonder it was voted Best 20th Century Game by Fire and Movement, among its many accolades.
As to ADG, If you like WiF, you may enjoy playing with their expansion,
Days of Decision III, which allows the run-up to the war to be played politically and militarily, starting in 1936. DoD is also a stand-alone game, but I feel it is best played with WiF. ADG also has two what-if products in the WiF line,
America in Flames (about what would have happened if the Axis had won against Russia and the UK, and then moved on to invade the Americas) and
Patton in Flames (about what would have happened if after WWII, the Western Allies had gone to war with the Soviets).
As for non-WWII games, ADG created
Empires in Arms, a sweeping simulation of the Napoleonic Wars which Matrix is also adapting for the computer. Most recently, ADG has released
7 Ages, a small game by their standards that covers the history of the world in one (long) sitting. They also have a game called
Rubout, about Mob activity in a city, but I have never played it.
I hope I this helps answer some of your questions. Mziln is correct that Patrice's site is great for finding out about WiF, or you can go to ADG's site to see their catalog of products:
http://www.a-d-g.com.au/