ORIGINAL: marjur
As for the AI engine, it more or less the same as in other war games; however, the overall engine is absolutely abysmal.
The game is virtually unplayable, and not only by today's standards; the game mechanics were already a pain in the arse when it came out.
You really need to be a masochist to play it.
Wow, thats quite a harsh assessment! I'd hardly call the game unplayable. The interface takes a little getting used to, but its simply a representation of boardgame mechanics as far as I can tell. Other than the key combinations to select a particular unit on a stack, most of the right click context menus and options are straightforward enough.
I really enjoyed the games simplicity in play, yet multitude of options at the operational level. To include air CAP's and bombing raid, along with naval bombardment goes beyond a lot of state of the art wargames nowadays (I mean, even War in the East doesn't allow specific Air ops!)
The boardgame/dice based combat resolution is perhaps its biggest stumbling block in terms of PC wargaming, but as a representation of a boardgame it is spot on. I only wish there were more developers like Ron/Schwerpunkt making interesting wargame/boardgames like this on the PC.
Not sure why you think someone has to be a masochist to play this game, I found it very straightforward - and it leapt up to joint top of my operational games alongside Decisive Campaigns: Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris. Very good company indeed.
I even warmed to the idea of placing ALL the relevant unit information on the unit chit itself. It makes for a very focussed game, because you're not constantly having to check stats in a box away from the action itself. The area I think it lets itself down is having many of the additional information hidden away in status modes - such as the supply and victory point locations. You really need to see some of this stuff with the units in place.
The RGW map was quite basic, but 11 years ago it was probably a masterpiece. The AGW/MDE maps are much better realised, and a player modified the original RGW map to make it more pleasing to the eye.
I just can't understand the hostility for this title really, I suppose it depends upon where you're coming from in terms of what you're comparing it against. It would be interesting to hear what titles you consider surpass this one and why you think you need to be into masochism to enjoy it.