Three great things about AoD that distinguish it from any other game on the planet:
1. Realistic and intuitive stacking penalties and reserve forces
No other game models this better than AoD. This is the single greatest "under the hood" innovation of the game.
The more forces are committed to the assault, the more the front is "clogged" and the more the combat power of each unit is diffused. The best thing to do is "cycle" your forces - use just enough forces to achieve breakthrough, and commit fresh reserve troops when the frontline troops get worn down.
No other wargame recreates this reality in AoD's simple and elegant manner. HoI3 has to use an arbitrary and clumsy "frontage" system. In every other war game out there the benefits of attacking with a 99-unit superstack outweigh the disadvantages.
2. Intuitive interaction with weather and terrain.
I can see both terrain and weather (except in case of "frozen" weather, but that's nitpicking) This is an incredibly simple thing which somehow has eluded all the wargames I know. I can plan my assaults around the weather. I was actually thrilled when I had to postpone assaults many times because I could see snow fronts sweeping in.
3. The strategic air war has decisive consequences.
Historically, the air war against Germany succeeded in crippling about 30% of Germany's production, despite the vast resources devoted to Germany's air defense. As Speer makes very clear in his book Inside the Third Reich, that the air war did not do more damage was simply due to the Allies' failure to concentrate attacks on vital industries. Speer asserts that the Allies could have totally ended German war production in early 1944 had they focused on the ball-bearing plants, or the power plants, or the oil refineries; as it happened they attacked these targets sporadically, and wasted a lot of their air power on "terror bombing."
In every other grand strategy war game you can actually completely ignore the air war and still win. For Germany at least, that's not possible.
1. Realistic and intuitive stacking penalties and reserve forces
No other game models this better than AoD. This is the single greatest "under the hood" innovation of the game.
The more forces are committed to the assault, the more the front is "clogged" and the more the combat power of each unit is diffused. The best thing to do is "cycle" your forces - use just enough forces to achieve breakthrough, and commit fresh reserve troops when the frontline troops get worn down.
No other wargame recreates this reality in AoD's simple and elegant manner. HoI3 has to use an arbitrary and clumsy "frontage" system. In every other war game out there the benefits of attacking with a 99-unit superstack outweigh the disadvantages.
2. Intuitive interaction with weather and terrain.
I can see both terrain and weather (except in case of "frozen" weather, but that's nitpicking) This is an incredibly simple thing which somehow has eluded all the wargames I know. I can plan my assaults around the weather. I was actually thrilled when I had to postpone assaults many times because I could see snow fronts sweeping in.
3. The strategic air war has decisive consequences.
Historically, the air war against Germany succeeded in crippling about 30% of Germany's production, despite the vast resources devoted to Germany's air defense. As Speer makes very clear in his book Inside the Third Reich, that the air war did not do more damage was simply due to the Allies' failure to concentrate attacks on vital industries. Speer asserts that the Allies could have totally ended German war production in early 1944 had they focused on the ball-bearing plants, or the power plants, or the oil refineries; as it happened they attacked these targets sporadically, and wasted a lot of their air power on "terror bombing."
In every other grand strategy war game you can actually completely ignore the air war and still win. For Germany at least, that's not possible.
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