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World at War may just be the cure for those who hunger for the next great World War 2 strategy game.

World at War takes place during the 1940’s, which of course pits you in World War 2. Similar to one of my favorite board games, Axis and Allies, you are in charge of moving your military forces around the map to battle the other nations you are at war with.

Five military powers are included that you can choose from. Axis powers have Japan and Germany, which also has the Italians (sorry Mussolini you won’t be represented at all) bunched in. Allied powers include Russia, China and the Western Allies (UK and the US.) Canada and Finland are also represented.

Some may question China’s inclusion but Japan did invade China several times. China was separated with two factions, Nationalists and Communists, feuding with each other. That soon stopped when Japan declared war and they both banded together to fend off Japan as much as they possibly could. Now about the Western Allies, you won’t be able to use US apart from the UK/French forces.

For those wondering what type of units you’ll have full control over, there are fourteen different types offered. Infantry are included as well as tanks and anti-air weapons. Air bombers, fighter planes, and planes to drop airborne infantry, are available. There aren’t particularly any unique units though for each power but they do have different icons of sorts to separate them from others.

If you are wondering about ships, those are my favorite units found within the game and seemed to be the most fun using. Carrier ships of course act as airship bases to harbor attack planes. Battleships, destroyers, cruisers and submarines are also used to unleash an attack on your opponent.

Every unit has stats to determine how far you move, how you attack, range of your attack as well as defensive stats. The defense of each unit is based on their durability, evasion and the armor. The offensive side of things is factored with movement, range of the attack and the power of the attack.

When all the elements are calculated, you can see the probability of how successful your attack may just be if you decide to attack. If you want even more details on how the battle will fare, the surprise element and supplies for each of the units could be found too.

For every time you do attack, both sides placing in the battle have a chance of losing units or having units heavily damaged. The losing side of the battle will have to take the remaining units that weren’t destroyed and retreat. Don’t fear about having units being damaged for too long as you can repair them easily. You may want to add more units to the place on the map that you keep getting attacked on if you are taking heavy damage.

The last thing I want to talk about is that you can improve your nation’s technology with research. Factories produce all your points to use for research and improvements. You can upgrade unit strength and attack power to use on the battlefield but it will cost you quite a bit.

Improving the speed and movement range is another area you will want to look to, so that you can move quickly to defend a certain area that is being attacked. The research area of the game seems a little on the light side but it can be used to your advantage to take the upper hand in war.

The name of the game is World at War and it is going to be a thinking man’s strategy game as you’ll be conquering the entire map or eliminating the opposition. To dominate, you’ll have to pull out all stops to make sure you are always coming out on top every time you play.

Gary Grigsby’s World at War may just be the cure for those who hunger for the next great World War 2 strategy game. I certainly had fun with my few hours of tutorials and we’ll get a better impression of how the game turned out when it is released in the middle of February.


Preview by Dakota Grabowski.