I am ready to say 1945 might be the best year of the Axis Operations series. It just does so many ambitious things and executes on the kind of atmosphere it wants to create so well. Not to mention it has so many of the types of scenarios that I love (defensive battles and "impossible" battles) with lots of great flavor thrown in along the way. I am someone who strongly, strongly prefers games and movies with happy endings so I was somewhat dreading the historical branch because I thought it was going to be exhausting. And in a way it was, but it was so well done and executed. Oh, and Panther IIs make everything better. The historical branch just gives the player a sense of futility and dread that I have never experienced in a war game before.

And the ahistorical path is even better! I don't want to spoil it but there are some very exciting storyline developments and the game creates a very unique alt-history scenario. Even better, it leaves things in a very exciting position for 1946

I am ready to say 1945 might be the best year of the Axis Operations series. It just does so many ambitious things and executes on the kind of atmosphere it wants to create so well. Not to mention it has so many of the types of scenarios that I love (defensive battles and "impossible" battles) with lots of great flavor thrown in along the way. I am someone who strongly, strongly prefers games and movies with happy endings so I was somewhat dreading the historical branch because I thought it was going to be exhausting. And in a way it was, but it was so well done and executed. Oh, and Panther IIs make everything better. The historical branch just gives the player a sense of futility and dread that I have never experienced in a war game before. And the ahistorical path is even better! I don't want to spoil it but there are some very exciting storyline developments and the game creates a very unique alt-history scenario. Even better, it leaves things in a very exciting position for 1946