other wwII games, like Axis and Allies?

ive never played axis and allies but from what ive seen and read its nothing like it.

its a very good game you should definitly give it a try

This is nothing like axis and allies, which is the complete war experience. Dawn of War is indiviual plane combat. Simple rules, loads of tasics and great fun. You can download the rules for free for a look. You will enjoy it.

TT.

Axis and Allies is a 2-5 player game involving taking over territories on a map to gain income and accomplish certain victory objectives. As TT said, DOW is an individual plane combat game, with planes of the Axis powers fighting against planes of the Allied powers. DOW involves playing maneuver cards to move planes on the playing area and players drawing cards from a damage deck when fired on. In DOW, there could potentially be dozens of players, as long as you have a damage deck for every 4-6 players to draw from and at least 1 maneuver deck for each player. DOW is supposed to be for 2 teams of players, but I have been involved in 3-player games where it was every man for himself, and it worked out fine. A single game of DOW takes about 20-30 minutes, while a game of Axis & Allies could take 4+ hours to complete.

I've never even finished a game of axis and alies. but I found it dull.

The dynamic of this game makes it different from nearly any other game I've played. It simulates the movement of aircraft not with charts, turn rates and hex grid but with movement cards which trace out the flight movement of the aircraft. A&A is a game at the High Command/National Command authority level, where WoW is at the pilot level.

Hope this helps, and that you will pick up the game.

There are three Axis & Allies games:

The original Axis & Allies board game (and related games like the ones focused on just the Pacific War.) These are large scale strategic games in the spectrum between World in Flames and Risk. It's basically a game of "All of World War II". You command both the armies and the economies of countries involved in the war and huge multi day battles are resolved with one dice roll. Each game can take an entire afternoon to play.

Axis & Allies, War at Sea is a miniatures game focusing on naval combat. There are aircraft involved, but each piece represents a squadron not an individual plane and air combat is very abstract (the focus being ship to ship battles). Think of this game as a game of an individual naval battle, like "the Battle of Midway", or "the Battle of the China Sea". Each game plays out in less than an hour.

Axis & Allies, Miniatures is a different miniatures game that focuses on land combat. The scale is smaller than War at Sea and includes individual miniatures for squads of 3-5 soldiers, and individual armored vehicles. This of this game as a light version of ASL, or something that simulates a specific tactical encounter that's part of a larger battle. Like in Band of Brothers one encounter was the clearing of the artillery enplacement shelling the beach at Normandy. That fight is only a small part of the entire battle to take the beach. A&A Minis does include aircraft pieces that can be used in a a game, and the do represent individual aircraft, however the combat between them is still fairly abstract with no manuvering involved at all. Game time is highly dependent on the scenario, and can range from an hour to three hours.

Wings of War is a miniatures/card game that focuses exclusively on air combat. The time scale is smaller still than A&A minis, and individual planes make significant manuvering chocies during dogfights. Appropriate air combat tactics are the difference between victory and defeat. Think of this a game of an idividual duel between aces as the larger battle unfolds beneath them. Small dogfights usually take less than an hour.

If you really want, you could play all four games together! Use A&A classic to define strategic choices and set up battles (land and sea) which are resolved not with the usual A&A mechnics but by playing games of A&A Minis and A&A WAS. For both A&A minis and WAS instead of the usual aircraft rules, substitute games of Wings of War to resolve combat between planes, or attacks by planes on land and sea targets. It would be a lot of effort, but is totally plausible and fun to imagine. That way you don't have feel like you're ruling out a choice when you invest in one! :-)