Don't be afraid of this one. It plays in a short period of time (for it's subject matter), and is an even better version of a card-based wargame that PoG was.

This is definitely a classic, and should be purchased by any WWII buff, or someone who wants to be.

You can have fun with BtB out of the box, but if you are a card-shark/grognard you will need to download the latest edition of the rules, which has made some tweaks to help out the Allies.

Upside: cards give this game a lot of fog-of-war, and no two games are going to play the same twice. You can play either side a LOT, not just once, and still be learning things. Where grand-strategic WWII is concerned this one skips the whole Poland-France-Balkans portion of the war and gets to the real meat and potatoes.

Downside: playing time is long. Rulebook has no examples of play or designer notes, you're own your own. Cards are not as simple as PoG, and are disappointing as far as the 'eye candy' aspect is concerned. The map doesn't have the unit setup printed on it (like second edition Pog) which makes setup time longer than need be (unless you can memorize the names of Soviet spaces).