I have all three now but it has been a while since I played FoF and I am still battling my way through AACW but here is my current opinion on them:
WbtS - Definitely the simplest and easiest to learn. It also has the advantage of being very PBEM friendly. You can complete a move in under an hour once you get use to it. Turns are monthly so the game moves quickly. It basically covers the period from June 1861 to about July 1865 although it may end earlier or whenever you give up. Play is on an area type map. Turns are you go, I go, but contain a reaction phase at the beginning so you can respond to the enemy players move. There is a Production phase for allocating your resources but it is very simple compared to the other two games. You can allocate your Factory, Population and Resources toward building ships, artillery or supply. Forces are stacks of brigades of infantry, artilery, and cavalry with leaders. Victory is through Political Points which mainly affect Lincoln's election which is the key to victory.
FoF - This game steps up the complexity quite a bit. It uses two week turns. It has more detail in the production requiring you to build infrastructuer before you can build advanced units like cavalry and artilery. The big thing the game brings that the others don't is a Tactical Battle game. If you want, rather than have the game resolve combat, it will jump you into a Tactical map and let you fight the battle on the brigade level. It has been to long for me to give more detail than that.
AACW - Is complex, very complex, but it has the potential to do an excellent job of simulating the Civil War at the strategic level. But plan on spending some time learning how to do even basic things. Also, don't go by the demo. It is to short and shows the game system at its worse. It's other problem is very busy graphics making it hard to tell what is on the map. It like FoF uses two turns to a month. The map uses regions but the areas are broken up into many more regions than WbtS. This can make a campaign quite complex. It also has an extensive supply system which in many ways controls the game. Production likewise is very complex allowing you to allocate resources to recruiting, replacements, and production. Play is both sides plot and game executes moves simulataneously. Units are represented in detail. You have the full command structure from Armies, Corps, Divisions and Brigades. Even smaller units are represented like Signal, Balloon, Medical, etc. I am not sure how the game will play as a PBEM. I not sure I will ever learn how to play it.[:D]
LG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
1/1/III AoM (CSA)
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