Not alot really
Right, you start off in 1942 war time as either the evil Axis (Germany and Japan) or the lovely allies (Russia, Great Britain or USA). Nice and simple. Your objective will be to wipe out the enemy alliance again nice and simple. Where this becomes interesting though is combat. It is really good. It is an early sort of version of advance wars, with land, air and sea battles with some interwining. You need to develop your stratergies to the core to win.
Well actually you don't, as the enemy ai and your allied one for that matter are sodding useless. It is no challenge to win this game no matter who you are and moving round the world is pretty easy. You never really feel connected to anything as a result and the game only really gets interesting when your with a few mates, but then you have to explain the game to them and they all end up hating you.
So now you have no friends and only this game. What now? Well nothing. The game has worn itself out. There is nothing left to do. Sure you can fiddle with the units and make some stereotypes, not that this needs any as the game folllows them all nicely. America are useless to the end where they suddenly declare victory. England have a hard time getting into mainland Europe, Russia lose lots of men and Japan slowly collapse like a flan.
Sure you can fiddle with the units abilities but thats about it.
It's not a bad game, per say. It is a good game for it's time and a game I would respect in 1998. However, it does need a go over and some major look into the units and rules. For instance, you can't go all v all. Maybe a bit of tinkering here and there would have helped but oh hey. If you love the board game, play the board game. If you hate your friends, get this game. All else, I can't really see what this is good for and I know have the urge to play alot of risk.