The improved World in Conflict - difficult but rewarding!
This game is different from the mainstream. The fact that your background knowledge about your own and your opponent's armies and your ability to make quick strategical decisions actually matter, is one of the strengths of the game. You can spend hours customizing your own decks and trying them out, just to realize that you totally need one more AA-unit and some good infantry vs. infantry units - but at the cost of which other unit??
The one bad thing is the single player. I didn't even bother to play it through completely since the story wasn't interesting and the battles fought usually just stopped when you reached a certain point-limit. In one words: boring. The multiplayer is the mode that should be played. The sad thing is that the game has gotten so little attention by media that it lacks the player-base that it would need. Don't get me wrong, there are always several games to join and many gamers online. I just think this great game would deserve more players. This would also pave the way for a new game in the series! But then again, it's good that the game is hard. This keeps all the idiots out of the MP and makes the gamers who want to play seriously stay!
Airland Battle is in many ways similar to the very popular World in Conflict. I liked WIC for it's simplicity, high pace and good looking maps. WGAB is in many ways a huge improvement. I would say that WGAB is an adult version of WIC. WGAB requires (at least some) knowledge of wartime strategy, good knowledge of the units and the terrain in the game and a good amount of common sense. It also isn't as "arcadey" as WIC felt. In my opinion WGAB feels more like a simulator than a arcade game. Also the huge number of different units in WGAB is simply much more enjoyable than the pretty narrow selection of units in WIC. Nonetheless, WIC is still a great game - but it was time, we, the gamers, got something new and exciting!