Beer and pretzels all the way
I played for about 9 hours today. It took the first hour to get a solid feel for the game, what moves to make, what units to purchase, and what to expect from the AI. The interface is very intuitive with loads of info if you want it. I was a big fan of the old Empire Deluxe, and Axis and Allies. This game plays like a combination of the two. The AI isn't very aggressive at first, but once I started invading them, they came out of the wood-works! The last hours were a lot of fun. I knew I was going to win, but managing resources and not getting ahead of the "supply chain" made it very enjoyable as I resisted one counter-attack after another. Toward the end I had a huge naval battle with the remaining enemy- that was the icing on the cake. It was just a lot of fun. I also got to nuke the last remaining land units and that was rewarding- since that AI had been a pain in the butt toward the end when I had everything- he still wouldn't give up. I like the unit variety. This game is very much about air power, but the long range ballistic missiles toward the end when you can finally afford them, make a big difference too.
I was amazed that after 9 hours of play with a new game I just got today, I didn't come across any bugs, no glitches, no crash-to-desktop, everything worked absolutely flawlessly. Hats off to the team that did this one. Excellent game!