@Fake-E-Lee It's not just you; as an Advance Wars veteran that's played the series since its US debut, I'd have to say that it's beyond the reach of the average gamer that wanted to pick this up for casual play. The difficulty ramps up quite a bit after like the 3rd or 4th map. It did not go unnoticed by me.

Some of the game's rules leave me bewildered; I'm quite used to capturing cities and other structures with my ground troops the way Advance Wars did it, not to mention "healing" those units by simply parking the unit in a city (as long as I had the resources). I do not like capturing something outright and then having to park my unit and THEN having to command to "heal" it using its own health, thereby leaving the structure vulnerable. It's just...too clunky.

The game's units and their abilities...I'm still not entirely sold on the idea of how the units gel together when it comes to "crits." (For example, Pikemen do a lot more damage if they're next to each other or if Battlepups are attacking the same unit.) Again, a little too clunky for me. I much prefer Advance Wars' way of KISS'ing. (Infantry is Infantry; Mech is Mech and so on. There are no bonuses other than what the CO bestows upon them, like Grit's ability to extend the range of indirect-attack units or Max's direct attack power.)

Also, my memory's fuzzy on this, but I could have sworn Advance Wars would show you where you could move and where you could attack separately. I absolutely do not like the way the two are mixed together in Wargroove; it's confusing, not to mention there are rules in place that prevent a ranged unit from attacking like it should be able to. e.g., In Advance Wars, when an Artillery unit was positioned, it didn't matter where it was so as long the enemy was within range. On a mountain, on the plains, on the plains behind a mountain, it didn't matter.

There seems to be some kind of rule where if a mountain is in the way, I can't indirectly fire on that enemy, even if in range. (Unless I missed something.)

And can they please change the damage modifiers, or get rid of them entirely? If I see 100% damage, then it should be a flat 100% damage, not a possible +5% or -5% modifier to that damage, meaning the attack could be 95% or 105%. The former has me rage a lot because it could make or break a battle. It's bad enough I have to fight the already-nasty difficulty.

But other than that, the game's presentation is top-notch. (I love the Battlepups, because dogs. We do not deserve dogs.) Overall, I still like Advance Wars a lot more (especially Dual Strike) but this doesn't make a bad substitute. It just needs work.