World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, which involved most of the world’s nations, including all of the great powers: eventually forming two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilised. In a state of “total war,” the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it was the deadliest conflict in human history, resulting in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities.
Learn more on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
WW2 is by far the richest conflict and era from a wargaming perspective, and most reference websites indeed split games in 2 categories: WW2 games and non-WW2 games. You can see for instance the full study from Grognard about the best wargames: http://goo.gl/Z3LGS
Gary Grigsby’s World at War is certainly one of the most ambitious turn-by-turn Grand Strategic Simulation of WW2, only beaten according to me in continuous and real-time mode by Hearts of Iron.
Most prominent digital wargames about WW2:
- Allied General / Panzer General series
- Panzer Campaign Series
- Steel Panthers
- Close Combat Series
- Hearts of Iron Series
- Gary Grigsby’s World at War
- Gary Grigsby’s War in the East
- Commander: Europe At War
- Strategic Command series
- Blitzkrieg
- Panzer Corps
- Battle Academy Series
- Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy
- Men of War series
- Battlefield 1942
- Company of Heroes
- Team Assault (New turn by turn tactical)
- Red Orchestra 2 (Multiplayer Skirmish)
– IGN Review
- www.matrixgames.com
- www.slitherine.com (some Mac titles)
- www.hpssims.com
- www.battlefront.com
- www.vpltd.com (Mac games)