Hey Tom,
Indeed, welcome! I'm the designer of the game, so I'm of course biased with how easy or hard it is to pick up and learn. I imagine you'll do fine, though, as this game tends to skew older in its fanbase. Most fans do seem to be in their mid to late 20s, or early thirties, but we have quite a few folks that are in their fifties or sixties who play. A number of them are also fans of the matrix games titles, and posted about this game on those forums.
I'm in my late 20s myself, but a big part of the reason I created this game was to be able to play it with my dad, my uncle, and one of my uncle's colleagues. The colleage is about my age, bt my dad is in his late fifties and my uncle is in his late forties. In a lot of the games we played in multiplayer over the years, my dad and uncle were at a disadvantage because they weren't super fast clickers on the mouse. They're both very tech savvy, very much into science and engineering, but that manifested itself in strategy games as a desire to sit, think, plan, and execute. Having it be a test of reflexes just wasn't part of the equation for them, which was a frustration with most rts titles. So, with their constant feedback and ideas throghout the design process, ai war was designed to be a title where we could play together and all be on equal footing withoUt the reflexes thing being an advantage for me and the colleague. Not to imply that my dad and uncle have bad reflexes by any stretch, just that they don't even think to exercise those reflexes during a strategy game. So, in the end ai war turned out to have more in common with chess than starcraft, which also suited my own tastes well.
Hope you enjoy it! The tutorials should give you a great feel for it, and the wiki is chock full of other articles and information if you want. Thanks for your interest!
This post is amazing and gives a lot of insight into the nature of the game.
I too have had problems finding games that my friends and I both enjoy playing. In my early 20s, I have no problem playing the somewhat frantic micro-based RTS games, but I have friends my age who also hate the amount of effort and reflex it takes to play these games, and just get frustrated with them quickly. On the flip-side, I've never really enjoyed TBS games. The only TBS game I think I've ever really gotten into was Final Fantasy Tactics for the Playstation when I was like 10 years old.
For a long time, I've been looking for a game that I can just relax and play, while not feeling I'm wasting my time or completely turning my brain off in order to enjoy. You know, the type of game you play after you've had a long stressful day and just need something to chill out to. Most people would play something like World of Warcraft or a simple Flash game to satisfy this need, but I've always found those games TOO simple and TOO easy, to the point that ANYBODY can play them and do well.
I suppose I was (and am) being very picky. I want a game that was extremely relaxing, but also challenging, and which forced me to use my brain to win. In addition, I had to be able to play with friends, because I'm sorry but single-player games a decade into the 21st Century are a joke.
For me, AI War struck the perfect balance between RTS and TBS. There is enough RTS involved to keep it exciting and engaging, but enough TBS added to give you plenty of time to plan and make decisions. This is a REAL Strategy game. In real war (as a commander), very rarely do your major tactical decisions have to be made on second by second basis. My grandpa and father both help develop 'War Games' for the military, which are basically simulations of real war, where a group of commanders test their wit against another group (one playing as the US, one as the enemy country), in a completely simulated environment, based on reality as much as possible. These games are used to train some of the top military minds and simulate war time situations that can actually occur. These games do not happen in 15 minutes. They do not happen in an hour. Sometimes they take days, or weeks. I'm sorry to say, but AI War is a much more realistic reflection of commanding during an actual war than any popular RTS on the market today.
What I love about AI war is that with the AI Progression option, I can basically make the game as relaxed or fast-paced as I want it to be. If you want the game to be completely Turn-Based, just turn it off. If you want the game to happen quickly, give them large doses of boosts often, which will force you to play aggressively or become overwhelmed.
When I play this game, I can relax, but I also feel like I am forced to think, and even OUT-THINK a computer (something that doesn't happen very often)!
In addition, this is probably the first game that both my friends and I can enjoy, which is so gratifying. It's nice to, for the first time, be able to actually spend time playing together, instead of playing 2 different games in the same room.
So, I want to thank you for a wonderful game, and for all of the support and effort that you continue putting into the game
