What do you think of the Great War At Seas series?
It's a bit of an outlier of my wargaming taste, being naval and to be honest it's not
really suited for me as a solo game player. You really need 2 players to really get the most of it. However I do enjoy it. I will try to give a breakdown of the above contradictions.
Campaigns:
This is where you should have 2 players as there is a lot of "hidden" movement, I use quoted hidden as a player would move "fleets" openly around on the strategic board, but a bit like ASL dummy stacks they could be markers anything from the whole High Seas Fleet to a cruiser detachment to nothing. I suppose you could consider them rumours or wisps of smoke spotted on the horizon. However any decent solo player could work out ways to keep him/herself honest. Once 2 opposing fleets are in the same sea area it becomes a "battle" and moves onto a generic tactical map. Fuel usage is kept score at this level. Various tasks like blockading, convoy protection or an invasion support are done at this level also, though an invasion usually just requires so many hits of bombardment and so many transport points of troops unloaded and it's an automatic success.
Battles:
Quite suited to solo play as everything is effectively visible. Combat involves the "bucket of dice" method with a die per gunnery factor and each ship can have up to 3 separate gunnery factors for primary <= 3 hex range, secondary <= 2 hex range and tertiary = 1 hex, torpedo = 1 hex range. Hit locations are die determined and may be repelled by armour and if not then a box is marked off the appropriate category (primary gun, hull, etc). So you need to photocopy or scan and print the included data sheets or downloaded electronic versions from AP.
The battle mechanisms are a mix of detail and abstract with a fair amount of, but simple, paperwork. You won't see "We've just lost B turret, Sir", but you will see your gunnery factors picked off one by one and you could sink while still having undiminished firepower, though that is unlikely. Speed differentiation is a little crude. Overall it's a mix of detail and beer and pretzels type of game. I would guess most would think it as ideal when you want something meaty but suitable when your head is rotating after a heavy ASL session.
A bit like ASL, there are full boxed stand alone games and expansion books. Some of the expansions include historical "what-ifs". The "High Seas Fleet" book posits that the German Navy built more ships pre-WW1, but within their industrial capacity and closer to what the British historically
feared they were doing. There even is a Confederate States Navy book! You regularly see the S. American battleships in other's colours, having being bought up when their economies historically tanked.
I have not got any Second World War At Sea games as I fear the dominance of airpower in SWWAS makes it less suited to solo play. I could be wrong. However I decide that GWAS was more than sufficient to scratch my naval itch.
Like a fair few players I have individual and series games that are mainly shelf sitters. However I have a half dozen series that get moderate or better use. In the "serious" category are ASL (obviously) and GMT's GBoH with an occasional dip into GMT's Musket & Pike series. For a lighter mood GWAS and L'n'L's World At War.
I think it a nice system and would rate it at the higher complexity end of the beer and pretzels category, though still quite definitely more fun than serious. YMMV