I do have a question about Nuts....how does the same side games work? Say you and a friend are both Germans against US....what is the mechanic to running the other side? Just a general idea, sounds interesting.
Thanks also for the feedback....here is what I am looking for is a solid ruleset with a good amount of variety (such as not just stuck with US/German/Russian factions) and some choices on vehicles/troop types as well as plenty of missions or ability to build missions/scenarios up.
There's a great system in NUTS for running co-op or solo games using their chart-driven "AI" that determines how the enemy forces operate. You use markers representing a "Potential Enemy Force" on the table, which move according to a die roll balanced against the type of scenario. Once you come within LOS of that marker you roll to resolve what it is, and how it will act -- will it attempt to close, hang back and fire, etc. And given the reaction system used by NUTS, each figure in that unit will act/react based on that. I'm currently involved in a PTO game set on Guadalcanal where 4x players are all on the USMC side against the chart-driven "AI" for the Japanese, and we still have some challenging scenarios. Doesn't replace another active brain, but it works well.
There's also a good mission generation and table top terrain generator in the rules, so you can spin your own campaigns very easily. So far the books out there cover ETO and PTO from 1941-1945, with unit/equipment listings for US, UK/Commonwealth, Germany, Japan, China, Italy, Soviet Union, Finland, Hungary, Romania and I think a few others. Lots of meat in the system -- you can run Soviet Aerosans, Italian Cavalry, German Panzers, do Airborne drops, have your gunboats shoot their way up the Danube, just about anything you can think of is covered across the various books.