I got Dual Strike a few weeks ago after reading the reviews, believing it to be the better game. I played through most of the campaign, but stopped after realizing that as the game progresses it switches from a tutorial promising a strategy game to an odd puzzle game. Seemingly every mission throws some unique conditions which kill the "chess-like" strategy and force you to determine the solution that the designers expected of you. The dual battlefronts concept is slightly more than a gimmick requiring a little more resource management and the CO powers are a bit too much. As if moving twice per round wasn't enough, some powers conjure a soldier in every building (your units may double in number in a single round) and others harm every unit on the field. Fun, but not satisfying.
Then I got Days of Ruin.
Bliss.
That is if you enjoy the basic Advance Wars formula. The formula that expects you to study not only the conditions but also the behavior of your opponent, measure the impact of every little soldier on the field. The new units are useful and I do not miss the ones taken out. The story is not bad, the dialog at times is. But it provides a decent backdrop for a game that is a much better and pure strategy game.
Dual Strike is a fun game, but Days of Ruin is the more satisfying title.
