Hearts of Iron II

Description
Like the first part, this game situate the gameplay at World War II, but the map spans the entire world and allows you to play one of over 175 countries during the course of World War II, not only the typical countries.
This game does not center in battles, instead you have to control the production, research, diplomacy, supply of no communicated regions, the infrastructure and a lot of features that makes this game a long learning curve.
You can play a free game, with all aspects of the game at your disposal or a scenario like Barbarossa, The Coral Sea, the Spanish Civil War, North Africa, and a few for the German Blitz into Eastern Europe and France and the Allied invasions of Italy, Normandy and Japan. While these scenarios teach the basics of combat, the production, research and diplomacy options are limited or entirely absent.
All of the major personalities in the war are here. Photographs or generals, government officials, etc. are all in the game with detailed descriptions.