I know there's already a thread in the Matrix forum, but there's not much activity there as it's pretty much just one of their guys promoting their stuff and not much discussion.
Bear with me guys.....
I picked this up when it was released and have only just found the time to sit down and work through the tutorials, and it's quite a lot of fun.
Basically it's a modern version of Harpoon (or Jane's Fleet Command if you remember that). You take command of naval and air units in a scenario and see if you can complete the objectives set. You can either give generic or high level commands (e.g. ASW patrol in this area, strike on that target, etc) and let the AI work it out, or you can micromanage to quite a degree and set things like ship speed, submarine depth, aircraft altitude, enable/disable various sensors or even tell it what weapons to engage with. All the action takes place on a 2D map, so you don't actually get to see your units in action as such. The unit database and time span of the game is huge. You can command stuff from the Korean War era right up to the near future. Platforms will have the correct capabilities and weapons dependant on the era selected so your Ticonderoga CG or Los Angeles SSN will have different capabilities depending on what year your scenario takes place.
I just had a blast doing the air warfare tutorial - an exercise set in 1983 where you can plan and co-ordinate an Alpha Strike from NAS Fallon against a simulated Soviet airbase defended by MiG-21s, -23s, SA-2s, -3s and -6s. I sent up an E-2 for radar cover, then launched F-14s for a fighter sweep, followed up by SEAD from A-7s armed with AGM-45s and EA-6Bs, then finally a strike from A-6s took out the airfield. Four A-7s were lost for the destruction of the enemy runway and complete destruction of his air defences. Great fun.
It's a pretty expensive game by anyone's standards, and has caused a bit of controversy. Having said that, it comes with a scenario editor, the community are already sharing user made scenarios, and the inherent replayability of the game means that you'll probably get far more gaming mileage out of this than the vast majority of contemporary AAA titles. After the disappointment of pre-ordering Rome 2 and X-Rebirth this one looks like it might be the saving grace of 2013 for me.
If you're into this sort of stuff check it out:
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/...val.Operations