The concept, as the question noted, is inherently interesting. Plus, not many games have covered this era. The title stands out simply because of the subject matter. We spent a lot of time on the gameplay design. Literally months of discussions went into examining every aspect of the play mechanic.
Every unit is different.
But, more than simply having a few dozen units that differ only in their numeric entries in a combat table, we decided to add special effects to the mix. The Appeals add an entirely new level to the familiar real-time combat motif. Suddenly, you've got units protecting other units, strategies for preserving and accumulating God Points, and loads of tradeoffs to consider. In summary, we're going to succeed by making sure the game is worth playing repeatedly, because there's so much cool stuff to discover. We need some Heroes with missile skills, some with melee skills, and a few with weird special things like physical transformations or the ability to fly.