Unity of Command lets you replay the epic conflict that was the Stalingrad Campaign of World War II. In this turn-based game of strategy and cunning, observe how opportunity leads the German army to advance recklessly into the steppes of southern Russia. And as the story unfolds, join the Soviet campaign to repel the invaders... As these legendary battles play out on the hex board, the tension of decision making and difficulties of conducting operations on a massive scale emerge. Command armies and fronts in maneuver warfare, thrust and encircle, capture cities and cross continents; but never, ever forget to watch your supply lines. The Red Turn expansion ads a gigantic Soviet expansion centered on the Kursk campaign.
Actually paulus that may be the way to go. Exploring how this game engine handles fortifications, defense in depth, and a battering ram thesis of attack could help round out any idiosyncrasies that would arise for further additions. There are plenty of "set piece" battles in the annals of WW2 history that will need to be addressed as this new genre evolves.
How about a more extensive command and control feature with the use of army HQs. Already I've seen some posts about specialist attachments and possibly a little more flexibility of the supply structure could be coordinated by a command doctrine. This way a pre OOB could be set up before entering into the scenario with the appropriate attachments made by the players. Obviously there is room to enhance attack and defense parameters as well as unit attributes(morale, effectiveness) through such a system, not to mention an unknown factor for units suddenly becoming "out of communications" a kind of FoW feature.
The glory of this design is what's left out. It focuses on operational art, to the exclusion of everything else.
The one thing I admire most about the designers of this game is their clear vision of their design concept and the self-discipline to leave out what doesn't contribute to it.
Much easier to decide to add things to the pot than take them out!
No doubt the immersion level needs to carefully balanced, over complication IMO is a needless disadvantage to the AI for one, not to mention the hindrance to gameplay. I've watched SC slowly integrate more player involvement to the point where any additions could very well be detrimental. I agree, we already have enough designs out there for indulging micro-managing commanders. What I like to see are features that don't require a lot of player interaction, things that run in the background and are accessible to the player at his option so that the degree of complication is managed by the player's discretion, yet a game that takes advantage of the enormous computing power of today's processors.
I just figured out what's bugging me about this game -- too much unit shuffling with no penalty. Since only one unit at a time can attack (unless I'm missing something) you're forced to constantly shuffle units around to get multiple attacks on a specific part of the line. You can't combine several units' attacks, so you have to hit with one, pull him back, push another in, attack, pull him back, push another in etc. It results, for me, in less of a war game feel and more of a checkers or Go feel.
I love how War in the East handles this: a single unit can launch a 'hasty' attack, but to bring in adjacent units you need a more costly 'deliberate' attack, so you have to carefully plan your positioning and maneuver for advantage. Unity seems to be missing that feel of positional warfare and combined offensives...