ORIGINAL: Norden
Speaking of things, that could be smarter (my oppinion) in EiA, here another one:
France could with a quarterly manpower of, say, 50 produce 100.000 men a quarter, 400.000 a year, 4 mio over a decade. Even if he didnt fight and just sat there, this would be feasibly in the game. This is a far cry from reality. EiA was designed around the concept of war reocurring on a regular basis. This way, it worked, but it is highly unrealistic. No country could sustain armies of a million men without its economy suffering. There is no upper limit to the amount of troops youre economy can handle. You can fill all corps, all garrisons and all your depots with men - no problemo - in the game. This occurs because you hardly pay any uphold costs for your troops (only the corps and these can be 2000 men or 50.000, same price and the fleets and depots).
Realistically you should pay for the total manpower in your armies plus corps, fleets and depots. In the boardgame thats a lot of work (and the reason for the current solution, I guess), on the PC it wouldnt be, even 1/10 of money could be used.
Secondly, there should be a limit to the troops available without hurting your countries economy. Lets assume France has the mentioned manpower of 50 per quarter. One could assign an upper limit of 4 times (may be 5, Im not sure) the quarterly available manpower, in this case 200 manpower or 400.000 men for all branches. You could recruit more men, but this would start to hurt your economy. I do not know, how much, but I suggest something like for every 20% of your quarterly manpower (France : 10 manpower) youd lose 5% of your total available income to economic strain.
Actually, Im more interested in the principal of a upper limit to any army, than the precise numbers.
I think this would be a worthwhile optional rule, possibly as an Advanced Rules "package" for players who want more realism. To put it another way, those who desire a military "simulation" over a mere "game" with "gamey" rules loopholes.
This reminds me of the difference between playing the Japanese in World in Flames with, and then without, the optional rule that forces you to track oil production. Having to do it is much more realistic, and it makes it very, VERY tough to play the Japanese in that event.
