yeah ive been thinking on the funfactor of the "LoD" gameplay...

If you want to make it ground up like that it happens that either the player has to play all the battles/events (insignificant or not) or the player plays 1 or x battles/events and based on that the outcome of the rest is calculated (and then, what happens if you hadnt luck in one event? (example: you lost a minor squad to squad skirmish you wanted to play and then automatically lost X battallions and then the whole war? and how it affects the re4st of the model? the schools on the mid level simcity stile crumble? on the macromanagemente level the market macrostability gets awry?....)


Personally i think that for it to be fun it should enable you to completely skip the parts of the game that you really dont wanna play/learn while knowing that theres an ai that will behave well enough to play the rest in accord with the style you displayed on that area you did played while at the same time protecting your interests on those areas you dont play... and for you to not be limited to play countrys but factions inside of it(that can govern or not), lobbies, companys, etc. each with its own goals and winning conditions

if you wanat to learn macromanagement of your faction and win just at that level you should be allowed to skip the sim and FP-Action. If you want to play one or two citys exclusively=, if you just wanna shoot on wars=...

I liked an idea of design that MOO3 promised but didnt delivered: You can do anything and everything but you dont have to
and:
the game can play itself but the player can win it