Suggestions for Army General after playing the first campaign

[91killer]

First off, I am very happy with army general and looking forward to more campaigns. After playing the first campaign (as NATO) here are my suggestions to make it better, in no particular order.

1. SAM Coverage
It would be great to know if an area on the campaign map has enemy SAM coverage or not. Most of the time I just guessed and hoped there was no SAM coverage. This really disincentivized using the air force, as there is no way to replenish air craft and a successful intercept means at least one aircraft shot down. This doesn't have to be something that points to exactly where the enemy SAM site is located, but lets you know the battle tile is covered. Given that a SAM search radar would normally be active, it makes sense that you would know SAMs are active and covering a part of the campaign map. SEAD works well, dealing damage back to SAMs and still arriving at the battle.

2. Placement of Conquest Zones on Maps
Some maps have great placement of conquest zones and some make no sense at all. Zones placed over landmarks like towns, bridges, or highway intersections give a very realistic feel to game. However, some zones are seemingly placed at random. Worse, on some maps all the conquest zones are placed within the enemy's deployment zone, meaning you have 10 min to capture a zone or face a major loss. Add to this, large maps in which you spend a minute or two just driving to the frontline and it creates a lot of frustration. One way to alleviate this would be to see the map before the battle begins. This would give you some idea of what battalions you should choose. However, I think a rework of map scale and conquest zone placement would really help.

3. Surrounded Units on the Campaign Map
I am still not sure what a unit being surrounded does and how it effects it in a tactical battle. Oddly, I lost control of Asfeld when I was surrounded defending it. I had a battalion stationed on Asfeld and plenty of battalions around the city, but once I was surrounded I lost control of the city. This was even weirder given that when the enemy attacked they bounced off my defenses. An explanation of what being surrounded does and not losing control of strategic points despite being surrounded would be helpful.

4. AI Tactics
I'm sure plenty of people have said this before, but an improvement to the AI's tactics would also be much appreciated. For every battle, defending or attacking, the AI just threw itself at my forces. This seemed really out of place when it was a motorized battalion charging an armoured battalion. Training the AI to defend would add to the realism. I can understand throwing everything at my armoured battalion when trying to break in to Asfeld, but throwing an entire motorized battalion at an armoured battalion when the motorized battalion is trying to hold the flank doesn't make sense.

[ToxicBlaster]

2. I would like to have the objectives in general moved more to the defending side. It doesn't make sense being attacked and having to rush ahead to defend.

3. As the timeframe for turns is quiet short I don't think a system like in SD2 is warranted, however, there should be more penalties when being cut off from supply.

[Delle(DK)]

1). Sam coverage.. I totaly agree that we need to be able to see sam coverage better.
In start of the campaign there is no way of telling if there is a sam system on the campaign map since they are to far away to be spotted so you often send your planes into battle and then they are stopped by the sam.
It is kind of impossible to know if the sam system is there, or if it have moved on the map and there for cannot defend. It took a frew rounds in the campaign before i was able to use my planes.

[Bucisto]

1. i total agree with you @91Killer
2. It on the campain map the placement kind makes sense for me because of sudden attack at Nato. Othe battle map i would agree with you. Here is why:

2.1. Defending party should have control allready of the "to be Conquested zones" in order to win the battle.
2.2. a defending party usually as most of its force already on defening positions so it makes no sense that my tanks can oly arrive every 60 second and have to drive almost 2/3 of the map to defending positions. ist just stupid.

3. Yeah i understand ur point, it was something kind hard to understand but its funny because when losse arsefeld but cut the soviet zone at bad heresfeld u own both citys and the soviet armys drives back to Bad Heresfeld. without supplys. :D