Thanks DarthMod,
I like all your work for TW, which I really enjoyed. Good plan for a new game and hope you will be able to realize it. I love strategic gaming and my fear always that games evolves to a sorts of "Warcraft like" with the goal to continuously occupy the user. What I seen... I found some tendencies in Rome 2 as well, which point in that direction and hope my fears will not become reality. I really like NTW3 and all the effort the team behind it to make NTW more than what it was intended to be. So most of their changes and really battle related findings are highly recommended by me.
Regarding your effort... I love the game Sid Meier´s Gettysburg!... Mr Meier and his team did a very good job that time... you can find many inspiration in that game.... there are some functions I would like to promote in a new game like yours ( by the way I haven't went through yet all the discussed functionality, and I believe not even half of your functional wish-list will make it into the first release anyway. I would recommend to keep the eye on the big picture and enhance it later), So here is a top 10:
1, Pre battle plan connected to "boxes" representing bigger troop formations (based on preliminary info about opposite forces, not just position of troops but planning of movement... connected to time... similar discussed or used in multiplayer mode & formations in NTW3 with "3 party storyboards")
2, Communication between general and troops (commanders) ... there should be delay or no communication if the troops are far away or cut of from the general... cut off troops should be taken over temporarily by the AI (reusing AI on many level) and should work in connection to the preliminary battle-plan (or try to reconnect to main body).
3, Troops with lowered moral should surrender / lay the weapon down... some case runaway is not possible... (both enemy and own troops) avoid that troops repetitively coming back! In reality it's never true in a big battle mainly because they need to be reformed and extra guided (usually loose commanding officer)... and so on.
4, Player should be able to use AI as your battlefield general (with proposed characters) responsible for... left right or centre and user can give objectives... by that maybe complexity can be reduced for bigger battles (if user wants or in case of use of non "PC" devices...handheld)... it also promote the user to think strategically and step by step take over the whole game / battlefield.
5, In case of cut-off troops the chosen AI character should guide the troops to reach their objectives (if there are any). I would even go as far as if the general (actually the user) is dead... the battle should be taken over by the AI based on the battle-plan and AI character / characters (when user chosen field commanders for the wings / battle groups or centre ). User need to take care of the general...
6, Added strategic-view, which shows troops as "boxes" ... similar as Rome 2 will have (both for planning and overall control under the game)
7, Implementation of delayed reinforcement appears on the battlefield (act in connection to preliminary battle-plan)
8, Able to occupy artillery and use against the other side / but in a limited way
9, Fog of war, enemy should appear on the preliminary battle-plan based on "indicative information" with over or underestimated numbers and position with clear visible difference between verified (enemy in sight) or expected position (scouting indication). The same under the battle... of course the possibility to hide units... similar to TW.
10, Somehow promote action by user using combined troops, both horse/artillery/foot (maybe not fitting for civil war period but can built on when you choose other battles or time period)
00, Multiplayer... If you are looking for a big user base. You need that one.
...so... it become a longer post i planed, sorry for that. Last but not least what Sega seems to forget (look at their videos, posted nowadays , strategic war games appreciated mostly by man in higher ages (sorry girls and teens)... and they do it under long period of time. Have you tried again one of older TW games... just to get in the "mode"... than you are one of us.