This is just a general design thing I've been mulling for a while, and I'd like to get it outside my head and see what it looks like.
It was sparked by digging in. Used to be used all the time in the days when people could count on high cohesion on a single turn. Nowadays, I never see it used unless you have at least a day to do it, because you split your melee line otherwise. Cavalry never does, because you want them to charge.
Then I thought about stuff like civil work and police work, where more is better, but less is still better than nothing. And I thought...Why can't digging in be like that?
Why can't it work in the sense of every unit who clicks the button adds to the strength of the fieldworks, that the whole side then gets to use? People would use it a lot more, and it would make far more sense.
Which got me to thinking about different aspects of the game that are similar. Like line settings. There's been a lot of arguments about formations and such, organization coming and going...But what if that worked the same way? Your whole army fights better the more people you have on the right settings, but we stop penalizing people who forget to check, and just have them fight alongside everyone else rather than charging out front like an idiot, or staying behind.
This way you still get bonuses and some penalties, but not the stupid "Yar! I will charge ahead of everyone else in the army because I didn't get the memo!" stuff. Or the "nah, I'll just hang out behind these trenches while the rest of the army gets slaughtered" stuff.
I'm not sure what else this could apply to, but I'm sure there's other stuff.
Thoughts?