The recent discussion about strategy gamers being too coddled and arrogant at the same time and how strategy games tend to handhold the player to make it possible for them to win gave me sort-of an idea:
Basically, it's a RTS game in the american Civil War where you are the general and a unit on the battlefield. The central idea behind it is Fog of War and delayed information. I made a very rough sketch of it:
The gameplay is basically three layers: The area you can see and consequently issue commands, the area in reach for your messengers (which allows you to see echoes of your units there and issue commands. Better hope the messenger arrives in time.), and the area beyond that which is controlled by your appointed leaders, NCOs and COs alike. I have some rough ideas how this whole thing can play out. For example, you can decide to stay behind on a hill for better overview or you can decide to lead from the front, leaving this whole commanding thing to your other units. Obviously that runs the risk of losing your PC and forces you to restart.
The enemy runs on the same system, meaning that you could for example target their messengers and either kill them or give different orders than what the enemy wanted.
There's stuff like using balloons to uncover the fog of war, issueing horses to your messengers, and I'm sure there's more you can do with that kind of setup.
So, what do you all think? Box-bomb, "the Dark Souls of RTS", or some fresh air in that genre?