Just some random notes and rambling, in no particular order, from my first 30 minutes of gameplay:
Launching my first campaign, the tutorial, was momentarily confusing because I did not realize the tutorial was already selected. Some bold borders around the selected campaign would have been helpful here.
The gradual introduction of new unit types through scenarios was excellent. The writing was good too at both explanation and setting the scene. I only played up to the introduction of Stukas but was already hooked and did not feel overwhelmed. That said, I have played the Panzer General series before that was years ago.
When an enemy is destroyed I expected something more obvious than just a number (strength reduced) briefly appearing and the unit vanishing. The first time this happened, I thought the enemy retreated out of my spotting distance!
When the new turn starts, it is not obvious that I am supposed to click something so a new player might end-up staring at the "Turn 2: Clear Weather" screen for several minutes before clicking around to see if the game is still running. A "Click to continue" reminder would be helpful here.
When the enemy performs their turn sometimes it happens so fast -- or they do nothing at all -- that I am not sure if it is my turn or not. Perhaps another screen, like "Enemy taking their turn" and "Your turn", would be helpful here?
Is there an option to automatically bring units up to full strength -- without experience loss (=elite) -- between battles? I believe it was automatic in Panzer General. At a minimum, please make it exceedingly obvious that a unit is below maximum strength when deploying. Perhaps there could be a button to reinforce all? (maybe even an elite or non-elite option)
Can I inspect a unit -- with all of its stats (both static and historical) -- during play? Two stats that I needed to look-up during my tutorial games were Spotting Distance and Range (for artillery). Those two, being ranges, might be nice to display when the unit is selected and not necessarily just a number but graphically like a red ring (indicating firing range) and green ring (indicating spotting distance). This is just an idea, the rings might clutter up the very clean-looking UI but it could be helpful to a new player.
When mousing over hexes of different terrain types I expected to see what the terrain type was and any effect it might have on combat or movement.
The first time I deployed my units to the map I did not deploy them all because I filled all of the deployment hexes. I just thought, I will just deploy these the next round once the deployment hexes are clear. Unfortunately, for me, I had reached the maximum number of units for that scenario so was not able to deploy further units. Afterwards, before the next scenario started, I noticed a subtle message indicating the maximum number of deployable units and the number of units I had. I will not make that mistake again but it was not immediately obvious that there was a limit.
Ok, that is enough for now, I am typing this while eating dinner but want to get back to the game and try out my new Stukas!
