Reevaluation of GCR

Excuse me. The Grenadiers from EW6:1804 were good units.

No they were not. Their stats still sucked and their gear was garbage. And with how the map was designed in 1804, the only times where they were the best unit for any job is when you needed to siege down distant cities of a huge but battered country like Russia and the Ottomans.

That’s fine. I dislike them too, and sometimes I get so frustrated so that I hate the game.

you confirm most of the pros and cons I have for GCR. 

i like the design as much as i disliked that of EW6. Units and generals are well balanced. To fix the slowness of archers I’d prefer a second item slot instead of banner. The different kinds of mission targets make campaigns more diversified. FoW is annoying and feels like a cheat to the advantage of the AI. It’s hard to bypass hidden enemies. When more than one path to a destination is possible the game selects the unfortunate one for me. 

finally I have an issue with item switches. It seems I can’t add an item in a running mission. It has no effect, though the general info and the unit info shows the new item. But removing an item is recognized in the mission. Either they don’t offer me the option to interrupt a game and and change anything in the generals section, or the item is shown locked for this mission. Like it is it’s unlogic and user-unfriendly. i wonder why nobody else has has complained about this effect before. 

after all I still like it and hope for an improvement of the flaws in a possible sequel.

No, Fog of War in this game isn't even realistic if you try to argue that that's the reason its exists. If we havent explored those areas, then we shouldn't know where cities are and how the map looks at all. The map should be completely blacked out until you scout it out, like it's done in Civilization (I've only tried out Civ2, no idea if that's how its done in the other games). And that only works if exploration is a central element of the game, which it is in Civ 2, but not in GCR.

I actually have never ever seen a single player grid-based war strategy game handle this kind of fog of war well. Fire emblem completely fails at it, GCR fails at it, EW5 fails at it, it's slightly better in Advance wars but is still bad in that series. All FoW does in this kind of game is turning levels into memory games as the best way to play the game is to scout it out, memorize enemy positions, reset, and then play like a psychic. Oh and the AI cheats, FoW doesn't exist for them, making Fog of War even less interesting to play around. 

If I want to play with FoW, then there should be mechanics that allow you to hide information from the enemy and mechanics that allow you to scout more. I want to be able to play mind games with the AI and pull off ambushes. 

It will be bad if the city will disappear in fow. And yes, there should be some mechanics like you cant stopped by the revealing enemy.

I'd like Fog of War to be something that I can play around with. Advance wars for instance has this mechanic where you can't target a unit in a forest if you don't have vision to it (and forests are much harder to get intel to than other terrains), which also applies to the AI. This makes it possible to sneak up on an enemy and avoid artillery fire. Unfortunately FoW in that game still has the usual problems where formulating an optimal strategy is an annoying memory game, and it doesn't really work too well for the AI because they're dumb and don't actually play the same game as you do. It works very well in PvP though.

And that's the reason I think FoW can't really easily be pulled off well in these kinds of games. The enemy isn't a player, an opponent you have to outsmart or something like that. They're level design, a puzzle with a several different solutions where some are better than others. This is pretty underlined with there being turn limits to missions and also that the AI always outnumbers you 8 to 1 and controls like 90% of the map at a start of a mission. This is also why FoW is meaningless for the AI as they don't have to care too much about running into your troops (which is the only actual effect of FoW in GCR), all they need to do is to block you to serve their intended purpose, whether or not it's by running into you or you running into them is meaningless. On the other hand it means a lot if you get stopped up by an enemy in the fog. That means not getting a city this turn or not attacking that pesky archer. This makes it feel more like an annoying handicap instead of an actual game mechanic that I can exploit against the AI.

I'm also iffy on reinforcements for a similar reason (memory game), but imo it's better than FoW because you atleast get to know about 80% of what you're dealing with without restarting instead of 10% of what you're dealing with. The ambush in Battle of Abu Qir in 1804 is dumb though.