Would it be possible to implement a scenario system with pre-assigned troop deployments on particular maps and random assignemnt of those positions.
For example, I could take the europe map, set up a WWII scenario (say, the opening days) with up to 6 sides.
6 people then join, and get randomly assigned to be "the germans" the "brits" the "french", "russians", "italians", "scandinavians" etc (there would have to be 30 neutral men in Switzerland to assure permanant neutrality of course) and then people would play from there - it would require a degree of diplomacy because defenses would be set up along axis-allied lines so if the brits decided to "change sides" they could screw the french over pretty easily.
Or, you could have the "land grab" scenario, where x number of players begin back to back with 30 men each, and 1 neutral player in each other country. Then it's just a matter of who can grab the most the fastest and defend it - now THAT would be a fantastic real time freestyle match.
It would have to be tweaked for team games (i.e. randomly assigning roles within team boundaries etc), but would make them pretty fun.
Anyhoo, I just think it would be fun to do - and would be a lot easier for user submitted scenarios than maps because there is less artowrk involved.
a rating system could even be added, or we could just use the forum, so that people know which scenarios suck and which ones dont.
If people think it would work, I would be happy to come up with a framework for the files to reduce lack's workload, but dont want to do it if people think the system would suck.
Twill