I just started playing WIA/BOA2 again after a long haitus from the original BOA. I noticed the default setting for Command Activation was set at max penalties. If a stack commander fails his command activation, there is a strong chance that the entire stack is locked down. I haven't quite worked out exactly how it works but sometimes an entire stack is locked up while sometimes a stack will fail activation but can still move with penalties. Either way, failing command activation is a pain in the tail but seems to reflect that 17th century lack of urgency incompetence very well.
So I decided to play out the French Indian Campaign as the English. Wow! Max command activation really makes a difference. I think the French Indian campaign may be perfect for max command activation penalties. The English have a huge army but really poor commanders for the first couple years while the French have excellent leaders and a small but good army. As the English, I have had a real battle against the French AI simply because of the command penalties. While the french leaders can run rings around my much larger army until I finally get good commanders. I definitely have to think differently with the realization that I never know when a commander and his stack might just end up locked and totally immobile for an unknown timeframe.
If you haven't tried max command penalties against the AI with the French and Indian campaign, I highly recommend it. I also strongly suspect max command penalties would also work very well in a PBEM game of the French and Indian campaign. I may try it out not too far down the line.
I wonder how max command penalties would work in the AWI campaign? Anybody tried it?