I took some time yesterday to play an old DOS game: Patton Strikes Back. What an interesting rewind! For those that aren't familiar, it's an old strategy game about the Battle of Bulge. It's real-time with a pause button that lets you issue order. It also pauses the game naturally when you clikc on a unit to shift orders.
The game surprised me; I didn't think I'd enjoy sitting back and watching your orders unfold. The mechanic, of time being broken into segments which the game resolves in certain increments, reminded me of Final Fantasy Tactics and casting spells, and how there's a delay. It wasn't quite like a WEGO wargame, but still had a certain flavor of that.
There were times when I wanted to know what type of units I had at a glance, which was hard to do with the posture being shown (defensive, mobile, attacking). Still, it was a small, compact design that I really liked.
I kept thinking- this game would be great with procedurally generated maps, with a little more modernization of the UI. What would it be like to use the same base for something outside a wargame. Claude suggested disaster response, an intriguing subject. It made me think of FEMA and how they handle disasters.