I mentioned this in another thread but it's valid here too imo so here goes: I've always wondered if a kind of pre-campaign mini-game (parallel game?) might be somehow integrated into a grand strategy game such as this. Let me be more specific; though Napoleon was a masterful general, I've always found myself being blown away by how minutely he prepared his campaigns months, sometimes years before setting off to war. He would sometimes secretely funnel a huge amount of resources into one campaign to make sure everything is ready when the time comes. It would be interesting to find a way to do that in the game; maybe have some sort of campaign screen in which you organise your best generals into a sort of think-tank to consult with them, set deadlines, allocate resources for them to make preparations and so on.
Example: Invasion of Russia. You skim through the list of marshals you have and select the ones who are more adept at navigating the terrain, others who have family ties in the Russian nobility thus opening possible routes through which to funnel info etc etc. Maybe organise a network of spies to send them deep into enemy territory to have detailed and updated maps of the terrain drawn, infiltrate barracks, armouries to obtain troop lists and equipment inventories etc etc... and you basically move on from there till you have enough men, resources and intel to push ahead with the invasion.
What do you think? I always find it interesting when you have generals/politicians who give you feedback in strategy games. Might be a nice addition.