Frankly, most of the missions (and campaigns - which are but missions grouped under a theme) play more like puzzles than strategy games: "Find the one way that you can accomplish your mission".
While true that good strategy requires finding the weak spot(s) at which to concentrate one's force, the artificial time constrainsts and lack of any intel source other than visual observation turn a viable strategic need into an annoying and frustrating "play, lose, reload" excercise in game terms.
While some of the missions (both standalone and within a campaign) are well done (Wisznewecky Campaign, for example)
even they end up being "hold off the AI while you build your defenses, then defend while you build up your assault, then beat the deveil outa the AI". Once you get past the AI's initial wave(s) - it's pretty much a stalemate until you commence your assault and the AI is atrocious on defense.
Other missions have only one way to play them and it's convoluted: The Zaporoszhska Sich, for instance, requires you to march your little team from the bottom middle of the map to the upper left, sail to the middle left (while letting your yacht lure the game-ending frigate into a trap - and how are you supposed to figure THAT out without lots and lots of frustrating replay? - then sail to the middle, march to the lower right, then march to the middle. And then shoot the idiot enemy troops who blithely stand in the open as you shred them. And don't even get me started on the British Jamaica Campaign! Better sail just the right path or you're pounding that F12 key!
Too many of the missions require you to do just the right thing or be defeated without a chance. The Carribean Campaign is rife with them - sail the right path; somehow build a base with two very aggressive pirate forces slaughtering you; etc. They have only one, arbitrary way to win - and that's no fun!
Where's the strategy (or fun, for that matter)in, for example, the Pavluik Uprising where you must follow a certain sequence of events: find the deserting Serduiks BEFORE finding the bandits; capture the cannon and sink the ships BEFORE they sink your ferry; attack from the correct side so you can capture the battery and man the hillsides BEFORE the Polish Horde arrives; kill enough of the Poles BEFORE the timer expires; find just the right spot on the shore for your cannon to kill the ferries BEFORE they tough your soil - etc.
Those just aren't fun - they're maddening. Too much depends on just a random "die roll". Two hours of gameplaying down the tubes because some lucky howitzer shot just took out the only cannon I'm allowed to capture (the rest die) in the game and I *MUST* have that cannon to win. Or an event timer goes off and I must replay the entire mission because if I do it THAT way, I can't get it done in time. Or I have to build my village in THIS order and put THESE troops in THIS place or I can't win...and on and on.
It's as if most of the missions were designed by a puzzle or adventure game fan who simply put that "follow the script" mentality into a wargame, but some were done by a wargamer.
And those are the missions that, frankly, are the only reason I put up with the puzzle missions. Those are well-done. Some campaigns/missions I *MAY* try again - after restarting some 30 times to try to find the right combo of buildings and force mix to defeat the initial wave of attacks in "Contested Island", I pretty much said "Screw it!" "Another War", though, made up for it, as did "Old Kingdom" and "Brazil".
For future games (with the caveat that some of these might be features of AOW - I've got EW now but will buy AOW when I get a chance) I'd suggest:
AI forces tweaked so as not to just stand and take long-range fire. It's too easy to just stand off and blast a powerful enemy force to dust - they need to take cover or charge en masse, not piecemeal as they do now.
If not dynamic, at least branching campaigns.
For the love of God, no more puzzle missions! ALWAYS have multiple paths to victory, or at least give the player a *chance* to win if he doesn't follow the "right" path!
Better documentation of the missions - saying "go to the island in the SW corner" when there are several islands in the SW corner isn't very helpful!
More missions/campaigns! Especially combined naval/land warfare missions!
Please don't misunderstand - I really enjoy EW (or I wouldn't care about the puzzle missions - I'd just dump the game). I think, though (and obviously CDV does too, or they wouldn't ask) that the in-house mission design needs work.
Oh...the numeric quality assignment. It's hard to rate that, actually. Even the puzzle missions have some redeeming value - barely enough to offset the frustration factor, but some. I'd say for:
Effort: 100
Puzzle playability: 60 (first time)/30 (after it's solved)
Wargame playability: 85-90 with high replayability
Value for my $$: 95