There is another rule change in favor of realism that is addition by subtraction. In the 5-Star games you had the choice of purchasing ordinary replacements that had the effect of reducing the overall experience level of the unit or more expensive elite replacements that did not reduce unit experience. In PG2 there are only ordinary replacements and the unit retains its experience leve no matter how many you purchasel. This change in favor of simplicity also strikes me as a change in favor of realism. I always wondered where all those elite replacements were coming from in the 5-Star games.
Real armies send raw replacements to crack units just like any others.
They're crack units because they have a core of experienced officers and noncoms as much as anything else. So this change feels right to me. Unfortunately that option was not included in the new game. The manual mentions Club SSI , a planned multiplayer service to be hosted by SSI , but this has yet to be implemented as of this writing. The scenario editor screen is much easier to grasp than Pacific General's .