Rather than controlling induvidual units you could manipulate objects and/or areas that invoke different unit behaviour. I have played Globulation 2 (http://globulation2.org/wiki/Main_Page) where you couldn't order induvidual units but rather had to set priorites for construction of buildings, select areas to protect and places where your army should attack/gather. I think that a grandscale RTS like PA could benefit from allowing players to select areas which automatically orders units about. Take for example a "Defence area" where the closest combat units are ordered to attack any units that are detected in this area. Say you have such an area in your base near your economy for example and another "Defence area" near the front. If you set higher priority on your "Defence area" near your economy 'idle' units will go prioritize that first if the enemy enters that area. Say you make a whole planet your "Defence area" and when the enemy send units there you get a little billboard or something telling you that your planet is under attack by 13 enemy tanks and that 5 gunships go against the tanks and attack them. You can then decide if you need to take a further look or if you think that your defending units can manage themselves. "Forbidden area" could prevent units from wandering off into enemy minefields or defences for example. I guess the biggest challange with this is getting an easy to use interface where it is easy to add, change or delete zones. Zones could for example follow units aswell like your commander. Like warning if any enemy snipers are detected 1 km from the commander or tanks that guard a builder are ordered to attack any enemies within 500 meters vicinity of the builder.
If units would be assigned to the area command automatically or manually rather than that player is only able to make units perform area commands I guess it could work, yeah. Being able to drag the area command around or change its' size could also be good.
