Having had some issues with an enemy player extensively using aircraft in my current game, I would like to suggest a new feature that I think would both potentially radically reduce micromanagement as well as increase the use and importance of aircraft.

Basically, I'm thinking that there should be a method of assigning aircraft to a particular stack of ground units. It could be in the form of an additional mission for aircraft. Once assigned, the aircraft would follow the assigned stack of ground units wherever it went, flying a "patrol" mission above the ground units. Then if the ground units are attacked by enemy aircraft or ground units, the assigned aircraft will execute an air defence or bombing mission as appropriate.

When aircraft are thus assigned, the ground units cannot move further than the range of the assigned aircraft until the aircraft are de-assigned.

This feature would enable you to easily provide air cover to any ground units under your control without having to constantly micromanage or readjust patrol areas across multiple stacks of ground units as they move. It would therefore encourage the use of airpower in the game. You could even have an automatic warning (which could be toggled off) reminding you that a stack of ground units has not yet been assigned any air cover.