In a more on topic note. The tab map IS cumbersome. Some kind of smaller "mini-map" would be nice so that I could at least make sure I am running right direction.

Yes, you're just a squad leader -- actually, you might not be that even, you might go through the game being just a private -- and the defence of the nation isn't your task only, and the game isn't based around you defeating an entire invading army.

I'm not saying you shouldn't defend your bases, I'm just saying there are others that will try to do it too, and you especially shouldn't care much of the bases far away, as there's likely nothing happening there that should concern you, that info should only concern the squads that are close to the location. What if the map size gets bigger, like 5 times bigger? There's a limit somewhere how many bases you can just keep trying to defend alone yourself, as you can't tell other squads what to do as you don't have authority over them as you're still not the commander, but the AI is. I feel that limit is already there with the current map size.

Maybe I have no problems with this myself, as I try to think the AI soldiers as being equal to the player. With that in mind, there are other 'online players' that will try to handle the stuff that happens near them, sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. I can concentrate on the stuff happening near me, or the main battle area, or a lone wolf mission. Of course if we'd lose an important base, I'd likely cancel my lonewolf moment and run out to help with the counterattack.

Anyway, the commander sends soldiers to defend the bases if some are running low on soldiers, it's basically not up to you to handle every possible conflict in the game. Your faction can win the game without you being part of every big battle there is. Actually, your faction might win it by you just standing doing nothing, if you wish to take that chance. There's nothing in the game that would somehow prevent it from happening, as it's a simulation of a certain type of world with a certain rule set. You as the player are just a part of it.

The game is hardly based on any real life army structure, so in this game you're free to do what you will, it's not called sandbox for nothing. Some things are borrowed from real life, some things have been simplified a long deal, and some things have been just made up from thin air, some things haven't been made yet at all. You can join any squad and leave the squad at any time, which doesn't fit to real life, and it doesn't have to fit as I want to emphasis the non-linearity of the game. There are some reactions that I'd like to see in these situations, that your squad leader might become pissed off at you if you leave the squad, maybe you'd lose a few rank points, but that's about it. In real life there would be much more severe consequences from acting against your superiors, I don't think concentrating on such things would do much good for the game.

I don't quite get the argument about not getting a mission? The player is given a mission, and it's displayed on the map: Go to this staging area, attack this base. If that's not a mission, I don't know what is.