Haha, good idea, reminds me of the old "Waterloo" game, used to play this on the Amiga back in the day. You could turn off "free look" and only view the game from Napoleon or Wellington. All communication was handled by written orders and written status updates from your commanders. Sometimes it would be an hour between status updates, with 15 min turns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_(video_game)
Like:
"D'Erlon, at 1 15 pm order Donzelot defend the hills 1 mile south of you"
"Lobau, transfer your cavalry to Reille"
"Drouot, at 6 30 pm give support to Reille, D'Erlon and Milhaud"
The AI was very impressive for the day, to be able parse these orders.
A buddy and me used to play this all the time, all through the night. Sometimes we'd give orders, then let the game run overnight to see what happened
Also the Histwar: Les Grognards game has something of the same, you can only view the battlefield from the commanders position and are reliant on information from your subordinates.
http://www.histwar.com/Not tried it myself - but I like the concept for true immersion.