I am a fan of LD, and like the idea of a consistent deployment space. However, I find that far less tedious than having to manually move troops up every turn. There could be a wayfinding algorithm for automatic movement, similar to the ancient multi-player game, "Empire, Wargame of the Century" (Granted it is SO last century, heheh!).
https://youtu.be/oHD6X6enyToAdding commerce to LD games generally reduces the need to do the tedium dance, especially once a few bonuses or cities are in your inventory. But it definitely adds spice to the early part of the game.