there not needed, just helpful in clarifying, sometimes screenshots fail, especally on older comps, or like me, you may forget to turn AA off, that happens, its not against another player, its obvious the player would beat the AI, so why make people fight the battle again?

as I understand it, SOT's are only normally read once (at the start) of a chancallorship, mainly for build/recruitment orders, and details of what can/can't be moved/disbanded.