The Wargame franchise has come a long ways since European Escalation, and the newer titles do have better single player experiences. As someone who has many hours into multiplayer Wargame matches I can attest that it too provides some pretty compelling cold war era battle simulations - although you have to put up with other people which can be a problem.
Now for the plug - some folks in the Wargame community are trying to keep that feeling alive while the developer lets the game die. I'm not sure what kind of customization and single-player battle staging will be available but this project is worth sharing and following to see what it becomes: