Because its just a string of "fetcher" quests, in essence. Report to Legate rikke, go to a fort, kill everyone there, go back to legate rikke. repeat 4 times, and there you have the bulk of the civil war questline!

Its sickening. And highly repetitive. I used to think the College of winterhold had the worst questline ever; now i think its this civil war questline. Couldnt they have added more "tactical warfare" into the questline? Like some kind of sabotage mission. They're all fetcher quests in the sense that:

Report to quest giver
Go to "dungeon", clear "monsters"
Report back to quest giver
Get reward
Quest progress

For 4 times in a row.:glare:

ADDITION: When i took over a town, the guards in that town were simply replaced with that of your faction, they even have the same guard dialogue and lines. And there isnt even an option to ask the townspeople "how is it with faction XXX taking over the town?" like in whiterun. this inconsistency is really weird.

If i had known this i would probably be better off in some random dungeon; skyrim has many interesting dungeons, much improved over oblivion

The worst part is that the opposing questline is basically exactly the same, except they wear imperial armour instead of stormcloak, or the other way around.
exactly the same.
That was really a major dissapointment.