So, I feel the need to explain in-depth what I meant by "Organizing our Forces into Semi-Permanent Squads".
First off, I need to clarify that this system will by no means decrease our flexibility. In fact we could completely forget about it for any battle and mix and match our Units however we wish if needed. The system I'm proposing is for entirely logistical purposes; the needs of the situation can and will supersede it whenever necessary. In fact, in some ways it should make it easier to maximize the effectiveness of our forces in regards to the mission at hand.
The goal of this system is to:
1.) Ensure that all units have what they need to be effective (so that all Casters have a mount and/or guards, that all Squads have Leadership, etc.)
2.) Ensure all of our units are part of an effective Squad, to reduce the number of underutilized units (thus maximizing efficiency).
3.) Make selecting popping orders easier, and reduce the number of "extraneous" new units (so that we don't waste UP).
4.) Make distributing forces between multiple missions easier (less work to make sure all groups have everything they need to be effective).
5.) Ensure that all Players have an opportunity to affect the game on the large scale (by making PCs Squad Leaders).
6.) Supply additional opportunity for Role-Play (Players can start to personalize 'their' NPC Squad members).
7.) Decentralize the decision-making process (so that if Swodaems takes another break, the rest of us can figure out popping orders easier).
8.) Decrease down-time between battles in general.
And it should be able to do all of that, if everyone is in on it.
Basically, it would go like this:
Suppose we have one Squad assigned made up of Rolf, an NPC w/Leadership on an NK, an Alt Elf w/2 Bodyguards, and a couple extra Warrior Heavies.
The stated purpose of this Squad would be Heavy Infantry. That means it's their job to beat the crap out of enemy infantry in melee. Now, this does not mean that the only thing they will ever do is charge the enemy; to the contrary, more often than not they won't. What they do will be determined entirely by the situation: they may charge, but they may also hold back and let our archery soften up the enemy, or maneuver around the flank, or grab some picks and a Ram to tear down a wall, or whatever Werebiscuit (with the advice of the rest of the group) decides would most help our Side.
Nor is their composition by any means fixed. If we decided that we needed stronger Infantry for one battle, for instance, we could swap out the NPC Leadership with Tod or Yuri. Or if space was tight, we could change out the Leader's NK for a Bodyguard. We could even decide that the Alt Elf was better elsewhere, and change out her and her bodyguards for 3 extra heavies.
Managing this Squad would be both Werebiscuit's privilege and his responsibility. He may organize it how he wishes, but if a unit croaks it becomes up to him to replace it. He would have to requisition a unit from an NPC's Squad, 'borrow' one off another Player, get Vinny to craft a Golem replacement, or convince whomever's in charge of popping units (who has a schedule of his own to keep) to pop a priority replacement.
This may sound to some of you like a lot of work, but really it's just spreading the work that was previously on one person's (Swodaems') shoulders over everyone. The actual work each individual person has to do is quite small; and if you don't want to do even that much, you can always give the authority over your squad to someone else, and let him do the job for you.
Once we get this system up and running, it should speed things along immensely. Organizing units into long-term Squads makes it easy to say "Oh, we have X Squads of Infantry, and Y Squads of Archers." When it becomes more clear what we have, it's easy to see what we don't. ("Oh, we have two squads more of infantry than of archers, so we need more archers.") After it becomes obvious what we're missing, the question of "what do we pop?" becomes "what do we pop first?" Then the discussion becomes much more productive, since there are fewer people arguing to pop things we don't need when there are things that we do.
