Mizkif
Veteran

I think it's kind of frustrating the way the party arrangement is now with the limited number of slots. Unless you have at least 6 leadership you can't have Borcha and Marnid along with every other type of unit your faction has to offer, for example if you have both of them you can have Vaegir peasants, footmen, veterans, and horsemen, but if you want to upgrade your horsemen you'll have to disband or wait until a different unit type is upgradeable. I don't think this is a very efficient system and I believe it would improve gameplay if this was fixed.
While I don't suggest scrapping the idea altogether, I have one suggestment for making it much more manageable.
Before.

I have 5 points in leadership. Let's say that instead of those 4 Vaegir Horsemen I have 4 Mercenaries, three of which are upgradeable to Hired Blades. I have 31/47 companions, so I could still hire 16 more men. However, I can't upgrade my Mercenaries until I get rid of one unit type. If I only have 5 Townsmen as in the picture, I might as well disband those 5 to get 3 of the best neutral unit type. But then I've just cut off my main source of recruiting. I'd have to wait until the Hired Blades die or I'd have to get rid of them altogether in order to recruit more men.
On the other hand, I could tell Borcha or Marnid to go wait for me at the Four Ways Inn. But then I sacrificed a valuable party member. Why should I have to get rid of that one guy in order to flesh out my party?
Also, what if I want a few horsemen but I'd like some archers as well? I can't do that, can I? I suppose it is possible but it would be extremely frustrating to try and raise an army with both Vaegir Knights and Vaegir Markesmen, especially if I have 2 heroes.
After

This can be balanced very well with the leadership skill. For example, someone without any leadership ability won't be able to have any heroes at all. But for every 2 or so leadership points you can gain another party member along with a few extra regular soldiers.
I think the game should be more friendly in allowing you options to customize your group. The system in place I feel may be a little too rough and may cause more frustration than anything else. With this system you could keep the basics of the old one but without the frustration.
Besides, having more than 2 heroes at this point wouldn't make the game too easy since their skills don't stack. It would just cost more money to keep their equipment up to par but it would also increase customization and make things more fun, in my opinion.
Oh yes, and please excuse the rough MS-Paint job I did here, but I hope my little alterations can help you get a good idea of what I mean here.
One more quick word on the subject, I've noticed that every time I edit the faces of Borcha and Marnid to make them less hideous they end up getting reset about a half an hour later. Is there any way to fix this?
While I don't suggest scrapping the idea altogether, I have one suggestment for making it much more manageable.
Before.

I have 5 points in leadership. Let's say that instead of those 4 Vaegir Horsemen I have 4 Mercenaries, three of which are upgradeable to Hired Blades. I have 31/47 companions, so I could still hire 16 more men. However, I can't upgrade my Mercenaries until I get rid of one unit type. If I only have 5 Townsmen as in the picture, I might as well disband those 5 to get 3 of the best neutral unit type. But then I've just cut off my main source of recruiting. I'd have to wait until the Hired Blades die or I'd have to get rid of them altogether in order to recruit more men.
On the other hand, I could tell Borcha or Marnid to go wait for me at the Four Ways Inn. But then I sacrificed a valuable party member. Why should I have to get rid of that one guy in order to flesh out my party?
Also, what if I want a few horsemen but I'd like some archers as well? I can't do that, can I? I suppose it is possible but it would be extremely frustrating to try and raise an army with both Vaegir Knights and Vaegir Markesmen, especially if I have 2 heroes.
After

This can be balanced very well with the leadership skill. For example, someone without any leadership ability won't be able to have any heroes at all. But for every 2 or so leadership points you can gain another party member along with a few extra regular soldiers.
I think the game should be more friendly in allowing you options to customize your group. The system in place I feel may be a little too rough and may cause more frustration than anything else. With this system you could keep the basics of the old one but without the frustration.
Besides, having more than 2 heroes at this point wouldn't make the game too easy since their skills don't stack. It would just cost more money to keep their equipment up to par but it would also increase customization and make things more fun, in my opinion.
Oh yes, and please excuse the rough MS-Paint job I did here, but I hope my little alterations can help you get a good idea of what I mean here.
One more quick word on the subject, I've noticed that every time I edit the faces of Borcha and Marnid to make them less hideous they end up getting reset about a half an hour later. Is there any way to fix this?