here's a thought, don't use front row. use the middle, the two sides, and the back only.

thus everybody can get melee.

Well, i'm thinking of the many times my Monk and Valk were spearing the 2nd row of enemies before they had a chance to fill in where i'd killed off the first row; the rest of the party was flinging missiles when gaps like that came up. And if the whole party has extended- range weapons, that's another time an extended-range sword is handy.
Especially one that does 30% KO.
You could also run a party of 3 and put them all in the middle.
Actually, 9 would fit, and 8 do, in flank-center-flank. If you're facing the enemy, everyone will be at the same range.

[ 06-25-2002, 05:13 AM: Message edited by: otter ]

for my first game, I ran RFS, my fighter, and sam in the front, valk, and ranger in the center, and bishop and gadgie in the back. That protected my weak guys very well, and with the GS, everyone was able to melee. Worked very well for me, but only reason that it did was because of that valk as my 4th heavy hitter with her polearm.

I am going with 2 chars in front, one on each flank, two in the middle and 2 in the rear. The 2 in the rear really get great protection now, the flank chars really help. My middle and flank guys all get extended weapons, one of the front 2 does. It's not as good a reach as 3 guys up front all with extended weapons, but basically it's like having 6 characters who can strike what the front guys would with short range melee weapons with excellent protection for 2 bishops in the rear.