I would go for one really large "front line" if you want to train most of the characters in melee, so I would have no one in the front rank, put the Bard, Ranger and Dwarf in the middle, flank with Vi and your Valk, and put Myles,the priest and bishop in the rear. Only Myles then won't train melee very often but he'll leave you pretty much everywhere after trynton so it's no loss if he doesn't develop that well, let him use ranged combat. You could put him on one of the flanks too I guess.
And don't go with an exact "formula" on the jandrall pages, use them just as a guideline, alot depends on how you play, if you see skills going up alot that he says to raise with level up points and others you want to go up that are lacking, adjust and raise the lacking ones instead.
Enjoy
