Well, its seems i stirred up quite the nest of hornets with that question. Far better than i could have hoped as well.
Ex-Military? ... yes.

I am also an avid student of history. In particular: Military history and combat..Strategic-tactical.
there are plenty of instances where a military order of arms and combat formation would be very useful in this game. I can not say I have played it yet (sadly-still waiting in line to purchase), but I have played pretty much everything else.

As for magic?

Easily adapted...

Break it down into basic forms.
1. range/ballistic-just another guy w/ a bow and arrow, just different shape.

2. support-heals, buffs, etc.

3. melee/misc.- This is just people who have a little mixed in -not full blown glass cannons/casters/healers.

As far as ships go. I see your point.
That doesn't stop us from drilling for ship raiding though.
By this I mean a dedicated and precise methodology applied to a select grp or groups of fighters trained to do only one thing: steal an enemy ship. we can use to fight, transport troops or just destroy it, but we need planned detailed strategies for every contingent and a dedicated core of players that will follow orders and stick with plans.

In someome of my old guilds (particularly Shadowbane) there were often hundreds of members....how many would show up for fights? 10 maybe 20 on average. more if you were lucky.
When my friends and I broke off and formed our own guild there were never more than 40 of us in the WHOLE guild, but when we went out to fight these much larger guilds we ALL went. all 40 of us and we kicked their asses...We also worked out strategies for fighting against much larger numbers..Also ...we were fkng good at fighting.

My point is clear I hope.

Even with small numbers- select dedicated units - each designed for specific purposes can be used as playing pieces on both a skirmish based tactical level and on a larger scale.

Ranged unit.
Scout unit
Melee Unit
mounted unit
Support unit

command unit

reserves...

with the right timing/organization we can make use of all our resources with out losing our real world jobs or dropping out of school or getting divorced.

What ever your background or RL schedule..we work it into the plan.


Lastly- here's a little scenario as a taste.

Easiest/ oldest trick in the book.

ALWAYS keep a select group of about 10-20 guys patrolling the area between the combat zone and the spawn point of the enemy.

Why? Because if you kill the stragglers 10 of you vs 1-3 of them as they are running back to the big fight it keeps the fresh troops at bay and demoralizes them to the point that most of them wont bother coming back to the fight.

Now tell me again how we're gonna do this.

I know I'm "the new guy", but I would like to be involved in this "elite group" you are or have formed.

"DOLOR TUUS QUAESTUM MEUM EST"