This is just a friendly idea from a RTS player who is in love with this mod,
I think it would be really cool for this mod to put a couple more options to the Combat NPCs in this mod. It wouldn't even have to be much, maybe just give an option to stay in a put position when they aggro something, to simulate holding their ground. I say this because I have to literally trap my archers into a put position so that when something goes out of their fov they don't jump off a ledge just to be face to face with them. (but I don't know anything about the coding that goes into this so I might be dreaming, and if I am please tell me)

But with that being said here are a few simple Idea's I had to make combat and war a little bit more immersive and tactical.

• Add an in game faction system. Maybe a table or book that you make where you can start your own faction, choose which factions and players your faction is an enemy, ally, or neutral of, as well as which players are a part of your faction.
• Add a quick clear key for all selected NPCs with the command baton.
• Give NPCs the ability when they see an enemy to be aggressive, passive, or defensive. Defensive being an option where the NPC is facing the entity that it has aggro-ed, has its shield up in a stationary position, or firing arrows in a stationary position and not leaving that position.
• Give NPCs the ability to be "safe." Give them the option not to chase a mob over a cliff, maybe give them the option not to take a path that is more than a 2-3 block fall.
• Give the ability to group NPCs into a "unit" so that when one NPC in the unit is selected, the whole unit of NPCs becomes selected.
• When a NPC is told to guard another NPC, give the ability to the guarding NPC to have options to be in front, behind, left, or right of the guarded NPC.
• You can use food in the upkeep slot of a Combat NPC to make them able to not need a set home. just a feature to make it so that you can march Combat NPCs across long distances without them needing to run back to a set "home" spot, and instead making their home spot the position they already are
  (Going off of forming Units)
• You could give units the ability to keep a formation when they fight. formations could be easily set from the position the NPC's are in when the initial unit is formed.
• You could set different movement speeds for NPCs and units, from walking to sprinting. you could even throw in a "charging" option to attack which adds a tiny bit more movement speed and a buff on their first attack when they enter a certain block radius on an entity. The charging option could even be a research or an unlock ability after a NPC reaches a certain level.
  (This next idea may not be doable but it would be a top tier addition)
• Have a special table that you can place in the world or a "map" that will take you to a top down view of the minecraft world like the vanilla map does. On the map, have markers for which combat NPC entities are yours and which are the enemies. And from this map you can select your own NPCs with the mouse and use the key bindings on map to tell the NPCs where to go, what to attack, what stance to be in, etc.

These are the ideas I've been thinking of while playing this mod. If the coding is too hard to do I understand but I feel like combat improvement wouldn't hurt at all. Even if only some of my ideas were thought about and issues were improved on in a 1.12.2 version for the game I would be happy. Anyway, for those who have read this far thank you for listening.