If you have 8 squad slots, the game FORCES you to use 8 slots in a battle. Would not be so bad except…what if you wanted to battle in the lower tier since you’re a newbie, but the 8th squad is a premium (example BR IV), and forces you into a higher tier battle.
Right now the options when you do not have all the squad slots filled in, is to say “Ok” (which forces auto-fills in the slots with whatever is left, and choose the higher tiers) or “Cancel” which puts you back into that selection.
So, if a newbie (like myself) likes the game, buys some cool looking units, finally discovers that he’s getting dropped into the harder brackets b/c of a few select units - he/she has no way of fixing the situation except to slum along with higher tiered units and potentially being a drag on the game (and getting mutilated in the process).
I’m about 100 games in, and have finally figured out the research trees enough to backfill a lowbie unit so I can get back into what should be the novice-to-moderate skill level games.
But a simple fix to allow less than the full number of battle participants (and leaving the higher tier in reserves) should be possible.
It’s a weird oversite, honestly.