[Sombre]

Mercs: I don't like mercs and don't think they add anything to the game. This setting isn't negotiable (too many negotiable settings slow everything down too much). I may well make games in the future where mercs are on, or negotiable, though. Not trying to be a tyrant, just smoothing the game creation stage :]

CBM and indies: People still don't hire national commanders with CBM on. They might hire slightly less indy commanders, but I doubt it. They definitely don't hire less scouts. It isn't really comparable with NI, where national commanders and scouts are both totally hireable (though perhaps only at certain points in the game).

NI setting: I love to play NI, so I think it's 2 for and 2 against currently (correct me if I missed one). In the event of a tie, it's NI. So anyone else with a strong preference should speak up regarding that now.

Teams: It might cause problems for teams to be entirely random but I assume most people don't mind that much who they team with, so it's 'somewhere in between'. If you want to team with someone else in the game and they want to team with you, announce that. For anyone left I'll just randomly assign the teams.