RedJowel wrote:

Im also in a good situation as we are traveling with a band of mook vikings, and  I make a point to call sheild wall and use heroic fighting at every oppurtunity,  Not that fighters will always have that option,  but  being preapred to use these tactics has allowed the party to accomplish raids far beyond the reach of the PCs alone, and what i think our gm originally intended to be a cluster of useless NPCs that served to get us from one place to another and die has become an indispencible fighting force using just basic tactics.  I only just hit level three, and I never outperform everyone else at anything, but there is something to be said about being that level headed chieftain-esque warrior who keeps the party togethor and is respected by all

Way to use the NPCs, heh! Although I always hire as many as I can when playing in capitalbill's OD&D game, my general impression after a few years reading the forums is that they're underused as a low-level resource in most campaigns. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.

Anyway, welcome aboard!