I'm not sure if it's actually built in, but I find that my spitfires perform best if they're just a bit outnumbered. I always get good kill ratios when I start off outnumbered, but if I overwhelmingly outnumber them they will smash my entire force
I love the series...but I hate it when there's a save problem. I saved my game several times from one point to another, and progressed quite a bit, but I died once and got set back to a save that had been over 5 hours of game-play ago! And yes, I had an internet connection the whole time and my flash memory for the game is set to unlimited.
It doesn't matter that much if you move your items around later, it's been a while since I've played #3 (I'm just replaying to get the save back from a computer switch) but I think you actually get all the same people (plus several more) in your party later on in chapter 3.
 "Spitfire: 1940"){kind=icon}
 "MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3"){kind=icon}
 "MARDEK RPG: Chapter 2"){kind=icon}
 "Mud and Blood 2"){kind=icon}
 "Pixel Legions"){kind=icon}
 "Flood Runner 3"){kind=icon}