This would be very cool to have for the (eventual) campaign. A separate screen where you get to customize your elite troops from a battalion and choose several for a mission. Obviously, the inspiration would be how Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War did these (called squads in that game). We have a primitive version of that with the "Battalion formations" checkbox. The issue with that option (and why it's always ticked off in my game) is that you can't easily micro-manage the troops in a formation. You have some that are heavily wounded and you want to send them into a Temple? Well, you first need to disband the formation, otherwise all of your units are selected by default. In principle, I agree. If we double-down on spam economics where all you have to do is make more units that are at the same time your workers, then there is an advantage to forcing them into battalions. However, if we want to scale back on the spamming, the battalions are useless. So, in essence, it depends on what the main vision for the game is. What meta are we striving to?

I wish we had these before the discussion reg battalions so it can be decided based on how they work...

That would be a completely different game mode. You'd have to create entire battalions. Like in Battle for the middle earth. It would also resemble praetorians in that sense.   That's understandable. You would also need an AI that emulates the movement of an RTT. And that the formations maintain and fight in formation(single formation).    

Mmm. We debated this stuff years ago. I'd rather battalions be permanent. Why? Because of the APM loss from the management required to band and disband the battalions. Battalions are supposed to free up APM to allow for deeper, yet higher level, tactical things like formation bonuses, flanking attacks, charging, etc. 

Maybe because that was 4 years ago and my views and understanding have evolved.  The way you approach things is very off-putting. What an idiot I was 4 years ago to not realize the two versions of the pantheon looked different!