Pre-selecting the Skills would be neat, but i don’t consider it essential.
And yeah, your idea for the melee with the throwing weapons may be better, having it as a secondary skills as all weapons have.
I don’t know if it is only the RNJesus screwing with me, but the Goblin archers drive me mad with their accuracy AND the poison. They ALWAYS hit at least a couple of mercs in the beginning of the battle, usually headshots, forcing me to retreat them if they are to have any chance of surviving.
Talking about headshots and hits to the head in general, a nice defensive perk would be Keep you Shield Up or Keep Your Head Down, decreasing the chance of taking hits to the head. The already existing Steel Brow is good, but as a 2nd tier one, no chance of my more offensive oriented men having it anytime soon.
Maybe a good way to improve the Flail could be reducing the difficulty of hitting shield bearing enemies, as the chain allows it bending before hitting, i believe. Not sure about it, but is one of the first thing Wikipedia claims in it’s article.
