The first game I played a "character" I created was Squad Leader, where you started as an NCO and played through a set of scenarios to advance in rank and ability. Basic, but also this thread made me remember that; I know I first played chainmail after I played regular D&D, and that I had played Imperium from GDW before I played Traveller. Trav had a huge number of tactical sub-games: Snapshot, Striker and Azhanti High Lightning, all which I owned, plus when I bought the Fifth Frontier War, it came with iirc, some rank and other rewards for characters printed from a dot matrix printer. I think like many of us, we came from a wargame background, in my high school chess club, we played diplomacy, and later, Traveller, Armslaw, etc. .

Quote from: Old Geezer;696132I have never, ever seen a "Tactical Genius" skill.  Some games have 'tactician' skills but they are very, very weak compared to the usual implementations of "diplomacy," "bluff," "intimidate," etc.

So there is much support for a player wanting to play a character who speaks better than he does, but virtually none for the player who wants her character to be able to win battles through tactical brilliance.

Off the top of my head...

In Eoris Essence your side can get a free round of combat if your team leader is better than theirs (and vice versa).

In Tenra Bansho Zero a character with the tactician skill can obtain a bunch of extra dice by making a tactical plan and then hand them out to other players as things go just according to Keikaku.

In Iron Kingdoms an experienced commander character can buff the shit out of his companions twice over (everything you can see from buffer solos in Warmachine and then some).

In D&D 4e a warlord can can provide extra attacks, movement and healing, probably some extra buffs too.