SO.  Conflict: Edriani is a roleplaying wargame.  You play a mixture of the Bab 5 psi corps and the Starship Troopers mobile infantry in a space fantasy, trying to retake space and planetary colonies from the crafty Draconian Empire.

I want there to be a nice mix between Stupidity Gets You Killed and Death Matters.  To this end, I think that the best approach is... for characters to control a leader of a 4 man squad and to give orders to thier NPC subordinates!  The player character leader can be killed for doing something stupid or brave, and then you say the magic words, "My name is _____, I am assuming command of this squadron" and promote one of the subordinates.

Normally the subordinates will just some of thier Stats and skills to an action (I'm thinking thier stats minus 2.).  But!  You have a number of Relationship or Morale Dice you can spend, giving to the GM to use against you, to order a Subordinate to do something foolish-risky-brave.  You regenerate these Relationship Dice by putting your money where your mouth is and having the squadleader do something brave for one of the NPCs.

Apart from that, I've got nothing.  Comments or questions?

Suggestion: The only way to make subordinates more effective (in whatever way) is to flesh them out as characters. Want to increase somebody Gunner skill? Roleplay a scene where he talks about missing his kids back home, or drinks a beer with his squadmates between missions.

This way players are encouraged to make the subordinates characters they are care about -- which makes sacrificing them hurt.

I disagree.  I remember from my wargaming days, and later from my days playing X-Com, that it worked the other way around.  After a while, I'd develop a fondness for the little rifle platoon (or grenadier) that could take it, that secured the flank when it looked like I was about to lose the fight. 

To capture that, perhaps a system where the soldiers on the sharp end of the conflict who succeed get more love, which leads to them being more effective?  That also rewards risky play, which is a fun thing to do in a wargame.

I think that both are appropriate.  You need to flesh them out as characters to give them all important Bravery points.  They use these to take down an enemy tank squad.  This ups thier skill.  Making them do more brave things.  Upping thier Bravery...

I think a central, fluid stat called Bravery will be at the center of the system, with three less central stats called Cunning, Empathy, and Stamina.  You may choose to take damage to a either Bravery or the other stat you rolled in conflict should you lose.  Lose all your Stamina and you die.  Lose all your Empathy you're out-argued.  Lose all your Cunning, you're stumped.  But when bravery goes down so does your dice pool.