Vice-Marshals have no buttons to push beyond those that they would otherwise get. If the formation that is set by the Marshal is inappropriate for the battle the Vice-Marshal is in, then the members of the army commanded by the Vice-Marshal will be in a bad formation.
This is just part of the way the system is designed to work. It's the price you pay for having a backup for the Marshal when he's wounded or otherwise unavailable.
I understand. Personally I feel that the vice-marshal having a simple toggle switch to follow the marshal settings or let each unit assign their own (if they take command in a battle) would be a beneficial feature - reasonable that characters wouldn't still be following the week old settings of a seriously injured marshal or one several duchies away, and I can't imagine any sponsor assigning an XO with the behaviour you outlined except temporarily right before big battles so a functional position would allow more players opportunities - but that I'm sure belongs in a different forum.
Is Ketchum's experience a bug then?
