Heh. Most people here don't realize how Third-World we live.
Four small perch. Not enough for dinner yet, so the traps stay in the water. Bah. I'd much rather clean those fish in the daytime than when the sun starts going down.
Some of the ideas in your list really jump out at me. The screaming head one looks great and is easy enough to do. You just put them in a pasture somewhere and let ambushes path to kill them. I also like the idea of modifying ghouls and skeletons to improve them in ways beyond just infusing. It gives meaning to the necros as well, in a way beyond just the libraries and spells. Sort of a mad scientist underground tinkering with what ought to be left alone. Totally Lovecraftian.
The zombie would have to be very cheap to make it worthwhile. A skeleton hauls too and can be inscribed. But the zombie could be used to buff out the numbers in a fort very easily, and make a disposable (and care-free) army.
I'd like to see the squads reworked. Very large squads don't give the degree of flexibility I seek.
Is there a way to have a sapient skeleton magic user that won't go opposed to life but could also fill some noble positions? That would be very cool.
I also like the idea of warlocks spawning with a few basic spells. One doesn't assume that a bunch of level one mages with no spells all got together and decided to build a tower.