don't always check here...
i've actually had some similar 'team' style variant ideas.
basically you have a team of 3-5 players.
each team has several roles: General, Ambassador, President, and Diplomat. (i think there was a spy role aswell...)
General, is basically playing gunboat, enters all the orders, is allowed talk to his team-mates but nobody else.
President is the team leader, but can't enter orders, or talk to anyone on any other team.
Ambassadors are playing global only chat, can talk to their team and post as their nation in global chat (which everyone can see).
Diplomat can post White press to other nation's diplomats (private, only diplomats can read), and talk to his team.
Spy can post Black press to other team's players (to any player they want, basically like a pm which the player can't reply to and doesn't know which country's spy it came from...)