Being small and mobile is perfect for a commander the more I think about it. She can jump along the branches and view the battlefield, even taking out soldiers single handedly if need be. I want to play the cat and her, so everyone can have as many characters as they can handle.

There will be other factions then our main heroic animal faction. Ours is the largest alliance of animals but also tense due to having to combine so many different animals that have trouble working together, to put it lightly. There can be an evil animal faction who want to take over both human and animal. Snakes and spiders would obviously be a member and also termites (good opponents for the ants on our faction). There would be more then just that, but I'd have to think further about it. Basically, all the scary animals/creatures. The humans do still have individual countries, but they are forming into one large empire, most likely starting in...America?

You're right on the technology.