Let me first just say that these are excellent questions. I would be happy to answer your questions the best that I can. Nik will correct me if I get anything wrong.
1)Damage for spells happens immediately when first cast. With a spell like plague where damage is done every turn, the damage takes effect again at the beginning of the next action phase.
2)Technically there are is no minimum number for any of the units (unless specified). This could lead to some pretty crazy stuff, but it is not in the spirit of good play to field 200 imps all individually placed on the table. We generally like to have at least 5 in a unit, but this is not a rule.
3)All of the monster mounts that characters may have are in the monsters section p139 in the rule book.
4)Neveeer! Just kidding. When I look into my crystal ball I see an expansion book, that contains 3, maybe 4 new armies, extra spells, magic items, rule clarifications such as these, and more optional rules to play by for those who like it complex. When will it be available? It may be a couple years due to our presently small time operation, and limited resources, but it will get here eventually.
5)I'm not sure if I understand your question exactly, but I'll explain how the rules work on rolling for these. When rolling Melee, shooting, parry, or nerve the roll is successful if you roll equal to or under the value. Some rare units have a value of six for some of these statistics. If you roll a 6 on one of these guys then roll the die again, and if you get a 4,5, or 6 on the second roll then you fail. So even if you have a statistic of 6 it is still possible to fail your roll. Now if someone has a statistic of 7, they always succeed no matter what. For instance human berserkers have a nerve of 7, meaning they never fail nerve tests. I hope this answers your question. If not just ask it again with a different spin on it and maybe I'll figure it out.
6)We have top-downs available for free download on our site sanitystdios.com/bellicose under the downloads section. Unfortunately they are not complete. We just have a few at the moment, but more will be available in the future as they are developed. Our primary focus at the moment is the development of paper miniatures specific to Bellicose, which will be cheap and you will definitely want to get your hands on those when they come out. The first couple of armies will be ready in just a few short weeks.
7)In settling a dispute of rule confusion, firstly try to come up with something that makes sense to both or all of the players and go with that. If there is a disagreement about how something should work you can always roll a die and the winner of the dice roll has their way. Or you could paper rock scissors, or my favorite, armwrestle!
And this is a good note to finish on, because it is impossible to explain rules for every situation without having a cumbersome set of rules. The rules of Bellicose are meant to be simple and intuitive, but you are likely to run into situations where there is confusion, or it's simply not covered in the rules at all. In these situations you are always welcome to do as you have just done and shoot us a question here on the forum, or you can use the above guidelines for settling confusion/disputations. I hope that you have found my response to be helpful. If you have further questions please feel free to ask. We want to enjoy playing the game without being rules nazis, or rules lawyers. After all that's the point of it in the first place. To have a good time.
Aaron, Sanity Studios - Art guy