Form teams/parties here

[Sekel]

If an axe becomes necessary, the warrior can weild it while one of the rouges can build up a little strength and use a sword/mace and shield. If it werent for the warrior's repair skill, he wouldnt be necessary at all.

I dont think this is a good option, because monsters doesnt care about who is wielding shield, but who created a game. So when Warrior try to kill monster with axe in game he created, monster will target him. And shieldless Warriors are quite delicious for all kind of monsters.

I also have got quite bad experience with shielding Rogues, so - generally - for Normal Diff - I wouldnt let block Rogue, unless we would find really good stuff. (Fast block shield, good DEXT and reasonable AC).
I think that in most IM games Warrior rocks in blocking, especially with active bonus.
Past Normal you could look at your gear and decide upon your items.

Now what is debatable is weather or not 2R or 2S is better. If we asume that before the caves the team is able to find a book of mana shield, then I think it would work quite well. One mage would build up his dex and str to 35 str and 35 dex. At that point he would pump magic. The other mage would take magic up to 50, then pump vit. This way you have a melee capable mage (the mana shield) and a spell slinger mage (the one with 50), in an ironman there is no point in going past 50 magic unless you have mana shield. This is because in one run through the game in normal, you wont find enough books to have high spell levels and thus will not need the magic to learn them. 50-60 magic should be quite sufficent for the spell slinger. The battle mage on the other hand would need as much magic as possible to fuel the mana orb.

I personally like "classic" IM Sorceror (Heya Gill :-) ). That means 15 stats points in reserve for possible heavy staves (IIRC, Warr staff STR requirements is 30) and rest of points spent in Magic. Spending points in VIT is forbidden for Mage, no matter if you find MS or no .
I dont know, why do you need exactly 35 STR and 35 DEXT on Mage (probably for some item, eh?), but it sounds like wasting to me.
And "Tank Mage" seems to be totally useless for all types of IM. (Except Tank Mage IM of course :-) )
Only useful reason for 2.nd Sorc is IMO "Healing Mage". He camp at clvl 1, maybe 2, reads all HO book and heals all team members from Orb for ridiculous amount of mana and from staves (which recharge second Mage of course :-) )
That guy have to be bored to death all the time, but he is surelly much more helpfull to team than any "Tank Mage". (But after all he can spend his free time in a pray for HO book :-)) )

This setup also makes item placement in the group easy and leaves little room for debate. Books and staves go to the sorc. Bows and good shortswords/low str requirement melee gear to the rouges. Heavy arms/armor to the Warrior. Having a team that agrees on item placement is crucial, as it leads to a fully functional team.

In good IM team there is always little room for debate, if is there any.