Well i have run through the first session and i handed over control of the "Allied" npc's to the players and it worked well. I let them decided who controlled which ones and it ended up that the two less combat orientated characters took control of most of them. They lost a few in the fight but as a whole the Players seemed to enjoy the concept, and it meant that they NPC's got to be more intelligent without worrying about over shadowing the PC's to much.
For most of my players the hardest part of adapting to Savage worlds was getting used to declaring their entire action before doing any of it. There was a lot of "i will move here and shoot this guy" *roll, roll, roll* " and now im going to..." . By the end of the session they were getting better at it. I think it will just be a learning curve thing.
I like the fact that i can quick stat npcs by doing something like; D6 (d8 Notice), and thats most of what they need. I have kept the armour and the weapons for the game base line generic but customizable so the players can feel like there weapons are unique, but i can quickly arm an NPC with out having to look it up.