My test readers have advised I use the european/military 24 hour clock (13:00 for 1 pm, 20:00 for 8pm etc) for my story and I concur.

My question is how do european civilians describe such times when speaking?  I know the military says thirteen hundred hours and such. I do not recall european civilians I've talked with using such terms. I don't recall any instances of people using the 24 hour clock in speech in shows like Dr Who or Misfits. Do I just use numerals 03:15 or 13:20 and let the reader figure it out?

Looking for anyone that has lived, or still lives, in Houston, Texas.  Need a feel for the city, certain landmarks and places, and local terminology.

Also interested in similar information for Texas in general, and any knowledge anyone has about life along the border with Mexico.

Houston Info
 - What's a popular downtown location?
 - What's Main Street Square like?
 - What's the land to the west like?
 - What's Bessie's Bayou?
 - What are the local terms for major roads and highways?
 - What's the area around Texas Medical like?

My friends live out in Sugar Land and I've visited them occasionally. The land near the highway was a combination of housing developments, shopping malls, strip malls, and texas countryside. The countryside was gently (very gently, almost flat) rolling fields. I think we would cross the brazos river on the way to their house.
There is a huge subdivision called Greatwood out that way. A variety of very nice homes, most ten years (or less) old, some large, some very large.

Whoa, realtor.com shows 2200 sq ft house in Sugar Land for only $185k. You can spend much more if you want to.

Most (all?) houses in Houston do not have basements- the water table is too high and they'd leak all the time.

My friends used to live in the city, but I don't remember much from visiting them. We drove up and down Westheimer Street so much I joked I was visiting the city of Westheimer St. Lots of apartment buildings, businesses, strip malls. Ten years ago it seemed every strip mall had a strip joint in it, not sure if that is still the case.

Sorry I can't help more.

Walky talkies changed warfare forever.  Don't forget it.(Seriously think about it...  The changes are nuts.)

I was thinking of folks writing various sword and horses type stories - or any story where the armies don't have wireless or similar tech/magic.

Sort of related to this: I was watching the old show Tour of Duty and on the first episode the sergeant wants to call in an artillery strike. He begins to scramble over obstacles and through trenches and such.  I was thinking why doesn't he just use his walkie? He eventually reaches the corpse of a radioman and the radio and it hits me that he doesn't have a walkie. I was so used to watching SG:1 and 24, where every one  has some sort of wireless, that I didn't realize they weren't in common use in Vietnam. (Or at least that's what that episode of Tour of Duty showed.)

I'll take a look at it. I loved the "Lowerdecks" episode of TNG so this sounds really interesting.

I don't really care which POV when I'm reading.

3rd person omniscient is sort of an odd duck and takes  a bit of getting used to as a reader. Watership Down is written in 3rd person omniscient.

I have written in both 1st person and 3rd and both have their strengths and weaknesses.

They say beginning writers should avoid 1st person, but it seems a lot of people break this rule and get published. Most UF authors. Like some one else said almost all UF is in 1st person.

I had counted on at least two Council's being major political powers:  a 7 member council comprised of the leaders of each Guild, and one for the Houses (which will have some mix of the handlful of Major Houses and the dozens of Minor houses, possibly in a Council/Senior Council format).  Both could serve as anchors to balance the power of the Throne, but what would the Purviews of power be, and where would the checks and balances come into play?

I don't know. The US constitution has a number of checks and balances:
1. Taxation originates in the House, which is popularly elected. (Senators were not originally popularly elected.) But the Reps only serve for 2 years, so if they pass a lot of unpopular taxes, they can get kicked out.
2. The Senate must confirm government appointees.
3. The Supreme Court can invalidate laws (but look out for Andrew Jacksons!), and is appointed for life. But the constitution can be amended.

So powers to be balanced:
1. taxation
2. shape government by appointing bureaucrats
3. deny such appointments
4. declare laws unconstitutional
5. amend the constitution
6. need a Bill of Rights 
7. legislate laws.
8. popular election vs election by oligarchy
9. term limits is probably not very medievalesque
10. system of referendums for the commoners to redress greivances
11. free press

I'm sure I missed a bunch.

Maybe introduce a european style parliament - where the majority in parliament selects a prime minister and various factions have to bind together to get a majority. I don't know the advantages and disadvantages of euro style parliament.

I agree that fear of invasion will bind a country together. But I wonder if you overstate the need to bind together from fear of invasion. I don't think the USA much feared invasion after 1825 or so. (We were too big and Europe was still recovering from the Napoleonic wars, IIRC) Tho we did have ideas like manifest destiny to bind us together. (And slavery to tear us apart). Perhaps nationalism would do the trick?

Poland of the late 17th and the 18th C comes to mind. Prussia and Russia started working on the magnate's sympathies, offering titles and other inducements to gum up the works of the Polish Seym (congress). They kept the king too weak for too long and when a strong king finally started making progress at reform, Poland's neighbors were strong enough to just partition the kingdom. Note the fear of foreign invasion was not enough to keep the magnates aligned with Poland's interests, since foreign lobbyists convinced the magnates otherwise.

I think you just need to make a guess and then submit it to your writing group or your "D&D group". You might get more pointed criticism from your "D&D group" - my writing group is great at grammar, POV shifts, changes in character, etc but a little too polite about politics.

BTW can a crown princess become the sovereign or is it limited to males?

Its hard to believe, but there are people who have never seen Star Wars. Perhaps you could have a character like that be a straight man to the Star Wars quoter.

Even harder to believe are some people don't like Star Wars. Some think the movies are over-rated in terms of acting, plot, or other ("The last scene of star wars is like a Leni Reifenstahl film. Is Lucas a nazi or something?"). Others (like David Brin) dislike the medievalist trappings of Jedi Knights, and hereditary powers and see a whole agenda of anti-democracy at work. You could have one of these as a straight man. But you might enrage the fanbois and lose readers.

PS of course Brin had people with extraordinary abilities because of genetic engineering in his Uplift novels, so not sure why he disliked Star Wars and hereditary force powers.