I was playing a pen and paper game with a couple friends the other day. The theme was steampunk and we had gotten past several enemy combatants and gotten around a sniper firing upon us until we ended up face to face with the sniper. She had her big nasty rifle trained on us. My party mate was a mage who was rather mobile and gung-ho and in your face and ready to fight most of the time. I, meanwhile, while melee mostly was more focused on social skills.
I didn't want to immediately pounce at the sniper and risk getting a bullet to the face. I figured I'd make a distraction and let the mage pounce. But we were in the face of a sniper pointing a weapon at us. I reckoned our characters wouldn't be able to discuss a plan so therefore I resolved to not discuss any plan with the players.
My character tried to drop her clue to the mage on what she was doing "My~ What a rather large and nasty looking gun." She said, "I don't suppose you can point it in two places at once?" I tease the sniper. My character begins prattling on, all sorts of non-stop teasing, even flirting, strange remarks, keeping the sniper mentally on the backfoot. It was working to a degree. She was distracted. I just needed the mage to make her move.
She didn't, she misunderstood the plan and thought I was trying to talk the sniper into submission. Rats. It was going to be complicated. I could have easily said something OOC, but I decided to keep it interesting our characters can't communicate an elaborate plan before the fight, therefore I wasn't going to discuss one OOC.
I kept at the banter, GM made me do a lot of checks, but my character managed to improv enough of social back and forth that she managed to literally talk the sniper down. Crisis averted. Things settled down. Once that was settled my character bopped the mage playfully, "Next time I make a remark about someone not being able to aim in two places at once and suddenly motormouth, take the hint and act on the distraction."
It was funny. The player of the mage is a friend. Everything was taken rather well. It was a friendly game. It's how I roll often. I could have discussed it out of character but the overall events that unfolded and the way the story went I feel was more amusing by executing things in a way that didn't go according to plan.
And I am by no means throwing shade on people who want to plan their party tactics and stuff via OOC chatter. However, as a change of pace, I'd suggest trying things in ways that limit tactical planning to only information your characters can communicate. You might find the perspective it gives refreshing. Limit your orders to 6 seconds of wording each round. It really forces you to condense what you say to quick barked commands. It creates a sense of urgency about the combat.
By not plotting things out in detail it also forces people to play by the seat of their pants more, which can speed up combat flow, as long as you got people who aren't afraid of making mistakes. Because at the end of the day it's not really about if you win or lose the fight. It's about how fun of a tale you weave with the other players and the GM.