Ok, this might seem really silly, and the answer is likely staring me in the face, but I can't figure it out...

What the heck is the point of even HAVING guard order tokens? (not the shield icon, but the order token itself). It is never placed in the order stack, it is executed immediately, and then goes back into your unused orders (not even your special orders, which would make sense then). I don't get why the token is actually included or why you would bother with it. Has this come up before? Thanks for any insite you can give me as this is the only really lingering question in my mind...

Guard tokens remains on board to mark the defended area. I suppose that Defend order token is attached to BW to simply remind you (visually) that you have this ability during round. OFC, experienced players don't need to place it on board at all to explain the others what they do. If you want, just place it on board and remove when it is on top of order stack. You and other players will be always sure that all required 4 orders were placed during Planning Phase.

It is a bit confusing / unclear that order must be put back to "unused orders", because you can use this order only once per round.

Perhaps the token could have some use in specific scenarios, eg. as an additional marker.

Perhaps because if you wouldn't put that order on an area, during the execution, you might choose whatever zone you like to execute it on. This way during planing phase you might place it in a wrong way. I don't have the expansion but i read a little from the pdf rules book, this is how it makes sanse to me.

Guard orders are executed right away, not during the execution phase, that was my entire point. Like Cyb3k said the token seems to be mostly just a reminder, which was what I figured. I was playign the game tonight with my friends and they were having a discussion about how FF has started to include stuff in games more for the sake of having a pile of stuff in the box then actual usefulness. It was hard to argue against their point when things like the Guard Order Token are present in many of the games. I personally love the Starcraft game but they seemed to really dislike it. Which is really unfortunate.