Tactical maneuvers initiated by half-dead marshals (7)
I believe the answer is:
deploys
'tactical maneuvers' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to competing as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'initiated by half-dead marshals' is the wordplay.
'initiated by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (some letters go at the start of others).
'half' indicates taking half.
'marshals' becomes 'ploys' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dead' with half the letters taken is 'de'.
'de'+'ploys' is 'DEPLOYS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for deploys that I've seen before include "Distributes strategically" , "Spreads out in position ready for battle" , "Moves into position for military action" .)