Mark / Dan, I regularly use 'commander' with the Eldar Farseer and Avarar.
Mounted guardians and two jetbike formations allow tactical flexibility with a powerfull combined assault. That said, to do so I also end up with these formations heavily intermingled (to avoid them suffering a clipping assault), which in turn makes them susceptible to artillery barrages. Obviously these rules all work together, and changing any one of them has quite a significant effect on the game.
Allowing 'Commander' to work across a greater distance would make it much more potent unless the other rules were also enhanced in a similar fashion. However, I suggest that 'Commander' might be added for free to other leaders (but selectively,
). Don't forget that combining formations like this affects the activation balance. 'Commander' is not easy to use and has drawbacks as well as benefits.
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'Intermingling' is harder to modify. Jimmy's point about scouts is a possible approach, though would also raise anomalies. While it would be inappropriate for an IG company to be affected by the loss of a few sentinels, or intermingled mounted Guardians and jetbikes being affected by the loss of 4x Rangers, it becomes more questionable where the formation sizes are more equivalent, eg 8x Rangers or 6x Warwalkers compared with an unmodified Guardian or Aspect formation; or 4x marine scouts compared with 4x Devastators or Assault marines. And this is why it is hard to fix - we all know when it feels wrong, but how to define when it is appropriate in a clear and simple fashion?!
IMO distance should be taken into consideration. Troops are much more likely to worry about friends routing within a few hundred meters, than those they see running several miles away. So perhaps 'intermingled' should refer to the proximity to the combat as well rather than just proximity to a friendly formation; eg:
Quote:
"Two formations are intermingled if they have any units within 5cm of each other, and also within "X"cm of units engaged in the assault. If there are two or more formations within 5cm of the target formation, that satisfy both conditions with respect to the target formation then the attacker can choose to include one or more of them as the target, he does not though have to include any of them."
"X" is up for debate, though IMO it should be less than 30cm and possibly 20cm or lower. And yes I realise that intermingled is declared before the units are moved, so that would also need to be modified.