Even though EA functions finely as a game, over the years of watching others' and my own ponderings, I've come to think that the rules do have some deficiencies (some of which are mechanical problems, others about 'realism'), or at least some areas for tweaking.
* Multi-hit units, and especially big ones like titans. Unlike every other formation, WE don't really lose effectiveness as they come under fire, which makes them really hard to balance (and critical existence failure is always frustrating to fight against!).
* Army lists being constrained by activation points so strongly. I would prefer a system where command units gave activations rather than number of units, to give players a reason to actually interact with the chain of command but also to free list building a bit more. And you could implement things like passes more easily, and streamline how Commanders work into a unified system.
* Barrage hit allocation. A little one, but I think a simple fix so that the templates are used only to determine the number of hits and hit allocation is done as per normal shooting rules would streamline the process and eliminate 'barrage sniping'.
* Intermingled units may be hit by shooting attacks, if they become the next closest units. Although the current rules are a useful abstraction, it's always seemed strange that you'd magically stop firing on half a blob of enemy contacts based on the enemy's organisation strategy.
* Transport formations able to carry other formations, like WE transports can. The poor Land Raider formations get lonely!
* Armour save clarifications/improvements in general. Like the splitting of RA saves, making a 'macro-lite' armour save-ignoring rule that can be applied to a weapon without the other Macro effects, and an explicit rule coving armour save modifiers.
* 2D6 rolls for Initiative checks. It's a one-off roll, after all, why not give some more granularity?
* Formation splitting/combining. I'm not sure how it would work in practice, but it seems realistic to me that a heavily damaged formation would come under the command of an intact one (and maybe could work for formations that dismount to enter a city?).
* Spaceships have always seemed a bit clunky to me. Maybe because I like Battlefleet Gothic and EA strips them back so much?
Anyways, these are some of the thoughts I've had: hopefully they stimulate some thought! The past thread on rules changes was quite an interesting read, and, both here and there, there are lots of interesting ideas. Even if main EA stayed the same and the main set of rules used, it would be really cool if an 'EA 2.0' effort had all the experience and nous of experienced players available.
For the dice used: I actually prefer D6s because of their practicality, and I'm not sure if greater granularity in most parts of the game would actually make a meaningful difference. And Initiative tests can be done with multiple D6s because you only do one at a time anyway. Alas, in my case, the moment I tell my friends that this nifty Epic game needs D10s or another esoteric die, they'll be instantly unenthusiastic.
One final note to my lengthiness: on the topic of the flyer rules, I am yet another uninformed innocent. What's so bad about the current rules, and what would make for better ones? I'm willing to be enlightened!
