i cant remember the last time i played a game of 40k...
5th ed basically killed the game for me.
so what would i change...
1) tlos - my # 1 beef with 5th. most retarted thing ever. line of sight rules in 4th were not complicated and better aproximated a real war game than 'true' line of sight bassed on static, disporportionatly featured physical models. along with this remove stupid unit sniping... i see that one dudes hand out of that unit of 30... i kill 15....
2) victory point system. kill points gone. objectives worth a set number of vp. nothing wrong with that before. remove contested objectives, points of 50% + units would determine holder.
3) remove troops only. there are enough armies that ignor this anyways that it makes sense just to change it to what it is becoming anyways... infantry scoring only. tactics, ie intrestign game play, is not accomplished by hords piling into a scrum. it might be more 'realistic' maybe, but i'm not intrested in trench warefare or historical reinactment, im intrested in chess with models and dice.
4) change cc rules. directional charges were a good thing. they introduced geometric tactics. now you just move in a blob.
5) bidding system. only a fool would think gw makes any attempt to balance their game. therefore a pre battle bidding system based on vp and swapping armies would be included as an optional rule.
6) vehicles are way to tough... especially the cheeper they are. I'd overhaul the rules on all vehicles to move from a single hit basisi to something more like whats found in other games, with graudally degrading armor, directional armor, and vehicle charts. no complex rules about systems ect beyond what currently exists. accross codexes vehicels would just be harder to get asside from transports.
6b) deepstrike would become alot mroe random and dangerous without homers or equivilants. think auto scatter first try, continued scatters till a hit is roleld, unforgiving results for hitting anything at all except freshly cut grass, comand checks to avoide pinning on landing ect. its way to common, cheep, and easy, its a no brainer and should get bludgeond into a pulp with a nerf bad.
7) move to d10's. although i fully recongnize this would never happen, there simply isn't enough variation in unit stats. special rules seem to fill the gaps and often these just dont work well or work too well.
hit allocation. its was a stupid change to begin with, how it was considered streemlining when it so obviolsy slows down the game, when its not forggoten about entirely, is beyond me. return to wight of fire and forced saving throughs maybe for specific model sniping...
9) make leadership matter. negative penalties would abound. furthermore most actions beyond the norm would require leadership checks. Im thinking along the lines of army wide retreat tests at 25% casualties ect.
10) link pinning with assault. Ie pinned/gone to ground units get negatives if assaulted.
11) reintroduce crossfire. ie un-neutor it. this is clearly an opportunity for tactics and strategy to sway the game ratehr than rote unit strenght matching.
12) reintroduce effective tankshock. squishing is important. along with this, increase the gap between infantry and transport movement values.
13) break up turn sequence, ie nobody moves and shoots everything
14) introduce some kind of fatigue and/or command mecanic along with 13.
15) stop comming out with new edditions/ codexes and just fix the old ones via regularly scheduled pdf's.
16) reintroduce movement values as a stat.