suggestions for combat system and magic

Hi all, this is my first time posting on this forum - I hope I've put this thread in the right place. I've been a fan of stardock since galciv 2 and I have high hopes for elemental too. I've tried the day 0 version plus the first 2 patched versions and I've noticed alot of the issues that others on this site have mentioned so I thought I'd make some suggestions for improvement that the Stardock team might want to consider.

COMBAT STACKS:

Bands of troops clearly dominate the game at the moment and the way I see it you can either buff all the other creatures so they increase exponentally OR nerf bands of troops. I personally think they should be nerfed and I will try to explain how I think this could be done.

Stacks combine all their attack and defence rolls together to reach huge results - I suggest that the combat calculator simply takes the best scores and ignores the other rolls and that a unit can never enjoy more than a 2:1 numbers advantage against another unit - I know that sounds confusing so I'll give an example based on my limited understanding of the combat calculator:

Lets say you have 4 lightly armoured spearmen against 1 champion. Each spearman is 8 attack 6 defence (combined this becomes 32 attack 24 defence) and the champion is 10 attack 16 defence.

The spearmen attack and roll 7+6+3+2 = 18 attack; the champion rolls 8 defence - so under the current system the champion takes 10 damage. I suggest that the spearmen can only benefit from the 2 best rolls against the champion's one so using the above example 7+6 are used and 3+2 are ignored so the spearmen deal 5 damage not 10.

Lets assume the champ counter attacks and rolls a 9 under the current system I think the spearmen combine their defence rolls but under this system they could only use the 2 best ones.

This should put a cap on the godlikeness of stacks while still allowing them to be effective - even if there are 12 spearmen against 1 creature they could only use their 2 best rolls for attack and defence. On the other hand if you had 12 spearmen against 4 spearmen the 12 would only use their 8 best rolls.

CHAMPIONS:

As champs gain levels they should get to roll multiple results for attack/defence and pick the best 1 result - spearmen hordes would still get to choose their best 2 results to the champs 1 but the champ is likely to avoid an extremely low roll this way. this should also extend to channellers casting damage spells - they roll multiple times and pick the best result - maybe 1 roll per level.

MAGIC:

Area of effect spells should have a multiplied affect against units of troops - maybe the units roll and combine all their defence rolls and the spell rolls for each man in the unit e.g. 4 defence rolls vs 4 attack rolls if there are 4 spearmen hit by an explosion. Spells that target individuals should ignore the unit stack defences - i.e the stack gets 1 defence roll for one man - thats it - on the plus side the spell can only kill one man and the excess damage doesnt carry over to the other troops in the unit.

I also think channelers should regain about 4 mana a turn as 1 per turn is painfully slow.

TACTICAL COMBAT:

As mentioned by others - I think base hitpoints should be increased for all units and attacks should be simultaneous between attack and counter-attack.

RINGS, AMULETS, PACKS:

Please cap the number of these that a champ can equip.

SHOP:

I think item prices should be halved for everything except upper tier weapons and armour which should be special and therefore remain pricey.

Anyway, just some thoughts - I think the key things are to boost magic and nerf unit stacks.