This is an idea that I've been spitballing and would love some community input.
Looking at the current 8th ruleset the rules for cover look a little anaemic; however
GW has taken a step towards differenciating between cover and concealment by giving rules that either improve a units armor save or provide a reduction in the enemies
BS. This gave me an idea for an upgrade to the current cover mechanics
.
Cover and concealment sould be differenciated and given as stats for terrain.
Cover: having a big chunk of plasteel, cermite, masonry, etc. to stop shots hiting your dudes. It's good against small arms but a melta or brigtlance will still melt through it. As such having cover shold give a unit a alternaltive cover save that CAN be lowered by a weapons
AP. i.e. an Aegis Defence line gives as 3+ save to the guardsmen behind it. This makes cover useful for the units that really need it; while the heavily armored units wont benefit from hiding behind a barracade since theyre allready wearing the equivilent on half a foot of plasteel. This will still let heavy weapons burn through cover like the designers of 8th intended.
Concealment is the other side of the coin; hiding in a bush wont protect you from bolters, las guns or even a well thrown rock. However it will make it more difficult for your enemies to see and hit you. As such some terrain should give a malus to enemy shooting. This should be done as a direct malus to
BS rater than a reduction to rolls to prevent overheating plasma shenanagins. i.e. a forest imposing a -2
BS to enemies shooting at your units (maybe make a rule (if there isnt one allready) that a nautral 6 always hits).
Rules for terrain may look something like so:
Forest:
Cover: 6+
Concealmet: -2
Aegis Defence Line:
Cover: 3+
Concealment: -1 (may need tweaking)
Happy to discuss any feedback