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Having finished up our first go of planetary empires, we set out to revise the rules to our liking. Not gonna copy any PE rules for forum's sake, just note changes. Here's what we have:

Map: Build map the same way as regular PE (but no buildings yet)
Deployment: Each person's empire must be contiguous (all tiles are connected), unlike in regular PE deployment, this is necessary due to the changes in the building system below.
Buildings: After each player's are aid determined, they may place buildings on their tiles as they see fit (if we play with 6 players we're going to do everyone gets two of each building, if we get 8 players, then everyone gets one of each building, plus two randoms.
Building rules: Unlike in regular PE, where all buildings in the empire matter, and different factions generate different quantities from each class of building, in our game, all buildings will work the same for all parties. They are as follows: Manufactorum = +100 points, Power Station = +1 to reserve and deployment rolls, Bastion = 1 USR to apply to any unit in your army, Shield Generator (Renamed Fortifications) = +100 Points in up to 1 fortification if the tile is under attack.
Our game uses physical armies upon the board, and each army must be stationed in a tile. All armies are base 1500 points, and may draw resources from the buildings in the tile they are stationed in, as well as any adjacent tile.
Armies: In order to introduce large-scale strategy, as we found each game in our PE campaign people would agree to play, then both sides showed up with a list tailored to the force they faced, we are using fixed (mostly) armies upon the board. The armies are represented on the board by a GW figure (ork boy, space marine, etc) and represent a 1500 point list that is written out in advance. After customizing the building layout in their tile, each player will deploy their armies. The number of armies each player has is at present determined by the formula 2 + (N-1)/3 rounded down, where N is the number of tiles they have. This works out to
Tiles : Armies
1 : 2
2 : 2
3 : 2
4 : 3
5 : 3
6 : 3
7 : 4
8 : 4
9 : 4
10 : 5
etc

So if we play with 8 players and each person then gets 6 tiles, we will each write up 3 1500 point lists and deploy them as physical entities on the PE board.
This number of armies allows each player to cover their own tiles reasonably well, while also having offensive capability.

The PE turn is changed from it's usual battle phase then conquest phase to
Movement: Each army of each player may move up to 1 hex from its current position. Each player submits their movement directions in secret, which are then resolved simultaneously (e.g. Army group A 1 hex North, Army Group B 1 has southwest, Army Group C stays on their tile)
The actions are resolved simultaneously to prevent every player from just making reactive moves to other players movements.

Combat: Over the course of the PE turn, players may arrange between themselves to have a game. In order for the two players to battle, they must both have an army which is adjacent to the enemy's land, and must have an army is position to defend their land from the enemy. Armies may attack into any tile which they are adjacent to, and may defend the tile they are stationed in, as well as any tile they are adjacent to. For example.

Purple's Army A threatens a Green tile, and thus may engage in battle, and Green's Army B threatens a Purple Tile and tis may also engage. The Battle will then be fought between the Purple Player's "A" list and the Green Player's "B" List. (Note that as in regular PE games, Spaceport tiles all count as being adjacent)

In this way each general must either make a take-all-comers list in order to respond tom multiple threats, or make lists tailored to a particular opponent, which another player may take advantage of.

If the two player's armies threaten multiple tiles they must declare before the battle what tile they each seek to conquer, as that will determine if there are fortifications present, as well as the position of the armies after the resolution of the battle.

Unlike in regular PE where you must make a roll to see if you conquer tiles, in our system, the victorious player in the battle immediately gains the tile they desired from the defeated player. Their attacking army must move into that tile. If the defender was defending a tile adjacent to their army, their army need not move, however if the tile the victor had sought was the tile in which their army was stationed, their army must immediately retreat to an adjacent friendly tile.

If a player gains sufficient tiles during a PE turn to earn an additional army for their empire (i.e. going from 6 tiles to 7), at the beginning of the next PE turn, they may deploy their new army into their territory as they see fit, in the same phase as moving their other armies.
If a player loses sufficient tiles during a PE turn so as to be eligible for fewer armies (i.e. going from 4 tiles to 3), then at the start of the PE turn, they must disband an army. The army to be disbanded must be one which lost a battle in the previous turn. If multiple armies suffered defeats, the controlling player chooses which is to be disbanded.

Additionally, at the beginning of each movement phase after the first, to signify reinforcements, and strategic choices by the commander, each player may choose to alter up to 20% (300 points) of their armies. If they do so, they must submit new lists at the start of the turn.

Victory:
The victory condition for our campaign has not been set as of yet, but as this ruleset does not penalize players with more tiles, and does not require the success on a conquest roll to gain tiles, we expect tile acquisition to be easier, and so we are toying with a victory condition such as:
The Victorious player must have:
1) Played at least one game against each other player on the board,
2) Have at least 15 (ish) tiles at the start of a PE turn.

Notes:
If Player A declares they want to take tile X from Player B, and Player B has more than one army which is in a position to defend tile X, they may defend with whichever army they wish, so long as that army is in a position to take a tile from player A

example: Purple declares to Green that their A army is attacking the tile to it's south. Green May choose to defend with other Army A or B since they both threaten a tile adjacent to Purple's A Army.



Please add your thoughts to this ruleset, it's obviously not perfect yet, and more voices will make it better.