A grumble about 5th Ed. 40K

After playing Privateer Press' Warmachine and Spartan Games' Firestorm Armada, I can't help but look at GW games and question the game system.  As most of you dudes know, I'm a hobby veteran.  I've been playing 40K and WHFB for about 10 years now.  I've seen the progression of editions like the changing of seasons and that's never going to change.  Unlike newer gamers who's only played the newest edition, I have something to compare to and to relate to.  Maybe I'm getting worn out by GW games and that's why other game designs are peaking my interest, or maybe because they just have a better system.

I'll tell you one thing though:  I'm a little put off by 40K 5th Edition.  I'm put off to a point where I'm starting to think of houserule ideas to bring the feel of realism back to 40K.  As a competitive player, I never do that.  I used to view houseruling as a sub-standard version of the game.  When someone asks you for advice or asks you what kind of strategies you employ, you answer them with what you would do "normally".  Normally refers to what everyone else is playing, not some private version that you made up.

My biggest gripe with 40K 5th Edition is when the rules of the book breaks my "immersion".  A huge part of successful game design is making you feel like you're in the game.  Whenever I'm playing Blizzard games, I feel actively engaged and immersed in the universe I'm playing in.  For computer games, this is the smooth gameplay, the graphics, the sound and the environment.  Visually, the game must make sense.  This is where 5th Ed. breaks apart for me a little bit.  Check out these examples:

• Say you have a unit of Marines standing by a line of sandbags.  The enemy flier shoots at you and you don't get any cover saves against it.  Why?  Because he's elevated and from his LoS, your model is not covered.  On the ground level, you're covered, by according to RAW, you're taking no cover saves against his shots because that's what he sees.  You would think the a bunch of dudes standing in "cover" should get cover from such a thing.
• Say you have a Raider behind a building and your opponent can see half a inch of your ship's hull.  Even though he sees a sliver of your vehicle, he's still seeing it and the best cover save you're going to get is a 4+.  Huh?  I would think a 2+ cover save is appropriate because the pilot has to be a god in order to pull a shot off like that.  Unfortunately, a 4+ cover is the best you're going to get.
• Let's talk about the cover system as a whole.  4+ cover everywhere on everything is too damn rich.  All you need is 50% of your unit in cover and you're taking HALF the damage.  A few games ago, I played against a player that had 11/20 Hormagaunts in and around terrain and his entire unit is claiming a cover save.  Sure, the rules say you can do that, but it absolutely KILLS my immersion.  How does that make any sense my mind tells me?  It doesn't.  It shouldn't.
• Furthermore on the issue of cover, 4+ cover on everything is just plain stupid.  The average cover save should be 5+ or 6+  and it should make sense above all else.  If you have 10 Marines huddling behind a sandbag line, they should receive cover.  If you have 5 Marines in front of the sandbags and 5 Marines behind, then the 5 in front shouldn't get a cover save.  If you have 11/20 gaunts spread in a 2" max coherency, then you bet your ass you shouldn't get a cover save.  With the introduction to TLoS in 40K, the cover system has to be intelligent enough that makes sense to the human eye.
• Assaulting and killing things in CC in this edition is suicidal.  If you assault and kill something, I believe you should be rewarded.  The thrill of a narrow victory, the bloodthirsty joy of slaughter, the hard-fought battle against impossible odds - you know, that kind of thing.  Let me tell you how it goes in 5th Ed:  You get into combat, you pray that you stay in combat because the second you get out in the open, you're screwed.  Who cares if you just mowed through 10 Guardsman?  You're left standing in the middle of 500 more with guns in your face.  In 4th Ed, you could go from combat to combat as long as you win.  This is to symbolize the bloodthirsty thrill of hand to hand combat.  In this edition, if you leave combat and there's no crater, wreck or terrain to massacre into your undeserved cover, you're dead.  Simple as that.  And why the hell isn't there a rally after you kill a vehicle?  You kill a freaking vehicle and you're stuck there like a bunch of idiots ready to get templated to death next turn.
• Why is it that glancing hits on the Vehicle Damage Chart can't kill vehicles anymore?  If the VDC wasn't as lenient and the cover system wasn't such ass, then maybe, JUST MAYBE we won't see vehicle spam in every single list.
• And lastly, when I shoot a Eldar Skimmer out of the sky when it turbo-boosted across the map, I want everything inside to die.  There's no way that a lightly armored skimmer crashing in the ground while moving supersonic is going to magically pause and let its occupants out first.  You should have to pay for such a outrageous luxury.

Yeah, I don't know guys.  Maybe I'm getting old or losing my grip as a powergamer, but when the game doesn't look right to me, I'm not into it.