[Twan]

For me the ideal system (for dom 4) would be an individual initiative based on ap, or better on a new initiative stat for commander/mages, a little drn for some randomness, a *little* bonus for the defenders (and attackers with adequate survival skill) based on province terrain (so they finally start to matter), and a malus for mages based on the level/requirements of the spell they intend to cast.

Of course some mechanics like communion can't work the same with this kind of system (retro communion isn't an intended mechanic anyway and contribute to astral overpowerness, and suppressing all the micro gestion related to mages id would be a good thing).

For dom3 I think the best way to make late game more interesting would be a simple mod replacing battlefield instants by large ae spells. It would be extremely logical for enslave spells, considering the insane progression they have between level 6 and 9 (level 6 : one spell enslave one guy, level 9 : one spell enslave a whole army, and nothing in between...). Even an aoe 10 master enslave would have been considered an extremely powerful spell, if it was made so instead of aoe = battlefield. And spells like rain of stones have no reason to have a bigger ae and range than the fire/water/air endgame instant spells (or it would be more logical to make RoS a BE working like wrathfull skies, a rain of stones has no reason to be instant when a rain of lightnings isn't).

Personnally I'm so tired of endgame round one victories or boring stalemates that as soon this kind of mod start to be used in MP, I stop playing vanilla games.