1) I do want to see Raven Guard and Assault Marines get better. I do not want to see this:
Raven Guard Chapter Tactics: jump infantry can infiltrate
Raven Guard formation: 3 assault squads and one vanguard squad - all units can assault the turn they arrive from infiltration
That would suck.
What can you do instead? The key problem with assault marines is actually just their relative status with bikes. Bikes cost an extra 4 points (vs. a jump pack), take dangerous terrain checks while moving (unless they are white scars) and can't deep strike. But they can turbo boost, which is incredibly good in a format governed by maelstrom and late game objective grabs, get +1 toughness, which is huge, get a jink save which is amazing, get twin linked boltguns and can take 2 special weapons in small squads, notably grav-guns that they fire relentlessly. A secondary problem with assault marines is that they aren't very killy. Sure, they kill other infantry, but tactical marines do that cheaper and without having to expose themselves to fire while inbound (because they have range and rhinos). In order to make assault marines killy you either need to attach ICs or have a tonne of power weapons, which you aren't allowed and becomes prohibitively expensive when you are (Vanguard). This means that assault marines are basically only useful as ablative wounds and a veteran sergeant with fist for a character. But for this role a command squad on bikes (or blood angels CS with jump packs) is vastly superior because of the Apothecary.
So what would I do? I'd let assault squads take two special weapons in a five man squad and I'd make plasma pistols 10 points. This would make them reasonable spot troops and plasma pistols might see play. I'd give them +1 STR on the hammer of wrath when assaulting with their packs. I'd also allow assault squads to take melta bombs for 2 points per model. That would make them fierce at tank hunting. This would change the role of assault squads to modern assault rather than hand to hand assault. They would become useful for clearing infantry off objectives (with flamers) and destroying un-supported tanks and MCs (like Tyrannofexes) with bombs. 3 squads would only set you back 315 points and would be quite useful as nuisances. One other option would be to give jump infantry jink the turn they arrive from deep strike, but this would require a change to the rule in the main rule-book. Not much else to do here. They really need furious charge to be even half way viable as close combat units, which you get if you play blood angels but the troop tax means you won't see a lot of assault squads even then unless you're playing above 2000 points.
I'd make Raven Guard chapter tactics scout for infantry and jump-infantry units, shrouded on turn 1 (otherwise night fighting) and stealth thereafter (so permanent night fighting), jump pack troops can use their packs in both the movement and assault phases and ignore all difficult terrain checks.
I'd give Shrike the ability to infiltrate with any squad that he joins but make it that he can only join assault squads, vanguard squads or squads that already have infiltrate. Make him cheaper. With the melta bomb changes this would make for a fluffy and somewhat effective guerilla type army of small infiltrator squads destroying supply lines with satchel chargers and cheap flamer-throwers.
I'd have 2 Raven Guard formations:
a) 2 Storm Ravens and 2 Vanguard or Assault squads with jump packs (BA should have had this formation): Instead of deep striking, the jump pack squads may disembark up to 12 from anywhere the storm raven flew over and assault that turn. This off-sets the fact that you don't have 800+ points on the table until turn 2 or 3 or even 4. No formation involving Ravens will ever be broken.
b) 2 assault squads, 1 vanguard squad, Shrike: all the squads may infiltrate but they have to be at least 10 men strong. Shrike must join the vanguard.
These changes would make Raven Guard playable but not broken. Another helpful change would be to allow command squads to take jump packs. Apothecaries are pretty central to Space Marine death stars.
2) MAKE TERMINATORS BETTER! These are the iconic epic warriors of the 41st millennium. They shouldn't suck. The heavy infantry of just about every other army is better. The biggest slap in the face is wraiths. Another annoyance is that devastator centurions in a Land Raider are now vastly superior to the old assault terminators in a land raider because they have more killing power and more range.
Changes: Drop the base cost by 5 points per model. Terminator captains and chapter masters unlock 2 terminator squads as troops. Terminator armour on HQs is cheaper and so are upgrades like thunder hammers (why do you need to pay 40 points just to upgrade your save by +1 when artificer armour only costs 20? You already have an iron halo or a rosarius!). It is ridiculous that a shield eternal, artificer armoured commander on bike (with 5 toughness and super speed) costs only 5 points more than the same chapter master in terminator armour. Command squads can be upgraded to terminator armour for 100 points (makes them the same cost as terminators but leaves open the apothecary option), Assault cannons 15 points, cyclones 20 (you might think this is too cheap, but it means you pay 55 points for an assault cannon terminator when Chaos pays 70 points for the quite balanced Obliterator who is significantly better than the current 65 point cyclone terminators - extra wound, extra attack, way more weapon options). Up to 2 heavy weapons per squad. Terminator armour can save rending wounds as normal.
The last two are critical. Terminators dying to weight of fire makes sense because eventually you would hit a critical joint. Having little shurikens go through a foot of metal does not. This would improve terminator survivability vs anti-infantry shooting substantially. The two heavy weapons would make them have killing power outside of assault, which would make them actually 'tactical'. Storm bolters are just so meh. Again, none of these changes would break anything, they would just improve internal balance.
I think these changes should be held back for the Dark Angels codex to retain the uniqueness of the Deathwing, but I want to see these changes!
3) drop the cost of land speeders by 20 points. Attack bikes are so much better than these right now but if you could get the second multi-melta for 15 points on a marginally faster body that might make these playable. Deep strike is nice but squadrons mean you need a giant hole in the board to drop into with enough melta to actually guarantee a kill.
4) A special character for Iron Hands. Why no love for these guys? They didn't even get a character in their supplement. For shame!
5) White Scars only get hit and run on bikes and jump infantry. Khan's scout ability becomes his Warlord trait.
6) Land Raiders get ceramite plating! What the fuck GW - the Storm Raven is a plane! Land Raiders shouldn't die to a single squad of deep striking dick-heads with melta. They should only die to 2 squads! Also, land raiders should be 'heavy'.
7) Please don't remove the shield eternal. Chapter Masters should be eternal warriors. If you get rid of the shield then increase the cost of masters by 30 points and give them eternal warrior.
8) Until the Eldar codex came out I thought bikes needed to be hit by the nerf bat, mostly just in terms of points or in terms of making it more expensive to get them as troops. Now I'm not so sure. I also wanted to remove special weapons from them other than flamers. Now I definitely don't want that.
9) Orbital bombardment becomes strength D.
10) Whirlwinds get a new mode: Heavy 2 str 8 AP3 krak missile salvo
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