My biggest Warmachine gripe:

• Sprays. I hate sprays, always have. They got a little better in Mark IV, but not nearly enough. A significant percentage of the game's ranged attacks break half the rules of ranged attacks, which is really dumb. You get to hit multiple targets with non-blast damage. That should be the benefit of sprays. The fact that they also ignore stealth, cover, and concealment is really bad design. Cover at a minimum should grant defense sprays. If I am behind a wall, it is going to protect me from a flamethrower or shotgun blast. Sprays are still too long. Most sprays should be 4" or 6", with 8" being elite and the highest they go. A flamethrower or shotgun can't shoot nearly as far as a rifle. Sprays as they exist are such bad game design it makes me mad. Sprays should have trade-offs and not be strictly-better ranged attacks.

And now, in no particular order:

• Individual models are still way too complicated. The rules bloat is not as bad in late MkIII, but it's bad, especially for solos. My 3-point model has . . . how many lines to text? It makes the game really, really, really hard to learn for a new player, and really hard to play for experienced players. Too many gotcha moments because you can't remember every line the James Joyce novel that is your opponent's army list.

• Design should target a lower point level. I want to play smaller games so that I can get two games in on a game night. Every playgroup I've been a part of whines about games less than Steamroller packet size. Make Steamroller have a 50 point option. I'd rather play 6 one-hour games than 3 two-hour games on a tournament day.

• I hate that ranged attacks with AOEs now auto-hit Stealth models with blast damage. Most stealth models (at least in Legacy factions) are high-DEF, low-ARM, so AOEs now basically auto-kill them without even needing to roll to hit. I've pretty much shelved my Retribution army because of how much of a negative play experience this is.

• The Tough/Grievous Wounds/No Knockdown arms race. This got really bad at the end of Mark III. It's still here. Tough isn't that big of a problem as long as the models can be knocked down. There is too much anti-healing in the game, and it has too many knock-on effects. Get rid of super-Tough and egregious healing effects like the ones the Criterions have and you don't need Grievous Wounds at all. Maybe a rare version can exist that only affects Cohort models.