Battle formations and interactable terrain!?

An earlier topic I read gave me this idea, would love to hear some feedback, good and bad and why you think so. But as we all know, ranged units are kinda...well...sucky at the moment. Even well geared I'd rather have a slightly geared light infantry unit in my ranks then a group of archers or artillery. Simply put, they don't do enough damage and artillery is to cumbersome and slow/inaccurate when it does fire to really bring much to the field. Personally I think a buff is needed for both, but on top of that to bring more strategy and fun to the game, allowing units to perform semi-complex/complex formations inside their said group. Staggered columns, line formations, V-shapes, that sort of thing to help dissipate ranged attacks or flank an enemy easier when done right. To build from their, why not allow units to go through tree's (ya ya they do this already but it's a glitch!), climb rocky cliffs, or even ford through a stream? Tactically it puts you at an advantage if you use it right, if your opponent is smart though they can turn it against you as well. This I think would add a whole new echelon to the game, it would add layers to strategy and build the co-op experience for better or worse.

Anyone who's played any RTS knows that group combination/composition is key, but what most games fail to implement is a good formation strategy. The best I've seen so far would be in reference to certain games ending with "Craft" in their title. Every formation has a purpose and advantage, take for instance a line formation...great for attacking in one head on direction, but very weak to flanks from behind or sideways. Obviously the others would have their advantages and disadvantages but I really don't want to cover every single style I know...it'd be a damned essay at that point. Regardless certain formations would provide a strategic advantage via defense or offense capabilities when outflanking the opponent. These could/should include bonuses and even detriments to say movement at the cost of endurance while in said formation.

With this in mind, hotkeys would be vital to change a units formation on the fly, otherwise it'd be to clunky and nobody would like it. I could go on more with the idea's I have on this portion but I'd like to hear others viewpoints as well, and I'm sure the dev's would appreciate it to if it's something they'd be interested in working on.

Now with terrain, this would be the toughest part to implement but I'll start with the basics I think would be necessary for it to work. First off we all know our units love to go "Fishing/swimming" in the lakes, taking a nice stroll through the forest , and even climbing on top of rooftops for a nice change of scenery! How cool would it be if you could place your archers on top of said houses on purpose and increase their range/defense? Or in the case of dwarves, make them take their "weekly bath" early so they could aid an ally that might have been cut off and needs a hand? What would the elves think when a horde of demons and orcs came crashing through a forest and their front row is off peeking around the corner in wait. These are the things I'm sure everyone would love to see and be able to use to their advantage! Obviously it would take some unit animation structure if you want to go all the way, but it would add a new creative level to play with for both devs and gamers.

Gonna throw a few idea's to play around with, the more participation will only make this better. If you like something say so if you don't, explain why or offer a different solution. Saying you don't like something before disappearing doesn't offer any new insight.

Forests: While inside, slightly slow units crossing/inside but give a big upgrade defensively to missile attacks and artillery fire. Negatives could consist of lesser defense towards melee or a endurance debuff while inside since it'd be a more rugged terrain to navigate then flat plainsland.

Bodies of water: Slow movement by 35%, increase damage taken by archers attacks, but decrease slightly from artillery, decrease melee/str damage of units inside (units close to shore would be unaffected but having a deep water debuff when they stray to far in). Or another possibility is give both ranged and artillery damage reduction but make it so heavy infantry, cav, artillery cannot "swim" across and gotta go the long way. If in the 2nd option make it so units can only stay put in the water for "X" amount of time before drowning to prevent a player who has lost from dragging out the battle in the proverbial "Dick Move". (Maybe added animations eventually could also lighten up the game...like with UD, their bodies would just float across like drowned sailors)

Housing: Adds a Range/defensive bonus to archer units on top, melee units would gain defensive bonus and be bunkered inside. Takes heavy damage from artillery, possibly allow artillery or "special" units outside to destroy the house killing most/all units inside or forcing them out. Also a wait period to fully bunker/mount the rooftops for units would be needed. (For some reason seeing dwarves erecting a ladder to get up on the roof just seems hilarious to me!)

Cliffside/highground: this would be tough to do and visualize but give an bonus to str/melee and slight range/missile increase to the units on "high ground".

These are a few of my thoughts on the matter, love em or hate em, just add something constructive is all I ask!

Great ideas, I don't like to read nor write long posts, but going to help this discussion

Formations: I want to bring the Total War series to the table. Most units can switch their formations to Spread (reduces AoE/chance of hit of ranged units), and some have other formations like cavalry's Wedge, (increasing the penetration in the enemies lines but reducing their defensive and longer-fight power, very good when charging enemies). Since here we are talking about less units (20 instead of 200), the Line and Column formations come to mind, with Line offering more power but less defense (more area of fighting, maybe even 20x1 instead of 4x5, more vulnerables to charge with cavalry or assault units) and the Column the opposite (less are of fighting, usually 1v1, easier to flank) (in Total War the amount of units in each rank/column is more micromanaged).

Terrain: I always thought archers could hit harder from high ground, but that doesn't happen in this game (only figured it out when noticed the archers can't hit through cliffs). Again talking about Total War (my area of knowledge, I guess haha): Forests reduces movement speed and melee combat, especially cavalry, penalty to enemies' LoS and accuracy, and provides great cover (stealth actions), Shallow Water reduces movement speed and are units crossing it are easier charged and shoot'ed. There are other terrain interactions, like Scrub, Inside Fortress and such, that aren't present in this game yet.

I had similar ideal made my own topics about them, and I think these will make a huge difference in gameplay.
Also though I think there should be different map types(most of them covered in one of my topics) and the mentioning of total war and stream had me thinking of maps split in two by river with one or more bridges and the river being only crossable by certain 'light units".