I'd like to have a look at the way fleet commanders operate. Firstly I think that they're too expensive by and large. Because they're compulsory in fleets over 750 pts it's reasonably balanced between fleets, since everyone is pretty equally gimped. Of course, there's not much balance within fleets. No one bothers to spend points on them in 750 pt fleets, and people don't generally take the higher LD versions when given the choice. In really high point games people take the higher LD fleet commanders, but mainly because of the way the chain of command works. So I would like to see a general lowering of costs for the FCs in all fleets.
When it comes to re-rolls, we see a call for cheap re-rolls for fleets like Orks while having fairly expensive re-rolls for fleets like Eldar (they get 1 less than the IN do, therefore they can have less maximum and pay more for what they do get). This is somewhat absurd. High Ld fleets like SM and Eldar have less need for re-rolls, therefore they're less useful and should therefore be cheaper to purchase. Conversely they're very useful for an Ork fleet and as such they should cost more. To make re-rolls more expensive for Eldar discourages their use and therefore brings the effectiveness of their leadership down. Making re-rolls cheaper for Orks encourages their use and therefore brings the effectiveness of their leadership up. This defeats the purpose of having high or low leadership. The higher your leadership the cheaper re-rolls should be, and vice-versa.
Of course, I'm sure people will cry that Eldar, etc, don't need powering up and Orks don't need nerfing! But the fact is that high Ld fleets are made that way for a reason, as are low Ld fleets.
The major problem that I see with scaling re-roll costs inversely to fleets leadership isn't the effect it has on individual ship special order checks. Eldar and SM are supposed to execute their orders well, Orks aren't. No, the main problem I see is that it is so easy to fail a Ld check for low leadership fleets like Orks which then wrecks their chain of command. Something that I do not think should automatically happen.
So, I'd like to see the non-FC characters step up to the plate. I'm talking about Chaos Lords, Ork Warlords, IN Captains, etc. These characters should allow their ship to attempt special orders even if there have been previous failures in the chain of command. Their costs and availability to fleets should be based on how individualistic that race is. Raiding fleets and RTs would likely have more individuals than well drilled war fleets. So for Orks they might get one for free for every 500 pts, etc. The only caveat I would have is that fleet commander re-rolls shouldn't be able to be used on ships with these sorts of characters on board.
As for fleet commanders, one of the ways they demonstrate their leadership capabilities is by improving their ships ability to follow orders (generally). Another way is with fleet command re-rolls. I'd like to see another possible FC upgrade. Strategy Rating. It would be cool if the highest kind of Admiral increased your fleets SR rather than just their own ships leadership.
So fix CoC problems with CoC solutions (particularly for Orks - free warlords), scale re-rolls according to their actual worth to the fleet, reduce FC costs across the board and add an option for increasing SR to the FC.