I like getting rid of encumbrance, and I think other things should be streamlined as well. This is like getting rid of hero attributes (strength, dex, ect), they are numbers which affect other numbers in ways that are never explicit. I think there is a problem with initiative, since it is is a complete mystery what the numbers mean. What formula calculates how often a unit attacks? Does twice the initiative equal twice as often as half the initiative? This would tell us how good is a plus initiative bonus and how bad is a minus initiative effect. The numbers and mechanics in the game change frequently in ways that are only documented in patch notes, where even there it is often mysterious what is going on. 

I find the dumbing down complaint odd since I don't think anyone here can explain what the removed mechanic actually did in the first place, since it was a number that affected another number that functions in an unexplained way. I think the overall effect of encumbrance was to fret over actually using weapons and armor without some offset, to get too focused in numbers that the player never understands anyway. Actually, this concern is still there, except it is more direct with one less bag of numbers to juggle. Good riddance I say.

It seems to me that every problem this game has had iteration after iteration has stemmed from too much complexity to manage, on the player's side and the developer's side. It makes sense to me that changes at this point should be to simplify, because every change seems to have a cascade problem, where every game entity (item, hero, trait, ect) needs to be updated to match the new rules. It's a slow process waiting for the cascade, and the development cycle seems to be winding down, so I am hoping they settle in on something manageable soon so future changes are just adding more juicy content (quests, features, immersion niceties, ect) and less fiddling with balance cascades.

I agree that the current system is alright, although very buggy and unfinished. It does make unit design easier and upgrading much harder for the AI to screw up. The main problems are:

-Redundant and unbalanced abilities

-Weightless shields.

-Direct initiative penalties on armor.

1-2 are easy fixes but #3 is not so easily fixed. The problem is that there are 5 pieces of armor. Thus you have to apply the penalties in multiplies of 5. 6 really because breastplates have twice the defense as the other pieces.  Right now they get around this by just not having every piece give a penalty but this is abusable because you can just use the pieces without the penalties. This is also why leather now has no penalty. For instance if you give a unit a plate breastplate, chain boots and vambraces, and leather greaves and helmet they will have just -1 initiative. This is why I suggested a hybrid system above, although I guess as oothers have suggested you could just increase base initiative to 100 or something.

If that's your logic then why not add the cost of every trait to the production of all units and let them have all the traits, and be done with it.

...because then units wouldn't be unique. A good trait is specialized and helps a unit to do a specific thing, thus differentiating units. A trait that is absolutely necessary and does nothing but tweak some stats is pointless.

I've been thinking this myself.  Armor pieces are fun in some games, but I'm starting to think they're not necessary or fun in LH.  And like you mentioned they could balance the initiative much easier with full suits, and maybe introduce a couple more armor types just for fun.  I've also been thinking that the armor proficiency traits should not be requirements, but rather give bonuses to using those kinds of armors.

Also increasing base initiative to 100 and increasing the bucket to something like 1000 would really help with balance.

Leather Armor > -3 init, 6 armor

Reinforced/Studded Leather Armor > -10 init, 13 armor

Chain Mail Armor > -20 init, 21 armor

Plate Mail (plates over chain) > -33 init, 30 armor

Full Plate Armor > -50 init, 40 armor

The reason I'm not very happy about this expansion, is that it seems more of an overhaul than an expansion.

At this stage (second official addition to the game) I would have expected flying units, item crafting and all the things we never got with Elemental or FE. Instead, we get another rules overhaul. 

Granted, heroes at least needed the overhaul, and that's good, but when do we get expanded things (if ever)?

I'd second the replacement of armor pieces with full suits for normal units.

Champs should remain as is- but I do think encumberance should come back for champs.

I think if you made the individual pieces unified as in the only thing that has encumbrance be just the main armor then it would simplify the system but not dumb it down too much.  So armor suits would have encumbrance but helms/gloves/boots would not or would be very low like 1 weight.  Weapons and shields could then be re encumbered as well such that you cold have the specific values and know if you have a light one hander you can wield a shield without a problem but with a maul it might be a lot harder.  Personally I like the idea of trained units having armor proficiences as well that increase their encumbrance levels appropriately but cost proportionally higher training costs.  Heavy armor training costs twice what medium armor does but gives 30 or 40 additional Weight and then make the base training time something like 40.  That and add in specific negatives for heavy armor so not everyone is wearing it.  You should not have a high dodge unit wearing plate armor that unbalances the game as high dodge should not have high armor as well.  You need to have to choose your defensive type whether it be resistance, dodge, or defense.  Having high values in each homogenizes your units.

The game lost some "deepness" with encumbrance gone.

- In the unit design section i always pick all pieces of the best armor. Why not? there is no encumbrance...

- before i had to think over which piece of the armore should i use.

- weapons are the other problems. My mages walking with huge maces and still got +4-5 init

I cant understand, why change sometingh that fits and working, while there are nuch worse things in the game that needs an overhaul...

I am getting the same feeling too. Probably none of those changes are bad by themselves, but too many of them together give the feeling of an overhauled game rather than an expanded game. We want the game to be better, not just different. 

So far those game mechanics have been changed (that I remember):

- Cities growth have changed from sovereign's prestige based to cities' food based. That change works, but perhaps it could have been made as an addition instead of a replace. Keep the Sovereign based growth as it was and then add the food's bonus. 

- influence has been replaced by Fame. Ok, I agree that was needed. But even in this case perhaps it could still be called Influence instead of renaming it and use Influence to recruit heroes. 

- Trained units maximum reduced from 7 to 6. 

- Heroes recruiting system changed. 

- XP reward system changed (or at least tuned)

- Heroes level up system changed. Again, that is positive, but the tree could have been introduced without removing the fun of random choices each time a hero levels up. 

The only thing that looks like a real addition is the unrest penalty based on cities, as it is not replacing anything. 

Yes, there are also many new monsters and the two factions, but they don't need half the game changed in order to de added. 

I am not against overhauls either, but I do believe an expansion is about adding things not about changing existing ones. At least mainly.

i feel with you, some of these changes were already argued during the FE beta and these change feel more like a overhaul than a true expansion. i wasn't sure at first to buy the "expansion" because i personally feld that these things were more of a refinement than an expansion. i bought the expansion nonetheless  because i hope for some more features to come in this "expansion", but if they continue to offer such improvements for such a price and naming it "expansion" then i doubt i will purchase further installations.

one gripe i still have is with the warfare research tree and the overall units. i want to see more meaningful additions to the research tree and not wanting to wait until mid or late game to research swords, axes, etc. ..... they feel like research filler or necessary things to do because otherwise you don't have much options regarding weapons and armor. but i feels silly to be waiting for the late game to have chainmail and some decent weapons. why do we have to research simple swords and some decent armor?! and seeing the turn duration for these research tree is disappointing.

furthermore i had hoped that they improve the game with more traits like age of wonders or / and add some more mysthical units to train with special abilities. after all this is a fantasy 4x game and sometimes it feels just more like a reguar 4x / civ-game (unit-wise!!!).