Game 2 down, many questions and comments!

So just got done with the second game (each time I feel like I have to scrap my faction and go back to the drawing board) and had many questions and comments. Questions: -1) If my model is such an amazing spellcaster that his head explodes (exceeds the mortal threshold), does the spell still go off? -2) If a spell says "melee weapon" for range, does that mean any melee weapon or my own? Do I have to be in base contact if not my own weapon? -3) The spell "weaken" reduces the characteristic of a model (choice) by 2. Do they take the skill test to resist before or after the modifier? -4) If I have a high degree of movement do I have to take the shortest route for a charge? If I have a high move cant I just run in circles or a big U to get a +X on my CS bonus? -5) If I charge and I can wrap a squad around a unit, while still staying in coherency, and one model moved far enough to get a CS bonus, does the whole squad get that CS bonus or do I need to move the whole squad that far? -6) Fierce Intensity is 0 points in the 1st age book but shows up as 4 points in the core rules earthclan faction, so I'm guess that its actually 4 points? -7) Do wounds count as a characteristic for being able to modify with class options like wildling? -8) If wounds count as a Characteristic, what would be the opposite if I took the Abberation trait? -9) What comes first? Armored plates or Crushing attack modifiers? If I stop 2 Strength with armored plates 2 does that mean a 6 Strength crushing attack is 8 (6-2=4x2=8) or 10 (6x2=12-2=10)? -10) Omnivore Adaptations 2nd tier trait highly adaptable. When it says "from either lesser predatorial advantage or prey adaptations" does it mean 1st tier traits? Can I pick one from each? Comments: -1). Attacking a squad. My Biests have 2 attacks and I attacked a squad, finding out I had to roll model v model seems like a really slow and bad way to do it. In the game Team Yankee/flames of war you can attack a squad and then assign hits to each model individually and I'd like to see that added to try and speed up the process instead of "one model here, one model here, one model here, oh! two models here!" Especially when it comes to shooting. -2). Everything but high strength, move, and toughness seems utterly worthless. Move gets you CS bonus against melee and range attacks, strength gets you +2-4 bonus fairly easily on offence, and toughness just screws over anything with base strength. Magic doesn't seem good enough at the moment, especially how hard it is to get and how many points it can run ya, and all 1st tier magic seems* to be just utter garbage by either allowing armor or attacking a characteristic that people generally want to be high in the first place. -3) This kind of goes back to my "natural equipment seems broken" thread but advanced or specialized weapons and armor seem ungodly expensive compared to their natural counterparts. -4) Progression points. It seems really bad that if the person gets tabled they get 0 points. Sometimes you set up your faction that cant do anything with the objectives you rolled. I know when I start playing with the progression system I'm going to look at some of the objectives vs opponents army and just concede instead of playing if I know I have 0 chance of earning anything. And yes, I get tabled a LOT. My dice absolutely despise me. I only recently broke my streak of losing every game I played for 3 years running (regardless of system).