Has anyone tried allowing players to have their characters opt to go on Overwatch at will- free of Command Point charge?

No I haven't but it woud remove one of the key advantages of the Shocktruppen command pack.

It kind of makes sense since losing the character activation is bad enough but i think that making it too cheap might benefit automatic weapons over heavy and hand to hand weapons.

Think about a character that survived a h2h attack packing a good auto weapon, if you could jut put him in overwatch for free the h2h character would be screwed this way at least you need to spend a cp to do it (still worth it IMHO)

Just my opinion, but I think the game is balanced well enough the way it is. What's got you thinking to house rule overwatch anyway?

I thought it might cock it up, but I wasn't sure- thought I'd defer to experience.

Balance wasn't my concern when considering change. I assume first that any imbalance people perceive in the game is likely either a misreading (or inclarity) of the rules or they haven't figured out how to counter whatever power they believe to be inbalanced.

Overwatch just seems to me to be something people should just be able to do. It's something I could do, and I physically suck. I know this game isn't a simulation but the pay-to-overwatch thing is pretty glaring.