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Hello all. Hopefully this is the correct place to put this.

I got bitten by the bug, bought a bunch of minis, but now I fell out of 40K. I just can't get into it right now. I guess I just don't like the rules no more. I find it too boring to play. (I know many people love this game, just from experiences, I don't like it no more. It's my opinion, I am not saying the game sucks just I fell out of interest for it.

So I thought, maybe if I make up some house rules, it will get me start assembling, and painting my minis. This will be just for me and my son. In my basement to get us excited again for 40K. My main problem right now is, the I go, you go. I find this gets boring when it's your opponents turn. I like how in LotR it's I move, you move, I shoot, you shoot then we assault together.

I want to incorporate this into 40K. I also somehow want to do Hero Intervention just like LotR. I think this adds to the "cinematic" to the game, like GW wants. I know there will be many hiccups and trouble along the way. Then again it seems every edition of GW games has hiccups and trouble along the way anyways.

I play Tyranids, Dark Angles, son plays Necrons, and I also have a bunch of Orks and Chaos Space Marines to put together as well.

So how would I start this? Should I say every special character has one hero intervention (HI) or maybe 2 or 3 for now so everyone is on even footing? Too me Hero Intervention would mean your Ld if passing a Ld test can then move or shoot out of phase. Of the races mentioned, who would have say 1 HI, who would have 2 or even 3?

How would or should I do the movement and firing phase? Do you think move should be first, or maybe shoot first then move? How about do a move shoot together? I mean I would move a mini, move and shoot him, then my son would move and shoot then? Should Assault phase be in the end?

So far, I have, I move, you move. I shoot, you shoot, then if any units in CC will Assault in the end. I will update this part when I have great ideas.

Just try playing the game before proposing too many changes. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised at how the game plays.

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
Just try playing the game before proposing too many changes. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised at how the game plays.

I did. My problem is when I move my Tyranids, having my opponent not interested in the game, and talking to others or on his cell instead of conversation with me, sort of killed me playing with strangers or pickup games now. So I just stay home with my son. My son's attention span, let alone mine is not the greatest either, so we need to change it up a bit so we get back into the hobby. This is why we need to change and taking your advice, just a few things, to get us interested in again.

So we will start off with I move, you move, I shoot, you shoot. Only thing I can think of is, do I do it the Battletech way, of you move a unit, other person moves a unit maybe people with higher I goes first.

The only suggestion I have here is to try playing smaller games. If you want the game to move faster, running a large Ork or Tyranid army is the absolute worst way to do it; run smaller elite forces makes the whole thing more functional. Either that or try Warhammer Fantasy instead; large Fantasy games move somewhat faster than 40k games since people will usually bring a few large units rather than massive numbers of small units.

That said, I'm working on a skirmish game based on Mordheim using proper 40k miniatures instead of Necromunda gangers, if you PM me with requests for which army lists you'd like me to finish faster I can move those to the top of my priority and send along the rules if you'd like to help playtest those (it's based on some mixture of 40k, Mordheim, and Dawn of War 2, depending on the army you'll have between six and twenty models on the table at once).

Play against opponents with better attention spans.

 ImotekhTheStormlord wrote:
Play against opponents with better attention spans.

Agreed. the smartphone has done more to destroy gaming than video games.

Can we go back to when people were smart, and phones were stupid?

Note that this is not a dig at people but at phones.

Not to go too off topic, but studies have shown a general rise in IQ since the advent of computers and smartphones. It just seems like people are getting dumber because if someone does something stupid it's far easier to hear about it.

Yes, but when I commit time and energy to gaming, the least someone can do is to turn their phone off and pay attention. In our local gaming group, we had a big game and 4 teens were part of the game. They were so concerned with their phones they were constantly asking for updates on what they had missed. Eventually, we pushed them out of the narrative and by the time they realized they were gone, the game had been finished for the night.

We both move, we both shoot, we both charge, whoever closed the most distance get the benefits of the charge.
There, this may seem kind of silly but if you trust your opponent you can both be doing something at the same time.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
The only suggestion I have here is to try playing smaller games. If you want the game to move faster, running a large Ork or Tyranid army is the absolute worst way to do it; run smaller elite forces makes the whole thing more functional. Either that or try Warhammer Fantasy instead; large Fantasy games move somewhat faster than 40k games since people will usually bring a few large units rather than massive numbers of small units.

That said, I'm working on a skirmish game based on Mordheim using proper 40k miniatures instead of Necromunda gangers, if you PM me with requests for which army lists you'd like me to finish faster I can move those to the top of my priority and send along the rules if you'd like to help playtest those (it's based on some mixture of 40k, Mordheim, and Dawn of War 2, depending on the army you'll have between six and twenty models on the table at once).

I'd be keen to see this. Was going to create an update to Gorkamorka but perhaps I won't have to.

As for OP, there are other games you can play with the miniatures, such as In the Emperor's Name. Gameplay wise, NetEpic Armageddon is 40k and has alternative turns (I go with one thing, then you, then me again) but uses a different scale of model, and Infinity, which is not 40k at all, has the most interactive turn sequence I've ever seen. You can find the rules for all three games free and legal via google.

Phone gamers are the scum of the earth.

When I was a bit bored with 40k, I made a cheesy little zombie game with a friend. We pretty much made a little 500pt army and made it navigate through a zombie infested city. Zombies would spawn from manholes and buildings and whatnot. Noq that there are actual 40k zombie rules, it is a little different.

We had some special rules that would allow zombies to bog down a transport based on the AV and how many zombies were around it. Or if there were enough zombies, they could potentially damage a transport.

Check out killteams some time, it is a great way to decide on a few models to paint.

Davor wrote:


I play Tyranids, Dark Angles, son plays Necrons, and I also have a bunch of Orks and Chaos Space Marines to put together as well.

hehehe Dark Angles

i will smite thee with my protractor!!!


I kid, I kid.

have you tried Mantics warpath rules..same scale easy and simple..


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also free

And the big box game this year is (supposedly) Inquistor, which is a smaller skirmish game set in the 40K universe. Even if it still adheres to the i-go-u-go rules, you'll have far fewer models so it should be more engaging.

For your troops with protractors.

Since you're just playing with your son I say give it a go just as you suggest (I go, you go) and see how it pans out. Keep it simple and test the changes you are making on a small game, then a bigger game, and then a large game to get a feel for how it works. You might need to place markers down next to units that have moved already to avoid confusion.

After you decide if the alternating turn thing is working then look into changing other things. As far as HI go I haven't played lotr, but it sounds like it would be broken in 40k. Big expensive units are expensive because they can do so much usually and giving them options to act again or move again sounds difficult to balance. Extra moves is going to really hurt melee units trying to get into charge against you more than other units and extra shooting makes your opponent loose more units before he can react with them possibly swinging the balance of the game into who can go first. If you do implement this rule I'd charge extra points for it based on the cost of the unit getting it and I'd make it one use per game per HI.

Hmm from what it sounds like you are trying to turn the Tabletop game into Dawn of War 2.

There something that happens when I paint my figures. I create names for them, if I spend anytime painting I end up creating a back story as well. This is where I would start.

HQ's and bosses seem to be the direction you are going in. If you have space in your garage or basement. you can do an extended game. Each turn or even every phase you can build a story around, your tactics don't need to make sence, just the progression of the story.

Things to not worry about, reserve - if your army was ready for your opponent you can bring in the reserves when you both agree to. Basically making the Fluff the rule, instead of the rules.

I feel bad that you have lost interest in the game and that it seems that for you and your opponents the seems to have lost a lot of it's fun. I can say that if the group you play with agrees to anything that's how you should play. For example, Orks would never retreat, even if they were going to lose the fight, they would fight on. Grots on the otherhand, would probably flee as soon as they are shot at (even if they didn't take any losses). These are things you can add into your game.

 Happyjew wrote:
Can we go back to when people were smart, and phones were stupid?

Note that this is not a dig at people but at phones.

People were never smart. Genetically, as a species, we're morons.

I applaud you trying to think outside the box to try and reinvigorate your interest in the hobby. House rules are often a great way of eliminating a rule that your gaming group doesn't like or feels is broken. But I raise the concern will trying to rewrite the rules limit your ability to play against other people?

If your gaming "group" consists of you and your son, and you successfully invent a rule set that appeals to you and gets you interested in the game again, how successful will you be in returning to playing against other people that use the rules as they were written rather than your own homebrew set? And how hard would it be to introduce people to a rule set that hasn't had extensive play testing to check that it doesn't hamstring any of the existing factions?

Sorry to be so negative, but I see too many negatives with trying to reinvent the wheel.