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I've been running 40k apocalypse games for a little while now and have come up with some custom rules to try and improve the apocalypse experience for my group. I'd like some feedback on what I have so far. Let me know what you think about the following, whether I'm missing something or if I'm way out of line, really any feedback is appreciated. Also, if youve personally used something that seemed to help I'd love to hear it. Keep in mind that the meta I play in is very titan/super heavy/gargantuan heavy. Thanks?

-Custom Apocalypse Game Rules-

1. Every 6 hull points or wounds of a Super-heavy vehicle/Gargantuan Creature model included in an army list must be accompanied by 10 infantry models. Example: If a player brings an 18 hull point Reaver Battle Titan and a 6 hull point Imperial Knight(24 hull points total), that player is also required to bring 40 infantry models in his/her list. Round hull points/wounds to the nearest 6 (9 hull points=20 infantry required).

2. All model in an army must be painted to a 3 color minimum and include basing.

3. Seize the initiative rolls cannot be modified or re rolled

4. Formations/detachments outside of the Apocalypse book cannot be taken, armies may be unbound or brought as a CAD.

5. The special rule below is given to titan models of the players whose team goes second in each game turn.

“Titan’s Last Stand” Special Rule – When the titan loses its last hull point resolve its titanic explosion as usual, but do not remove it from play until the end of the current opposing player turn. The titan may make one last shooting attack with all the weapons it has equipped. It is immediately removed after this final shooting attack is resolved. Models that use the “Titan’s Last Stand rule” cannot return to the battlefield under any circumstance later in the game.

 ShadowofVulcan wrote:
-Custom Apocalypse Game Rules-

1. Every 6 hull points or wounds of a Super-heavy vehicle/Gargantuan Creature model included in an army list must be accompanied by 10 infantry models. Example: If a player brings an 18 hull point Reaver Battle Titan and a 6 hull point Imperial Knight(24 hull points total), that player is also required to bring 40 infantry models in his/her list. Round hull points/wounds to the nearest 6 (9 hull points=20 infantry required).

Okay, I get why you want this, preventing people from just stocking up on titans. But why 10 per 6 HP? That seems so random and low. Why not just 10 for each SP/3HP? Or 1 unit of infantry for every SP/3 HP? Straightforward and does what you want.

2. All model in an army must be painted to a 3 color minimum and include basing.

Agreed. Apoc is supposed to be a beautiful display of all things 40k. However, you may get complaints. If you need to make a compromise, consider allowing unpainted models but they have an extra 50% points tax on them. That way if someone just finished a model that you really want to play they could, but it would discourage large-scale usage.

3. Seize the initiative rolls cannot be modified or re rolled

I'm pretty sure this is in the current apoc rules.

4. Formations/detachments outside of the Apocalypse book cannot be taken, armies may be unbound or brought as a CAD.

This is the only one that does not make sense to me. Why limit formations? Apocalypse is about running anything and everything. it doesn't make sense to limit regular formations, unless you are trying to avoid a specific detachment. Which if that's the case, just ban that to let others bring the formations they want. I would say either run all formations (apoc and regular) or none. it's the only way to be fair.

5. The special rule below is given to titan models of the players whose team goes second in each game turn.

“Titan’s Last Stand” Special Rule – When the titan loses its last hull point resolve its titanic explosion as usual, but do not remove it from play until the end of the current opposing player turn. The titan may make one last shooting attack with all the weapons it has equipped. It is immediately removed after this final shooting attack is resolved. Models that use the “Titan’s Last Stand rule” cannot return to the battlefield under any circumstance later in the game.

I like this. Helps mitigate some of the alpha strike. Hopefully players agree. Though I'm sure both sides would be interested considering they have an equal chance of going last.

 ShadowofVulcan wrote:
1. Every 6 hull points or wounds of a Super-heavy vehicle/Gargantuan Creature model included in an army list must be accompanied by 10 infantry models. Example: If a player brings an 18 hull point Reaver Battle Titan and a 6 hull point Imperial Knight(24 hull points total), that player is also required to bring 40 infantry models in his/her list. Round hull points/wounds to the nearest 6 (9 hull points=20 infantry required).

Absolutely not. If anything, the opposite rule should be in effect: every 10 infantry models must be accompanied by at least 6 HP/wounds of LoW-class units. Infantry are the worst thing you can bring in Apocalypse, they slow the game down to a painful slog and rarely contribute anything of value. Bringing a few infantry units to camp objectives or act as meatshields around critical units is ok, but you really shouldn't be encouraging people to bring lots of them.

2. All model in an army must be painted to a 3 color minimum and include basing.

Agreed. And I'd also enforce a rule that all models must be the official GW model, or a scratchbuild/conversion that meets or exceeds the level of detail of the original model. No cardboard titans/walmart toys with 40k guns glued on/etc. Either bring something that looks nice or don't bother coming.

4. Formations/detachments outside of the Apocalypse book cannot be taken, armies may be unbound or brought as a CAD.

This doesn't make much sense. Apocalypse is full of so much broken stuff already, what formations are you so worried about?

ShadowofVulcan wrote:1. Every 6 hull points or wounds of a Super-heavy vehicle/Gargantuan Creature model included in an army list must be accompanied by 10 infantry models. Example: If a player brings an 18 hull point Reaver Battle Titan and a 6 hull point Imperial Knight(24 hull points total), that player is also required to bring 40 infantry models in his/her list. Round hull points/wounds to the nearest 6 (9 hull points=20 infantry required).

I agree with what Freytag93 said on this.

ShadowofVulcan wrote:2. All model in an army must be painted to a 3 color minimum and include basing.

This is really dependent on the group you play with and the circumstances in which you play. For example -- If I were to play an Apoc game with 3 of my close friends who play 40K, there is now way we'd force this rule on ourselves. But if I were to go into a competitive scene and play and Apoc game there, then it would make sense to have this rule enforced.

ShadowofVulcan wrote:3. Seize the initiative rolls cannot be modified or re rolled

I sort of get it, but if it isn't in the rules for Apoc already, I'm not sure why you'd try to enforce this.

ShadowofVulcan wrote:4. Formations/detachments outside of the Apocalypse book cannot be taken, armies may be unbound or brought as a CAD.

This is something I disagree with. As far as I can determine, there is no logical reason to enforce this.

ShadowofVulcan wrote:5. The special rule below is given to titan models of the players whose team goes second in each game turn.

“Titan’s Last Stand” Special Rule – When the titan loses its last hull point resolve its titanic explosion as usual, but do not remove it from play until the end of the current opposing player turn. The titan may make one last shooting attack with all the weapons it has equipped. It is immediately removed after this final shooting attack is resolved. Models that use the “Titan’s Last Stand rule” cannot return to the battlefield under any circumstance later in the game.

Though I understand why this could be a good thing and I (mostly) agree with what Frewtag93 said on this point, this is starting to mess with the fundamental mechanics of who the game turn is supposed to work. By this token, I'm not entirely convinced this is a good thing.

Peregrine wrote:

 ShadowofVulcan wrote:
1. Every 6 hull points or wounds of a Super-heavy vehicle/Gargantuan Creature model included in an army list must be accompanied by 10 infantry models. Example: If a player brings an 18 hull point Reaver Battle Titan and a 6 hull point Imperial Knight(24 hull points total), that player is also required to bring 40 infantry models in his/her list. Round hull points/wounds to the nearest 6 (9 hull points=20 infantry required).

Absolutely not. If anything, the opposite rule should be in effect: every 10 infantry models must be accompanied by at least 6 HP/wounds of LoW-class units. Infantry are the worst thing you can bring in Apocalypse, they slow the game down to a painful slog and rarely contribute anything of value. Bringing a few infantry units to camp objectives or act as meatshields around critical units is ok, but you really shouldn't be encouraging people to bring lots of them.

When you're playing an Apoc game, it's going to take time. I reckon having a lot of infantry models isn't such an issue.

 IllumiNini wrote:
When you're playing an Apoc game, it's going to take time. I reckon having a lot of infantry models isn't such an issue.

The fact that Apocalypse takes time no matter what you do is why having lots of infantry is bad. Keeping your model and dice counts to reasonable levels is the difference between playing an all-day game to a natural conclusion and spending the whole day slogging through a single turn before giving up. And of course if you're using timed turns, as you should be in Apocalypse, infantry-heavy forces are almost guaranteed to run out of time before they can use all of their models. So why put stuff on the table if it's just going to sit there being useless until a stray shot from a titan removes the whole unit?

Honestly, seize the initiative shouldn't be in Apocalypse at all. I'm not a fan of it in regular 40k, but it kind of makes sense there. In Apocalypse, though, you already have built-in balancing systems for who goes first - Not to mention that losing first turn can be far, far more devastating in an Apocalypse game. When you had less time to deploy and a big disadvantage on board placement, you don't also need the extra kick in the teeth of losing first turn.