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So it turns out 8th is made up of what amounts to a bunch of modular rules. They are grouped together in each set of advanced rules and into a set for matched play. But I have seen a lot of people say there are parts of these rules they do not like (Psychic focus doesn't scale at all with the size of the game as an example). So I was curious what people have been actually playing so far or if you know what direction you and your group seem to be going in.

Here is what we are going to be using including a couple little house rules. Because it's not strictly matched it actually falls under Open.

Points vs Power

We use both. If its just quick list building or we want to experiment with a bunch of wargear options without the nit picking points we will go with power. But mostly we have been sticking with points.

Missions

We are making use of every mission. Narrative, matched, whatever. Play what looks fun.

Matched And Advanced Rules In Effect At All Times

-Army Faction and Battleforged Army Construction with Army Roster
-Reinforcement Points
-Strategic Discipline
-Tactical Reserves (unless a specific mission would require otherwise)
-HOUSE RULE: We do not use Psychic Focus, but we do specify that psychic powers do not stack with themselves (I.E. I could not cast The Horror (-1 to hit and ld) on the same unit multiple times for a cumulative effect. I can still cast The Horror multiple times each time targeting a different unit).
-Battlefield Terrain
-City Ruins
-HOUSE RULE: We extend the behind terrain/50% obscured to other terrain that are at least 3" tall. We mostly don't have other types of terrain, but it has been agreed that if we had some woods (we assume the trees would be at least 3" above the table) than infantry would have cover if you have to shoot through the woods and other models would get it if 50% obscured.
-Height Advantage
-Fire In The Hole
-Leaving Combat Airspace
-HOUSE RULE: We use 7th ed targeting in that wings, tails, banners, antenna, and other decorative portrudeing elements cannot be used to draw LOS (You cannot aim from them and you cannot target them). Like 7th says, you shouldn't be penalized for putting your models in fun and epic positions. Neat decorative elements shouldn't impact the game play. So they don't.

This gets us the level of complexity we enjoy without any of the slight BS in some of 8ths rules so far.

We are also testing out alternating unit activations instead of IGOUGO. But that is a whole other thing that is unlikely to be widespread.

So how is everyone else playing so far?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot another house rule!

HOUSE RULE: Rerolls: If a rule allows for a reroll on a specific value "Reroll rolls of 1 to hit" you reroll before modifiers or in other words on a natural roll of 1. If a rule allows for a reroll on a broad trigger "Reroll misses to hit" you reroll after modifiers are applied.

I like the house rule for rerolls. May do the same thing. The existing rule is way too counter-intuitive (read; "stupid") IMO, especially with negative modifiers. "Okay, I need 3s to hit, wait, no, I need 4s? WTFF???

Yeah, Their reroll ruling is terrible. This makes way more sense. How about the other advanced rules though? Have you tried any of them out?

The City Ruins, Height Advantage, and Fire In The Hole can make for some real interesting game play with the strength of infantry in cover but also the damage grenades can do to get them out.

We play with stock RAW, matched play, points.

With 2 exceptions;

"Your Plasma Overcharge only removes you on a natural roll of 1."

(it makes no sense to us how you can roll a 3, but because the Ghostkeel is hard to hit and gives you a -2 your gun spazzes out and explodes.)

Outside of that, we have been following the modifier rules, just Overcharge Plasma explosions get ruled out.

and

"Decorative elements do not count towards Line of Sight, unless the decorative element also follows a wargear rule".

Example, a demon prince footslogging because you didn't take "Wings" can't have LoS drawn from the wings. If you did pay for "Wings" then those wings are shootable like any other active wargear.

We pretty much play stock except as follows:

In games using Tactical Objectives, you may freely discard and re-draw any completely impossible cards. Merely difficult, inconvenient or almost impossible, spend your 2CP.

Decorative elements generally don't count for LOS unless they have a mechanical effect (exactly as Clay_Puppington said above).

Plasma overcharge and other "on a 1 to hit" effects trigger only on a natural 1. Likewise, any "on a 6" effects trigger only on a natural 6, unless the rule explicitly and specifically says otherwise.

Clay_Puppington wrote:


(it makes no sense to us how you can roll a 3, but because the Ghostkeel is hard to hit and gives you a -2 your gun spazzes out and explodes.)

Yeah thats the big downside of this bespoke stuff that doesn't have any real concept tied to it. The FW sicaran in 7th ignored jink, but not normal cover, in 8th it ignores the ghostkeels ability but it highlights the problem of moving away from usr's.

I do like a lot of the "expansion" rules, like leaving combat airspace. However, I am going to try the reroll rules as they are, at least for a while. The problem with changing them is that they mess with the balance of all of the modifiers and rerolls. I know they are weird but I will at least give them a few months. Also, I play mostly pick up games so it is far easier to convince people to use the expansion rules than change fundamental mechanics.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, you can easily imagine how a harder to hit enemy would overheat a plasma gun. The operator is in a panic and pushing the gun too hard in order to stop the horrible death mech. It's not like every dice is supposed to be 1 shot all of the time, or a heavy bolter would be a poor machine gun.

We made a terrain called Heavy Forest. Works like Woods but if you are on the other side it blocks LOS.

Try going outside sometime and targeting in an open field on the other side of a Thicket. YOU CANT. Now if you have a few trees here and there, then sure you can target in the field behind it. So there is different types of Overbrush for sure!

LOS is the most important board game mechanic this edition and the more you have the greater the game.

Yeah I am wiling to say it's fair that anything that happens on a flat value (1, 6, 12) happens before modifiers on a natural dice roll. Anything with a range (3+, 6+) does not. Seems the most intuitive and fair.

Also, I cannot stress enough what a difference the advanced terrain rules make. You don't have to pile 30 boys into terrain to get cover. You just have to be behind it.

Height Advantage is great. Bunkering down in terrain without moving can be strong, but grenades to blow them out of the building is also real cool.

Terrain rules are very simplistic in the base game (duh) and it means mostly just los blocking terrain has any effect. But these advanced rules make a varied dense table very tactically interesting.

Adopted 90% of your House rules (expect for leaving Airspace) and the game works extremely well

 Lance845 wrote:
Yeah, Their reroll ruling is terrible. This makes way more sense. How about the other advanced rules though? Have you tried any of them out?

I have only had the opportunity to play one game so far (last weekend). Real life and stuff getting in the way and all :-). I might try them out if I get a chance.

 Trickstick wrote:
However, I am going to try the reroll rules as they are, at least for a while. The problem with changing them is that they mess with the balance of all of the modifiers and rerolls. I know they are weird but I will at least give them a few months. Also, I play mostly pick up games so it is far easier to convince people to use the expansion rules than change fundamental mechanics.

Not even going to bother if I have a choice. The reroll ruling is just so dumb and counter-intuitive that I have no interest in wasting time with it. Fairly certain my gaming group will likely agree since none of us play competitively and have to worry about remembering to use the "official" nonsense.

I avoid stock RAW as much as possible.

Terrain will likely getting more detailed in the houserules I use.

Got in another game today. Tau VS Chaos Marines. Games was a blast the rules selection in the OP are still functioning great. Everything works real smooth while providing a lot of nuance with the terrain rules.