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Hey y'all, thought I'd collect some opinions because where I'm playing a few common houserules have been spreading in popularity, and I've had good success with them in making 8th a more tactical and interesting game to play.

what we've been commonly using is:

1) All terrain on the board uses the Statuary rule, rather than the Ruins/Barricades/Forests/Etc rule. The statuary rule essentially makes terrain more like 7th ed, and it allows you to hide behind something rather than JUST inside it. It also allows half a squad to be in cover and half a squad to be out rather than the all or nothing rules for most other stuff.

2) All games end on turn 5. This just seems to stop most games from ending in tabling turn 6-7, and puts a rush on players to complete the objectives and focus on them rather than going for tabling by default.

We did similar things in 7th (everything is a ruin, redraw the maelstrom card if its impossible, etc) and got similarly good results. Anyone have further tweaks to 8th that they enjoy?

1. Reintroduced Firing Arcs
2. Rear armour shots on a vehicle reduce the armour save by 1
3. Can spend Reinforcement Points on the contents of a drop pod (still wangling that one)
4. Every psychic power uses the +1 to required roll per attempt, and the limit of once per phase lifted
5. Post-deployment strats can be used multiple times per turn, but cost +1 CP each time after the first.

I hope you make point adjustments for the units when using firing arcs since that can make a lot of difference in how a model can operate.

As an example a model with supersonic probably won't be able to bring its nose weapon to bear 1/3 to 1/2 of the time due to only being able to make 1 90 degree turn each activation.

While we're working on a different activation system and a few other changes, the only one we currently use is that we keep vehicles on the board when destroyed, adding cover (and changing the tabletop layout).

When playing games with objectives we start with objectives all blind (we use double-sided tokens, only one side features a number) so the first turn or two means you may not know where certain objectives are until someone (either side) moves within 3".

We introduce terrain rules for each game (which, oddly is what they state in the rulebook for you to do, if you wish - so I've never understood the "terrain doesn't matter!" argument - it says to make your own rules).

We've introduced certain items as bunkers (adding +2 armour save), and we fight over a lot of acid lakes/oceans (models which spend any portion of their turn in an acid/lake ocean make an armour save or suffer a wound). Stuff like that.

Also, while not really house rules...we tend to make our own scenarios far more often than using maelstrom style cards/etc.

A simple one, but something I think really adds to the game, destroyed vehicles stay on the field and can be used to block LOS (sometimes we use smoke puffs as well)

Leo_the_Rat wrote:
I hope you make point adjustments for the units when using firing arcs since that can make a lot of difference in how a model can operate.

As an example a model with supersonic probably won't be able to bring its nose weapon to bear 1/3 to 1/2 of the time due to only being able to make 1 90 degree turn each activation.

Which had been the case for them before 8th anyway. That said the only flyers we use have hover in any case so it's never come up.

My favorite 8th edition houserules:

+1 to go first, rather than automatically going first, for the army that finishes deploying initially for all missions, rather than just the CA ones.

Essentially all of the "Terrain placement" rules we use are house rules, since they don't exist in the BRB at all. Not sure if that counts.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 malamis wrote:
1. Reintroduced Firing Arcs
2. Rear armour shots on a vehicle reduce the armour save by 1
3. Can spend Reinforcement Points on the contents of a drop pod (still wangling that one)
4. Every psychic power uses the +1 to required roll per attempt, and the limit of once per phase lifted
5. Post-deployment strats can be used multiple times per turn, but cost +1 CP each time after the first.

Do you do firing arcs and rear armour shots for things like Riptides and Exocrines and Harridans and whatnot?

I like the house rule of not whining about things and just playing the game. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth as they say, we could still be stuck with 7th, or AoS.

If I had my way of course, I would allow overwatch to hit at any range, make Fall Back not automatic, make Supersonic models unable to be targeted by weapons with 12" or less and would change the game to a D12 system while keeping the current modifier rules.

I hate house rules in general, but I love the idea of bidding on deployment times from the 1st Apoc scenario. I come from Warmachine where death clocks are the norm and I love the idea of putting a constraint on that mixed with the brinkmenship of the bidding.

Immediately discard Objective cards that can't be accomplished (kill a psyker when there never was a psyker in the game). Just like in 7th.

Other than that we'll probably introduce cover saves for models that are 50% obscured but not inside terrain, but so far we haven't tried it.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

Do you do firing arcs and rear armour shots for things like Riptides and Exocrines and Harridans and whatnot?

Yes; if the model can be assembled on a twist it gets 180 degrees fire arc, 90 degrees otherwise unless enough of the model would get in the model's own way to make it 90 degrees to the left or right.

There are a couple which have been mentioned which I make use of with mates but one of the main ones is allowing Primaris to be transported in a Land Raider but counting them as Terminators when it comes to how many slots they occupy.

 malamis wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

Do you do firing arcs and rear armour shots for things like Riptides and Exocrines and Harridans and whatnot?

Yes; if the model can be assembled on a twist it gets 180 degrees fire arc, 90 degrees otherwise unless enough of the model would get in the model's own way to make it 90 degrees to the left or right.

Okay, as long as you are consistent.

I would have been okay with that for 8th edition too.

Either go whole-hog into "Flyrants can shoot out their ass" (which is the direction they chose) or give everything firing arcs. The way they had it for damn near every edition was stupid ("haha my harridan can fire backwards but your Valkyrie can't, despite being more maneuverable").

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
Immediately discard Objective cards that can't be accomplished (kill a psyker when there never was a psyker in the game). Just like in 7th.

Other than that we'll probably introduce cover saves for models that are 50% obscured but not inside terrain, but so far we haven't tried it.

You know you can discard whenever your opponent achieves an objective, right?

Terrain rules and interactions mostly. I'd bang my terrain drum again but I think at this point its broken.

We don't play vanguard deployment.

Units take casualties according to LoS and weapon range.
Terrain and cover affect shooting on a per model basis.
No named characters without prior consent.

I like vehicle facing and sponson, firing arc rules, and would like to use them

I would also like to use templates, again.

Nothing's stopping you from using those rules you like. Go for it.

Firing Arcs return.
Being behind a vehicle gives you +1 to wound it
Forests block line of sight
Difficult terrain affecting movement

Hi all,

Has anybody tried having cover as a separate saving throws, or always saving on a 6 regardless of AP modifier? This is something I'm looking at as, in my games to date, weapons with AP are just outright better at everything as they can threaten armoured units (obviously as intended) but are also the better solution to units in cover as they basically cancel out an opponent's clever use of terrain in some cases.

I'd prefer for flamers and grenades to be the anti cover weapons again. As it stands loading up on purely AP weapons covers you against all eventualities.

Were looking to limit stratagems or maybe even remove them altogether. They add no fun at all to the game IMO, only distracts from the actual playing.

+1 for fixing cover with houserules (still working on proper wording, but something that makes units that obviously should be in cover be in cover).

Currently we are using the +1 difficulty of each attempt at Smite, but need to house-rule it so horrors work (probably will go for each SUCCESSFUL attempt increasing the difficulty)

Pistols and similar work as intended

Wound allocation a bit more flexible to avoid corner cases where you end up having to resolve all shots 1 at a time.

otherwise mostly good .... probably less houserules than most editions

Cover doesn't affect armour save but if you draw line of sight through soft terrain, it's -1 to hit. Through ruins or walls it's -2 to hit. This does mean orcs are hitting on 7s and it does make Raven Guard etc very good outside of 12"

"Cover doesn't affect armour save but if you draw line of sight through soft terrain, it's -1 to hit. Through ruins or walls it's -2 to hit."

You could try having "soft cover" grant a -1 to hit penalty, and hard cover grant a -1 to hit and a bonus to the save - the difference between concealment and cover.

Originally when they reintroduced general modifiers I thought for sure they were going to go back to penalties to-hit for things like cover (which is really what it should do unless it's a purpose built bunker). While I still think that's how it should work, I don't think I'd add it in the way the game is designed now, because there is already way too much penalty stacking for some armies.

If the game didn't have spells, chapter traits, and stratagems that impacted shooting, I'd support that - as it stands now though that's way too much of a penalty for Orcs, Guard, etc.

Soulless wrote:
Were looking to limit stratagems or maybe even remove them altogether. They add no fun at all to the game IMO, only distracts from the actual playing.

Strategems are too important, by removing them certain factions will be unplayable

Something we havent formally adopted but I am keen on:

all effects that happen on certain "to hit" rolls (such as plasma overheating) are BEFORE modifiers

(unfortunately this cannot be applied to some "to wound" rolls as they are deliberately specified as on a 7+)

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
"Cover doesn't affect armour save but if you draw line of sight through soft terrain, it's -1 to hit. Through ruins or walls it's -2 to hit."

You could try having "soft cover" grant a -1 to hit penalty, and hard cover grant a -1 to hit and a bonus to the save - the difference between concealment and cover.

That is awesome.

Cheeslord wrote:
Something we havent formally adopted but I am keen on:

all effects that happen on certain "to hit" rolls (such as plasma overheating) are BEFORE modifiers

(unfortunately this cannot be applied to some "to wound" rolls as they are deliberately specified as on a 7+)

Which is why it's a silly idea. The rules are written with the expectation modifiers happen.

Scoping Keywords to weapons to avoid the Scunthorpe Problem.