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How would you feel if 40k had something like AoS Realms, without the large amounts of rules tho.

Each battlescape would have 1 or 2 core rules added, tho small and a stratagem.

Cities Battlescape:
All non-fly vehicles gain +" movement when not moving in or over terrain
Stratagem Going to ground: pick and infantry unit in cover and that did not move in the movement phase, they get +1 to their saves, this is cumulative with cover and is not treat as a cover save.

Frozen land Battlescape:
Any units that does not have the vehicle keyword or is not in a transport moves 1" less in the movement phase
Stratagem Snowblind: Any non-fly unit when targeted in the shooting phase has -1 to be hit for the rest of that phase.

ETC....

There would be 6, roll a D6 when you pick deployment size.

If the game had decent terrain rules, just setting the board up differently would suffice.

Traditionally, 40K's battlezone rules have been... not great.

Those were FW rules too. But b.c it was something close to it and bad n the past doesn't mean it can't be flavorful and fine in the future.

Also you had to have the terrain for it , this would not require terrain at all and effects the full table.

I've never seen anyone actually use the AoS Realms. They seem to require players to use extra rules and work out how the extra rules are going to interact with their army/strategy without actually changing anything in the end, they're unnecessary bloat.

40k actually already kind of has this. It's in the main 8e rulebook. There's the night fighting one and... the other ones that I don't think I ever actually got around to using. A couple of the Phoenix Rising books have something similar too.

I'd love to see more, but I'm also wary of making the effects too crazy for the sake of pickup match play games. Like, iirc the Saga of the Beast has "dense forest" rules that basically shut down shooting unless the target shoots at you first. But a simple set of rules for various battlefields would be cool. Basically something like an Open War twist card with a stratagem attached.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
I've never seen anyone actually use the AoS Realms. They seem to require players to use extra rules and work out how the extra rules are going to interact with their army/strategy without actually changing anything in the end, they're unnecessary bloat.

Every major event does and every local i've ever seen has.

It does add to the game, but mostly b.c you get another command ability and more spells (7 more spells). Also you get new relics that are build changing at times. The actual battle changes can greatly change how you play, some are not so strong but they do change the game and gives you more tools.

They honestly are not bad and are fun to play.

I'm not really fussed with them either way but I think that you should be able to choose a battlescape rather than roll if the other person agrees. Too much random becomes randumb.

pm713 wrote:
I'm not really fussed with them either way but I think that you should be able to choose a battlescape rather than roll if the other person agrees. Too much random becomes randumb.

That is fully fine too IMO, and if you and your opponent wants to roll off, thats fine too.

The 6th edition core rulebook had a Warzone Traits table which I think my group used in most of our games. Or maybe it was so bad that I just remember using it once or twice because it had a big impact on the game some way.

Roll 2d6 and apply the appropriate effect:

2. CORROSIVE ATMOSPHERE
Re-roll saving throws of 6.

3. HIGH GRAVITY
Reduce the range of all ranged weapons by 6" to a minimum of 12". Reduce the minimum and maximum Movement characteristic of all models with the FLY keyword by 3".

4. TOXIC MIST
Add 1 to wound rolls for all Melee attacks against units without the VEHICLE keyword.

5. WARP WINDS
Perils of the Warp occur on a roll of any double, not just 1s and 6s.

6. SUB-ZERO
Subtract 1 from all Charge rolls. Weapons with both a normal and an additional profile that has a chance of causing damage to the firing model may only fire the normal profile.

7. PALL OF NIGHT
All units gain the benefit of cover against shooting attacks made by models that are more than 12" away from the unit when targets are declared.

8. RADIOACTIVE HOT ZONE
Weapons with both a normal and an additional profile that has a chance of causing damage to the firing model may only fire the profile with a chance of causing damage to the firing model.

9. LOW GRAVITY
Increase the maximum range of all ranged weapons with a range of 13+" by 6". Increase the minimum and maximum Movement characteristic of all models with the FLY keyword by 3".

10. PSYCHIC DEAD ZONE
When rolling to manifest a psychic power that would normally require you to roll 2d6 instead roll 1d10.

11. HAUNTED WASTES
Subtract 1 from the Leadership characteristic of all models.

12. LIFEBLOOM SPORES
Models are not destroyed or removed from the game when they reach 0 wounds.

 vict0988 wrote:
The 6th edition core rulebook had a Warzone Traits table which I think my group used in most of our games. Or maybe it was so bad that I just remember using it once or twice because it had a big impact on the game some way.

Roll 2d6 and apply the appropriate effect:

2. CORROSIVE ATMOSPHERE
Re-roll saving throws of 6.

3. HIGH GRAVITY
Reduce the range of all ranged weapons by 6" to a minimum of 12". Reduce the minimum and maximum Movement characteristic of all models with the FLY keyword by 3".

4. TOXIC MIST
Add 1 to wound rolls for all Melee attacks against units without the VEHICLE keyword.

5. WARP WINDS
Perils of the Warp occur on a roll of any double, not just 1s and 6s.

6. SUB-ZERO
Subtract 1 from all Charge rolls. Weapons with both a normal and an additional profile that has a chance of causing damage to the firing model may only fire the normal profile.

7. PALL OF NIGHT
All units gain the benefit of cover against shooting attacks made by models that are more than 12" away from the unit when targets are declared.

8. RADIOACTIVE HOT ZONE
Weapons with both a normal and an additional profile that has a chance of causing damage to the firing model may only fire the profile with a chance of causing damage to the firing model.

9. LOW GRAVITY
Increase the maximum range of all ranged weapons with a range of 13+" by 6". Increase the minimum and maximum Movement characteristic of all models with the FLY keyword by 3".

10. PSYCHIC DEAD ZONE
When rolling to manifest a psychic power that would normally require you to roll 2d6 instead roll 1d10.

11. HAUNTED WASTES
Subtract 1 from the Leadership characteristic of all models.

12. LIFEBLOOM SPORES
Models are not destroyed or removed from the game when they reach 0 wounds.

I like these! Except maybe Lifebloom Spores. Not removing casualties seems likely to have some wonky impact on the core gameplay. Maybe place a marker when the last wound is removed from a non-vehicle unit, and have units that end the game round near a marker take wounds or something? The idea being that some violent xenoflora has grown up out of the gore of the dead bodies?

How would Lifebloom work? Do people just... Not die?

 JNAProductions wrote:
How would Lifebloom work? Do people just... Not die?

Yes, it was a joke. The original from 6th was 6+ FNP but I dislike FNP and I think I came up with something novel at least. If I was going to try something out once in a lifetime I'd rather do my version than 6+ FNP. I'm not sure what a good version would be, probably all your non-vehicle models heal 1 wound at the start of your turn. That would counter-act the anti-melee toughness that doesn't hit vehicles.

 vict0988 wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
How would Lifebloom work? Do people just... Not die?

Yes, it was a joke. The original from 6th was 6+ FNP but I dislike FNP and I think I came up with something novel at least. If I was going to try something out once in a lifetime I'd rather do my version than 6+ FNP. I'm not sure what a good version would be, probably all your non-vehicle models heal 1 wound at the start of your turn. That would counter-act the anti-melee toughness that doesn't hit vehicles.

The rules for Maiden Worlds in Blood of the Phoenix do something along those lines iirc.

Wyldhunt wrote:

 vict0988 wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
How would Lifebloom work? Do people just... Not die?

Yes, it was a joke. The original from 6th was 6+ FNP but I dislike FNP and I think I came up with something novel at least. If I was going to try something out once in a lifetime I'd rather do my version than 6+ FNP. I'm not sure what a good version would be, probably all your non-vehicle models heal 1 wound at the start of your turn. That would counter-act the anti-melee toughness that doesn't hit vehicles.

The rules for Maiden Worlds in Blood of the Phoenix do something along those lines iirc.

Vigour of the World Spirit: At the end of your Movement phase, you can roll one D6 for each non-VEHICLE unit from your army that is on the battlefield. On a 6+ you can select one model in that unit to regain 1 lost wound. If there is not a model in that unit that has lost any wounds, but any models from that unit have been destroyed, roll one D6; on a 4+ you can return one of those models to the battlefield with 1 wound remaining, placing it in unit coherency (if the model cannot be placed in this way, it is not returned to the battlefield).

See this is almost as bad as FNP in terms of dragging the game out, rolling 1-2 dice for every damage non-VEHICLE unit every turn is too much and simultaneously too little, it's rolling dice for no real effect. Resurrecting models is also a chore if you want to pack your models away instead of keeping them in a corner of the battlefield in a dead pile. I haven't read these battlezones, I'm convinced GW battle zones are universally badly designed and that not an ounce of thought was put into how these games would actually play out. Like the one where you roll on a terrain table and there's a 1/6 chance for every table quarter that it's empty, that's not conclusive to a fun game of 40k and to top it off you get hurt for standing in that sixth of the table. There's also a second part of the maiden battlezone.

Unspoiled Paradise: When a VEHICLE model explodes, if there are any AELDARI CHARACTER models on the battlefield, randomly determine one of them and roll one D6, adding 1 if that VEHICLE model has the AELDARI keyword. If that VEHICLE model is an AELDARI BUILDING, add 2 to the roll instead. On a 5+ that CHARACTER model is driven into a rage by the destruction visited upon the maiden world; add 1 to its Strength and Attacks characteristics until the end of the battle.

With this much text, I feel like it's clearly crossing OP's threshold of "without the large amount of rules", at least it's crossing mine. KISS goddammit.

For the Vigour part I'd just use heal all non-VEHICLE models 1 wound and for the Paradise part I'd add a 1CP Stratagem used once per battle per CHARACTER when a VEHICLE is destroyed within 6" of a Craftworld or Harlequin CHARACTER (because why would Drukhari be mad about a Maiden World getting despoiled?) to add 1 to their Attacks characteristic, 2 if the VEHICLE dealt damage to the character after being destroyed, 3 if the VEHICLE was an AELDARI BUILDING.