Some of the house rules we used for 40K

[runequester]

This is some of the various options we tried at one point or another. Most weren't at the same time.


No parrying
In response to every character using a sword. This made a few character abilities obsolete but we ended up liking it this way.

Warhammer fantasy close combat rules
This was a very brief experiment. Just too many dice being rolled and we didn't feel it worked any better.

"Grunt wars".
No characters with more than 1 wound, no vehicles, no "heavy" infantry (terminators, wraithguard etc). This is a ton of fun.

Limitations.
We tended to play without allies, without special characters and without using the 3 Force card psychic powers. These were constants for the vast majority of our 2nd edition gaming. Though eventually we went back to using all the psychic powers and it worked fine after all.

Dual wield.
Models with two close combat weapons must split the hits between them (Not sure if we came up with that or we adapted it from Necromunda)

I will try and think of more stuff but those seem to be the major ones.
We had a lot of interpretations about what models could do what with who and when of course, but that stuff always fluctuated. I do remember we decided Banshee Masks couldn't affect Dreadnoughts and that Mega Armoured orks had the same limits as Terminators (no hiding, could fight while on fire etc)

 

[patatovitch]

Hello,

I'm a regular player of 40k2 too.

"No parrying"
In my mind, the parry is useful for enhance all the assault troops. Without the parry rules, assault troops are just a bit more efficient in close combat than other troops.
Ok, every character has this sword but character are powerful people.

"Warhammer fantasy close combat rules"
I think this point change a lot of things. Power glove became a standard. Terminator became dreadful assault troop : with CC5 and I5, every other troop take a S8 hit just before they strike.
In other hand, it is good for huge game because it is quicker.

"Grunt wars".
Just for skirmish, no ? I perfer just limit major heroes.

"Limitations"
I play without special characters since 20 years. It is a pity because for some special character overcheated, all are forbidden. A special character -and his history- may give some personnality in a army.
Allies may be accept if they are justified by the story.
3 Force card psychic power are not so powerful (and we have not too much psychic power...)

"Dual wield."
If you want. But it penalise "small" assault troops.

40k2 is no good tournament rules. Cheating is too easy ! I play usualy for tell a story and this is a good game for that.

 

[Count Von Bruno]

I'm considering dropping the "side effects" from conversion fields after hitting a Hearthguard wearing one with a heavy plasma on maximum power...the resulting 10" blinding blast affected a big mob of Orks and two Squat units and was just way too much to work out.

I have about ten or eleven 2000pt armies, and it's all pretty sensible- out of the 3 Space Wolf armies there are only two, 5 strong terminator squads and only one man is armed with an assault cannon for example.
I'm more a collector/"get one of everything" guy (the only reason I have two squads in the first place is because I had to have one with close combat weapons)...anybody who pulls something like that fabled assault cannon/cyclone launcher combo is in my humble opinion a giant cock and probably not worth playing in the first place.

I guess what I mean to say is that hopefully people would be able to restrain themselves from cheesing out instead of imposed limitations.

 

[Orjetax]

I'm considering dropping the "side effects" from conversion fields after hitting a Hearthguard wearing one with a heavy plasma on maximum power...the resulting 10" blinding blast affected a big mob of Orks and two Squat units and was just way too much to work out.

I remember that battle report!

I like the grunts rule. Just played a game mostly like this (RT not 2d Ed). We each had one or two characters with two wounds, and that was it. Vehicles under RT make it all a bit of an undertaking . . .

 

[Count Von Bruno]

It was an instant migraine!

That game also featured two psyker lords, and despite both having 3 card powers neither was able to get one off...it evened itself out really, the only success was with 1 card powers if I recall correctly.
That said, I'd hate to face a psyker lord without a psyker of my own.

I do avoid using special characters, though allow the use of their unique wargear cards...in a perfect scenario nothing gets ruled out, I guess.

As for terminators, they do seem scary but they are costly and I guarantee you that if I were to field them they would go down in turn one to a Gretchin mob's autogun fire.

 

[runequester]

The force 3 powers aren't really that big a deal, since they get to be cast so rarely. I guess back in the day we were just afraid of them


On using the Warhammer close combat, it ended up being a massive mess. The problem is either you still only allocate hits in base contact, in which case it actually is slower, or you let hits carry over, in which case heroes will stomp all over everything, like they do in current 40K.


And I like the idea of using some of the "special character" wargear cards to build your own special characters. Perfect oldhammer idea

 

[Tubehead]

Did Bolt Thrower write about Rogue Trader or 7th edition?

My beloved Bolt Thrower, forever wrapped in glory...
And by the way,

Wooorrld Eataaaaah!!

 

[ramshackle_curtis]

Rogue Trader:

No dropping grenades from jump packs

Use modern flamer template (its more fun!)

No vortex or tox grenades.

Allow player to run in the move phase, but if they run then no reserve move.

 

[Pacific]

Some quite interesting ideas here.

I was listening to the Crown of Command Podcast (worth a listen!) They were interviewing a chap about 2nd edition who had come up with a set of rules called DBaD ('don't be a d***) which can be used for tournaments.

Sounds kind of like the above, but some of the ideas included:
- No characters of more than 2 wounds (Tyranids excepted) - some biomporph limits on Tyranids
- Max lvl 2 psyker
- Exarchs must have aspect warriors of the same type in the force
- No vortex grenades, virus outbreak removed from pack.

It also had some generic things that are difficult to legislate against, but the tournament organiser would look through army lists and reject anything that broke the spirit of 'DBaD' (i.e. by being an asshat!) Some of them as an example (which really just needs some knowledge of horrendous combinations of stuff from back in the day) included not having masses of squads just under 100pts, banned mass pulsa rockets, limits on wargear combinations etc.

I think it would be a brave TO that tries to run 2nd edition, especially if you don't know the people taking part very well, but there is a fair amount of structure there to help blunt the very sharp edges at least.

 

[Tubehead]

Some quite interesting ideas here.

I suspect that many of these sort of house rules came about to limit the powermad egocentrism that teenagers can exhibit while gaming.
For example, when I was 14 (1988?) I tried to hide my whole army in a narrow strip behind a single rhino as they advanced on a mass of Orks whose strongest weapon was a heavy bolter... and meanwhile my grenade launcher marines (which I claimed were riding inside the rhino with the top doors open) were splattering his troops every turn...
I still remember my gaming buddy staring at me across the table like this: more and more intensely with each passing turn, as I whistled tunelessly and tried not to look up at him. ~♪

Of course, none of us would try to pull those shenanigans nowadays.

 

[Pacific]

Haha that sounds funny - there were definitely some silly things you could do.

My favourite example of that was when you could carry as many Orks as you like on a Battlewagon, providing you could physically fit the miniatures on the model. But, with the caveat that if they fell off the miniature, they counted as falling out of the vehicle for purposes of the rules.
One guy in a store game had 'abused' this and had his wagon setup almost like a net with Orks literally piled a foot high.
He was laughing "look at this" as he moved around the board, ready to plonk the orks down on the board.
Then - and I can remember how exactly it happened as no-one owned up to it - but he was either clumsy or someone put out a foot, but he tripped over and he, the battlewagon, and the 30-40 orks or so went flying across the store.

The worst thing was so many of the miniatures were broken they he basically just stopped playing, so no-one forced him to role for injury for each ork..

 

[Tubehead]

Yes, I used to love that rule!
That's an awful story, poor guy!

 

[symphonicpoet]

The ork/player should have stood up and said in a thick pseudo-Russian accent "In Gorka we do not abuse system. System abuse us!" And then break out the squig vodka and everyone has a better day.

 

[Pacific]

The ork/player should have stood up and said in a thick pseudo-Russian accent "In Gorka we do not abuse system. System abuse us!" And then break out the squig vodka and everyone has a better day.

Haha.. I think he may have been very close to tears.. (although I would say, in a parental tone, hopefully learnt his lesson!)