House Rule Thread

[17pdr Serenity]

So, I thought that it would be fun to make a thread for everyone's house rules. What sort of tweaks do people make for their games? Why did you make them, and how do they affect your games?

I'll start with a couple rules my group has. These came from a bit of a discussion on how to make cool models (namely, on-board artillery) a bit more useful, as well as frustration after a couple games where our tanks just ran out of ammunition, leading to some very inconclusive results.


Rule Mod 1: Tank and Artillery units no longer count as a "core" unit, and count against the support choices allowed by Infantry and HQ choices. Tank platoons count as 3 choices. Tank and Artillery units now don't add more support choices either, simply allowing on slot to be spent on logistics/Additional Fire support instead of the usual option.

This rule is intended to counter-act the buffs we are giving to tanks and artillery units, and also have the effect of making a-historical list building much trickier.


Rule Mod 2: Vehicles gain a "Reload Ready Rack" order. When the vehicle performs this order, it is marked as reloading. If a unit is pinned, it must discard the marker. At the start of a players turn, all "Reloading" vehicles reload ammunition up to half their ammo capacity, rounded up. Vehicles may now be affected by the “Out of Ammo” token on a 1, they are out of ammo permanently, 2-5 they lose this rule, and on a 6 they are unaffected.

We got tired of tanks being rendered mostly combat ineffective simply by running out of ammunition. However, unlimited ammunition is too major of a change, and would require the rules to be completely re-done. So we came up with this compromise rule- less effective than the supply trucks reload ability, and still means that ammunition capacity on vehicles has a purpose. The fact that it can be disrupted by pinning means that you cannot simply sit there and reload, and generally need to seek shelter.


Rule Mod 3: On-board Artillery may be taken in batteries of “Up to historical values” for one choice.

Pretty simple. The payoff of on-board artillery is much greater when you only need to fire one spotter round. So in the interest of getting those nice models on the board without feeling like they are holding you back, we decided to allow us to take artillery by battery.


What are your rules?

[Wingfield-Haze]

Hi, while a bit of a stickler for the rule book rules, mostly because a lot of propositions of house rules in my experience, have in the past changed the game too much, to the extent sometimes I feel as if I'm playing a different game, I do agree with point 3. Interestingly in FOTR Russian army list includes a mortar battery operating in the way you describe and while I understand army lists reflect particular aspects/periods of nations I do not see this unit structure as solely unique to the Russians.

[Nino Kano]

Yeah, we have done several rules changes. Mostly things that prevents silly arguments and fixes some gaming issues.

1) weapon ranges have been doubled, any weapons shooting beyond this can only do suppression fire. Along with ranges for AP values have double example 0-20 is 0-40.

2) hit modifiers have slight change in that every 10" is a +1 to hit, no other modifiers changed. Now when rolling to hit capping at 6 we expanded  to go past and added a second roll starting at a 7 needing a 6 then a 3+, 8(6/4+), 9(6/5+) 10 (6/6+) capping at 6/6+. Any past this is suppression fire only.

3) the panzerfaust, panzerschrek, bazooka, and piat are HE shots only with the Penetration = to the first  AP values. Example the bazooka is HE 4/5+, pen value 6
To reflect that they are heat rounds not a kenitic penetrator.

4) if you can see it you can shoot it. True LoS, doesn't matter if it's an antenna/aerial, barrel of a gun. As long as the spot roll is made the shot can be made. If you can see at least 2 complete Infantry you can shoot to kill. If only 1 guy or a partial guy Suppression fire only.

5) the low ammo chit can be played on any vehicle that doesn't have an ammo count to track. Examples, half-tracks with mgs only, like the  M16spaa.

6) supply and  repair units just need to get within 1" not touching to use special orders.

7) all vehicles pintle mgs are switched to the appropriate type for the country and all can be upgraded to the appropriate Hmg for the country at a cost of 4 pts.

[Stuart J]

The first thing we did was cut the artillery blast radius/beaten zone to a much more manageable (and realistic) 10" x 5" template, This encourages units to spread out (historically correct, no FOW style 'tank parks') and means a section of two guns can't dominate half the battlefield by potentially hitting targets a country mile apart with one salvo. That said, if there is a target or part thereof close enough to the edge of the template, we don't get the lasers out but allow the shot. The Rule of Common Sense applies. A good example was last week where the template covered a street but not the actual building running alongside: the player on the receiving end asked why his infantry in the building should be pinned and I told him if a shell landed in the road outside your house, you would definitely duck for cover!

We don't restrict or count ammo unless it's part of the scenario. The instances of it happening in real life are few, and the times when it did happen but there was a convenient supply truck just around the corner, even fewer. We tried using it and found it just annoyed everyone concerned without adding much to the game.

Area fire no longer targets a specific unit e.g. if you have a rifle and lmg team defending a house. We allow the defender to pick who gets hit or pinned so you can't be sure if you really took out that enemy MG or another guy picked it up.

If you Open Fire at a single target, only one spotting attempt is allowed. Makes the game less bloody and encourages suppressive fire & movement tactics rather than sitting in one place trying to roll those sixes.

[DennisB]

The only true "house-rules" we use are related to the Ambush Fire order;

1. You can only use your Ambush Fire order in reaction to an order given to a unit in field of view.
2. If multiple units can use Ambush Fire, a decision has to be made as to how many units "use" it up. After that the other units need to wait until another order is given in field of view to react to. This stops you from putting an entire gun line on Ambush Fire and triggering them piece-meal one after the other if your shots fail.

For speed of play:
1. We don't track AP/HE shells separately.

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