a few house rules

Over time, we’ve adopted a few house rules in the campaign which we feel enhances the excitement and uncertainty of each game in the series.

The first concerns scenery. We play on a large 4×8′ table. Depending on where the battle is taking place, the choice of scenery (and maximum of each item) varies:

• plains: 4 items, drawn from woods or scrub (2), small hills (2), ruins or building (1), pond (1), small rocky outcrop (2), nothing (4)
• standard: 6 items, drawn from woods or scrub (4), small hills (4), ruins or building (1), pond (1), marsh or bog (1), small rocky outcrop (2)
• populated: 2 buildings, plus 6 other items drawn from buildings (2), hedges or walls (2), roads (2), stream with bridge (1), pond (1) forest or orchard (2), small hills (2), small construction (1), field (2)
• forest: 4 woods, plus 4 other items, drawn from woods or thick woods (4), small hills (4), ruins or building (1), pond (1), stream (1), brush, marsh or bog (1)
• hills: 2 large hills, plus 4 other items, drawn from woods or brush (2), small hills (2), large and/or high hills (2), ruins or building (1), pond or stream (1), small rocky outcrop (3)
• swamp: 4 marsh or bog, plus 4 other items, drawn from marsh or bog (2), woods or scrub (2), small hills (2), , ruins or building (1), pond (1), stream (2)

Each of these has the following characteristics:

• thick woods: very difficult terrain, blocks all line of sight (including from hills, and of large targets)
• woods: difficult terrain, blocks all line of sight
• brush or field: difficult terrain, blocks regular sight (can be overlooked from hills and large targets)
• small hills: single contour, single section hills that overlook terrain that would otherwise block regular line of sight. Towers count as the same height as hills.
• large hills: single contour, multiple section hills that overlook terrain that would otherwise block regular line of sight
• tall hills: double contour hills, can see over and be seen over any other terrain piece. Towers on hills count as the same height as tall hills.
• marsh: difficult terrain, blocks regular line of sight
• bog: difficult terrain, does not block line of sight
• pond: may be difficult (1-2), very difficult (3-4), or impassable (5-6)—dice after placement.
• stream: up to 5′ in length, difficult terrain, does not block line of sight
• rocky outcrop or constructions: very difficult terrain, blocks regular line of sight
• nothing: the player may refrain from placing a terrain item

The standard Warhammer rules scenery deployment rules can easily become an exercise in the carefully-calculated precision deployment of terrain for future tactical advantage–an option that the real commander rarely has. Consequently, we use the following modification:

• After all scenery has been place by the players (as per the existing rules), each player in turn chooses a terrain item, throws scatter dice for it, and moves the scenery the appropriate amount in the appropriate direction. If a “hit” is rolled, the scenery is not moved. If a “misfire” is rolled, the item is replaced with another item of a different type chosen by the player who rolled the misfire (this must be completely different–for example, a small hill cannot be replaced with a large hill). If an item would shift to within 12″ of the table centre, it is not moved. If an item would shift off the table, it is removed from play. This is done until all items have been diced for.

We also find that games ending at exactly 6 turns to lead to some rather artificial play at the very end of the game. Consequently, we use the following rule instead:

• At the end of turn 6, roll one die. On a 4+, the battle ends. Otherwise, it continues through turn 7, another die is thrown, and a 3+ will end the battle. If it continues to turn 8, a 2+ will end the battle. Otherwise, the battle ends at the end of turn 9 (representing the fall of night).