Been having a good think about the house rules and have taken into account our group's points of view and I think the below is what we should try for a while. The "vision" with these rules is that they are only limitations and not changes therefore making any army created under this system still legal for "out of the book" games and most tournaments. The only times that this principal is over ridden is where there is a widely accepted comp (such as look out sir rolls for dweller bellow) or where something is plain stupid (BSB's from older books not being able to take shields). I have only written changes for the armies which our group of friends play and as we expand our collections this rule set will also expand.
The exception to that exception is as always the wood elves! We all know that woodies are not the most competitive under normal circumstances so they have been given a helping a hand. This isn't exclusive to us and many tournaments are adopting similar approaches. We have tested and agreed on a few of these however in our last game (YuleHammer Shadow shenanigans being the obvious culprit!) things were a little imbalanced to say the least so I have tried out some new rules.
You will notice that a few rules have (under test) written beside them, these are rules which I think we should review after a few games to see if they are fair or pointless. The aim will be that we will have set in stone all of them for the next gaming event at my flat where we play a load of games over the course of a day. I think all of the rules not "under test" are acceptable and will be the norm going forward.
What do you think? I think it is a lot closer to an "ideal" ruleset which will not adversely effect armies, not change too much, make for a fun game and work under "out of the rulebook" tournament games.
2013 House Rules
Overall:Have fun and don't be gamey!
Special Characters are allowed. In the main they are very fluffy only a few are filth, teclis is a case in point, but I am happy to try them out for a while to see how they go :) (Under Test)
No unit can exceed 450pts (including command, magic items and weapon/armour upgrades but not including characters which join the unit)
No unit may exceed 50 wounds of models excluding characters.
Any spell which disallows a save of any kind such as dwellers below, infernal gateway, dreaded 13th, purple sun or final transmutation allow characters to take a "look out sir!" Save should they be eligible to do so normally as from a template attack.
An army may only contain 5 warmachines in total. The second Duplicate warmachine counts as an extra warmachine for the purposes of the warmachine cap. Eg 2 cannons count as 3 warmachines rather than 2 and 3 cannons would count as 5 warmachines.
All battle standard bearers may take mundane and magic equipment as normal.
To keep things simple all buildings are treated as impassable terrain until we get the feel of these rules and the game as whole. A lot of us (myself very much included!!) don't fully know the rules and in particular I am a bit hazy on buildings! (Under Test)
Ogres
An army may only contain one of the following items: The crown of command and The Hellheart.
An army may not contain both a hellheart and a dispell scroll.
An army may not contain more that 8 mournfang.
Ironblasters are 0-1
The greedy fist cannot be used in conjunction with Magic.
High Elves
High elves may take units of upto 500pts in value instead of the 450pts laid out above.
Empire
Steamtanks count as 1 warmachine for the purposes of the warmachine cap laid out above
An army may not contain more than 8 demigryphs.
Warriors of Chaos
A model with one of the marks of the chaos gods, excluding undivided, may only join units bearing the same mark. (Under Test)
A 4+ ward save (or better) and the crimson armour of dargan may not both be taken on a model riding a disc of tzeentch.
Hellcannons and Warshrines count as 2 warmachines each for the purposes of the warmachine cap laid out above.
The magic item Favour of the Gods may not be used in conjunction with the ability "giver of glory" bestowed by a warshrine.
If a 11 or 12 is rolled for the strength of the infernal gateway spell then instead of automatically removing the target of the spell the 2D6 hits wound automatically with no saves of any kind.
Bretonnians
No changes proposed (Under Test)
Dwarfs
The spellbreaker rune is 0-1 in an army.
Wood Elves
All bows, magic bows and longbows included in an army count as gladeguard longbows in addition to any other effects
The forest spirit ward save is not negated by magical attacks.
Spell singers may also choose spells from the lore of beasts or the lore of life.
Waywatchers have the sniper special rule. (Under Test)
The wardsave granted by Talismanic tattoos is cumulative with other ward saves to a maximum of 3+. (Under Test)
Wood elves may take units of upto 500pts in value instead of the 450pts laid out above.
Forest Spirits gain the Regeneration (4+) special rule when fully or partially within a forest. (Under Test)
Lizardmen
Salamanders count as a warmachine for the purposes of the cap laid out above.
A slann counts as 2 warmachines for the purposes of the cap laid out above.
An army may only include 1 of the following magic items cupped hands, the cube of darkness and a dispell scroll.
A Slann may only take 2 disciplines in total.
Non character Skink riders of stegadons do not count as riders in line with "modern" monsters with riders. Eg a cannonball does not ping between each skink howdah rider. They count as a single model. (Under Test)