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Event House Rules

Horus Heresy 3.0 - House Rules


Welcome to Great Northern Heresy’s event rules page! Please review the following house rules carefully before participating in any of our gaming events. These rules help keep game play fair, balanced, and fun for all players.

New Edition!

  • As we are just at the beginning of 3rd edition of Horus Heresy, there are no major house rules that are in effect. However, we have a few ideas floating around, which are listed below:

True Line of Sight and Cover Saves

Reason for change: Many have found the Cover and Terrain rules problematic. Situations where you can shoot an entire unit in cover, but they can't shoot back in return fire due to the 3" rule. Or strange situations where units can't get cover saves even though they're almost totally obscured. For simplicity, and enjoyment sake, we suggest the following change:

Line of Sight:

  • So long as the following parts of any model are visible to the unit checking line of sight, True Line of Sight is achieved:
    • Head / Torso / Shoulders / Backpack / Arms / Legs / Base
    • Main Hull / Turret / Treads / Wheels / Sponson Housing
  • If only minor extrusions are visible, True Line of Sight is NOT achieved. Examples include:
    • Weapons / Claws / Banners / Capes
    • Antennae / Weapon Barrels / Exhaust Pipes / Dozer Blades / Spikes
  • Use common sense. When in doubt, 4+ it.

Cover Saves: If, during a shooting attack, a model in the target unit is at least partly obscured, a cover save is granted to that model . Cover Saves are applied on a model by model basis. Listed below are the classifications of terrain:

  • Light Cover
    • A 6+ Cover Save is granted to the target model.
    • Line of Sight: Use True Line of Sight.
    • Examples: Craters, Fences, Bushes, Barrels, Rivers, etc.
  • Medium Cover
    • A 5+ Cover Save is granted to the target model.
    • Line of Sight: Use True Line of Sight.
    • Examples: Ruins, Trenches, Barricades, Sandbags, Forests, Wrecked Vehicles, etc
  • Heavy Cover
    • A 4+ Cover Save is granted to the target model.
    • Line of Sight: Use True Line of Sight, but with the following exception:
      • If Line of sight to a model must be drawn into one end of the area terrain, and out of the other end, such models are considered to be not visible.
    • Examples: Bunkers, Large Buildings, Fortifications, Ramparts, Watch Towers, etc.

Explodes and Vehicle Wrecks

Reason for change: Having vehicles just be removed after taking a certain amount of damage feels a bit boring. And most vehicles can't explode anymore, when they always used to have at least a chance. To bring back that classic Warhammer feeling, as well as just for fun, we suggest the following change:

  • All Vehicles and Walkers that do not already have any version of the Explodes! special rule gain Explodes (6+).

Vehicle Wrecks

  • All destroyed Vehicles that are not removed due to the Explodes (X) special rule become a Wreck as per the Wrecked Vehicle rule as detailed on page 221 of the main rule book.

Vanguard (X)

Reason for change: Vanguard can be difficult to score, and there are situations where players can use a reaction to move away (or into a transport) in order to prevent Vanguard from being scored. Imagine an assault unit, about to be charged, reacts into an assault transport, ready to disembark and charge back in their turn. Wow.

For this, we have the following change:

  • Vanguard (X) applies against enemy scoring units who were within control range of an objective during the Start Phase of the current turn, regardless of if the enemy unit moved away using a reaction, or if it is currently affected by a tactical status.

Cavalry and Scoring

Reason for change: White Scars. That is all.

But in all seriousness, it seems unfair to players who built their entire list around the theme of Bikes/Cavalry from previous editions, who were only playing to the lore, to suddenly have their armies become almost invalidated for basic core game play. But at the same time, you don't want to make bikers suddenly way better at scoring than normal troops. So for this, we have the following change:

  • Units with the Cavalry Type may score objectives, provided they only moved Half of their maximum movement characteristic in the previous movement phase.

This seems to work, because it suggests that they have to dismount to score the objective. They will still be at a disadvantage because they do not have Line (X), unless it is given by a Master of Signals or something. But that seems to fit the narrative quite well.

Battlefleet Gothic

Ruleset

We use the Battlefleet Gothic: Remastered Rule set for our events, with one exception listed below.

Reason: The Lists are available to make on New Recruit, thus making fleet building as easy as possible.

Turret Suppression:
When a wave of Bombers and Fighters attempt a bombing run, use the following rules (From BFG: XR) instead of the normal turret suppression rules:

  • For every fighter squadron that is still in the wave after the turrets have fired, 1 turret is now considered suppressed for the duration of the bombing run.
  • For each Bomber squadron that is in the wave after the turrets have fired, roll a D6.
  • For every turret that is not suppressed the target ship has, subtract 1 from each D6 Roll.
  • The final total is the number of attacks that may be made against the target ship.

You may access the rules at the following link:
https://www.specialist-arms.com/forum/index.php?topic=5203.0

New Recruit
https://www.newrecruit.eu