HOUSE RULES IN 2026

[mattyfenby]

It has now been over 2 decades since 6th Edition ended being the official current rule set but obviously here we are continuing to play 6th. I would love to hear what you guys are doing as far as House Rules or if some of you are playing strictly by the books as much as possible!



What House Rules continue to stand the test of time in your group? Have you incorporated any rules from The Old World into your House Rules?




This is where my club is currently at for House Rules for 6th Edition in Massachusetts in 2026:

The Massachusetts Classic Hammer League

I. HOUSE RULES FOR THE LEAGUE

1. Monster Base Rank Bonus –Models on 40mm+ bases (Ogres, Trolls, Treekin, etc) benefit from rank bonus at 3 models wide in a rank rather than four.

2. Victory Points – The club counts Victory Points if you destroy equal to or more than half the starting wounds/unit strength of a character/unit, rather than ‘more than half.’

3. Flying Units – CAN take-off and land in woods/forest/jungle/scrub etc IF they are at Home. (ALL the regular rules for Line of Sight still apply to units wishing to Charge an enemy or Shoot Missile Weapons.)

4. Insane Courage – A unit which rolls double 1’s on its Break Test passes, standing strong.
(Nota bene: this even applies in a “Fear Autobreak” situation)

5. Monsters with Breath Weapons – MAY use their breath weapons as a Stand and Shoot reaction and may even choose to use their breath weapon in close combat in lieu of making its normal attacks. (Exception: Salamanders) Can only use this ability once per turn (IE cannot use it in the shooting phase while in CC)

5A. Treemen with Strangle root – MAY use their Strangle Root attack as a Stand-and-Shoot reaction and may even choose to use their Strangle Root attack in CC in lieu of their normal attacks. Can only use this ability once per turn (IE cannot use it in the shooting phase while in CC)

6. Stone Throwers/Rock Lobbers– War Machines that ‘lob’ their projectiles do not need LOS to declare a target, unlike Cannons, Bolt Throwers, etc. Instead, draw imaginary lines from the war machine’s base to the front corners of the enemy deployment zone. In between these two lines, the War Machine can face how it wishes (but still must follow all rules regarding not intentionally targeting units already in CC, single characters within 5” of their unit, etc). If wishing to target outside of the imaginary lines, must follow rules from the book (“must see that there is enemy in that direction” but allowed to ‘overguess’ unlike cannons). (NOTE: THIS EXCEPTION DOES NOT APPLY TO LOBBERS WITH THE LARGE TEMPLATE- EMPIRE MORTARS, GNOBLAR SCRAPLAUNCHERS, CHAOS DWARF EARTH-SHAKER MORTARS, ETC.)

[Just Tony]

Right now the only house rules we have are Insane Courage and the 7th Ed. rule that limited wizards to using the power dice they themselves generated or the generic pool. I'd LOVE to incorporate the ogre rule you have but that'd be met with IMMEDIATE blowback once my all-Minotaur army showed up.


And I don't think I'd push for the flying one myself. The others I'm nonplus about.

[Alarantalara]

We've tried playing that the Dwarf Miners underground advance works more like what the Tomb Scorpions do. Decide where they will appear at the beginning of the game, mark that point, roll the artillery dice and scatter dice to find out where they actually appear, and can charge on arrival. MIsfires cause d6 casualties and a reroll of the artillery die; repeat until it doesn't misfire.

Only one game so far, not counting the time we decided they could arrive via a building that was already designated as a mine entrance, but it's been interesting and gets them into the middle of the board where they'll do something rather than have them show up so far away that they would have been better off just deploying as normal.

[TinyLegions]

The only house rules that I would add to the core rules for 6th edition, would be certain rules rules from WAB and what Just Tony said. Of course if your group likes that line-up go nutz.

[Just Tony]

We've tried playing that the Dwarf Miners underground advance works more like what the Tomb Scorpions do. Decide where they will appear at the beginning of the game, mark that point, roll the artillery dice and scatter dice to find out where they actually appear, and can charge on arrival. MIsfires cause d6 casualties and a reroll of the artillery die; repeat until it doesn't misfire.

Only one game so far, not counting the time we decided they could arrive via a building that was already designated as a mine entrance, but it's been interesting and gets them into the middle of the board where they'll do something rather than have them show up so far away that they would have been better off just deploying as normal.

I'm relaying this one to Ashley IMMEDIATELY...

[Jonathan E]

Reflecting on your rules, Matty:

1. I like this, although I almost never see those units deployed in ranks anyway, barring Ogre Kingdoms and the occasional chippy Beastman list.
2. Seems a bit persnickety but I don't object. VP100 is hell anyway, and is the first thing I strip out of my games.
3. What does "at Home" mean in this context?
4. I'm fine with this (and I'm an Undead player). Something to give people a chance in the "fear autobreak" situation.
5. I thought that's how these things worked anyway. The more you know, eh?
6. ... OK, this seems a bit arbitrary, and could very easily fall apart in scenarios that don't have the conventional deployment area. I like the principle here, but it feels like "one rule for thee and another for me" if you happen to have a 5" template weapon. I assume you're also demanding everyone put their war machines on bases (as is only proppa anyway).

Anyway, my own personal picks are usually more in the realm of scenario design and approach to play (i.e. "play to make things happen" and "just take them off we're not here to squeak out points"), but I do have one core principle.

You get ONE Dispel Scroll. Count it. ONE. If you want to play Warhammer without magic, Ancient Battles is right there and actually pretty good.

[Zambula]

One of the most overlooked house rules is written in almost all the armybooks: if both players agree, Mercenaries may be taken as Special units instead of Rare.

The general rule is "normal mercenaries are Rare, RoR follow their own ForHire rule". This causes having basic Pikemen as Rare, but Pirazzo as Special... which does not make sense.

This house-rule can be done in two ways:
1. Instead of "all mercenaries go to Rare", then "all basic mercenaries go to Special". What about the ones that are Special in their own DoW list? ogres, haflings...?
2. The "slot upgrade": basic units in DoW become Special out of the book, and Specials become rare. Rare still Rare, I'm afraid.

[mattyfenby]

That is a really interesting house rule!

We are talking a lot about revamping how Chaos interacts with mercenaries with adding a Chaos Dwarfs army book.

You guys looking at ways to make pikemen and other basic DoW units viable is fun! Thank you a ton for sharing!