Share your favourite house rules

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micstri
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Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2016 10:46 am

Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by micstri »

We generally try to play CoC as written, as it is easy for house rules to undermine the principles or ethos of the game. The two house rules that we have played are:

1) "Measure line of fire between the centres of the bases. A figure cannot fire across a friendly base, unless it is in contact with that base and firing a light infantry weapon such as rifle, SMG or LMG." This rule is simpler to apply than the FAQ statement of ’Men in a unit firing may only fire at a target to which they have a clear line of sight’.

2) Fire from behind linear cover applies the same rules as fire from a building opening. We applied this rule because a 180º arc of fire from linear cover didn't look sensible. Eventually we worked out that rule 1) above did well enough when applied to fire from behind linear cover, so we abandoned rule 2).

However, we are planning to play test five new house rules, all with the intent of resolving situations where current rules appear to encourage 'unrealistic' command decisions while maintaining playability and keeping to the ethos of the game. I list them in order of priority:

1) "Tactical stance in hard cover puts the unit out of LoS of infantry direct fire, but not H.E. fire." Given that tactical stance is about maximising cover, generally hard cover will allow the soldiers to get out of LOS if they want to maximise cover benefit and not fire back.

2) "Infantry flamethrowers cannot move and fire. All flamethrowers cannot target units that moved in the opponent's last phase." The current rules make flamethrowers much more effective than they were historically. They are also one of the most effective infantry anti-tank weapons in the game, which is not how they were used historically. All reliable reference sources state that flamethrowers were used against enemy positions, in other words, static targets.

3) "Pinned infantry units can make a withdraw move. A withdraw move must be either towards the nearest jump-off point, or towards the friendly table edge, and it must finish with the unit further away from enemy units." Pinned units can end up in situations in which in reality soldiers just would not stay - for example pinned in the open with an enemy unit about to assault it, or under a mortar barrage in the open. The unit would pull back as part of the process of rallying. We haven't decided whether to ignore shock when making a withdraw move. Sharp Practice has this rule, so we might.

4) "When creating a new team, the leader may use another command initiative to nominate that the team has an ad-hoc leader. A platoon (maybe a section or squad) can only have one ad-hoc leader in operation at a time. An ad-hoc leader has 1 command initiative and is activated on a Command Dice roll of 2. He cannot use his command initiative when the team is within command range of a junior or senior leader. Kills on a team with an ad-hoc leader do not roll for hits on the leader. However, a Bad Things Happen event on the team adds 1 to the roll before determining the effect." Current CoC rules make teams outside the command range of a junior or senior leader virtually useless. Histories from the period indicate that this was not the case. Platoons often had men additional to the platoon and squad leaders who could take leadership roles in narrow circumstances - not many, but a few.

5) Rules to activate snipers more often, as the current rules mean that snipers do not have the effect that histories report. We will likely play test that snipers can activate like medics on a Command Dice of 1 to 4 on the justification that like medics, snipers were trained to perform their role on their own initiative. And we will also play test that sniper teams always have an ad-hoc leader, which means that they activate on a Command Dice of 1 or 2. A sniper firing virtually every phase will likely force the opponent to halt a section or team to go on overwatch to eliminate it, which is often what happened historically. A sniper firing more often will also mean that it is eliminated reasonably quickly. These rules may mean the snipers dominate the game to an irritating degree - we will see.
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Truscott Trotter
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Location: Tasmania the Southernmost CoC in the world

Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by Truscott Trotter »

Have ypu had a look at these, we modded snipers and flamers amongst others
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x6rgwboajamf ... 7Haqa?dl=0
micstri
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Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2016 10:46 am

Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by micstri »

Hi Truscott Trotter,
I have seen your proposed mods thanks. They inspired me to revisit the idea of house rules in Chain of Command.

I have been wary of house rules after our experience with CrossFire. That game has a foundation of an excellent core mechanism, but lots of gaps and irritating illogical rules.We found the core mechanisms could remain intact after extending it with quite a few house rules. However, we ended up with some 20 or 30 distinct topics for house rules spread over 4 pages of 10-point type. We lost patience with that and have mostly abandoned the rules. (Also Chain of Command came out. That is a much more complete rule set, particularly once you add the many excellent campaigns.)
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Comecon
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Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by Comecon »

Having a rule for snipers going on overwatch is a no-brainer. The sniper duel is an iconic must-have.Letting them use 1 or 4 balance the gimped soviets a bit too

It has worked really good to count troops in tactical and some kind of cover as "invisible", providing there is no enemy infantry within 18". It makes more sense to hit the ground than to run around the nearest building to be on the defensive.

The rule that pinned units can retreat to their nearest JoP seems to pop up now and then. Would you let them discount chock (i assume so as they would not move otherwise). Would they move 1 D6 or more?
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Truscott Trotter
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Location: Tasmania the Southernmost CoC in the world

Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by Truscott Trotter »

Actually I am OK with the curent pin rules, (apart from barrages) as it seems realistic from my reading. Troops tended to stay with their heads down once they have done so, it takes a fair bit of effort from an NCO or officer to get them up and moving.

Broken not continuing to move is another question.🙂

Also if you want them to move you always have the option to unpin them. Whether that is worth it tactically is up to the player.
Archie Bacon
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Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by Archie Bacon »

What on earth is this drop dice method? Losing dice when the force morale drops is coming anyway, why would you want to rob someone of valuable command initiatives before that time? If multiple phases end a game quickly then set up again and have another game!

With enough changes it may one day turn into bolt action.

Played straight from the book since release and never had a problem.

I'll get my coat.
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redmist1122
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Location: Arizona, USA

Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by redmist1122 »

Archie Bacon wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 11:29 pm What on earth is this drop dice method? Losing dice when the force morale drops is coming anyway, why would you want to rob someone of valuable command initiatives before that time? If multiple phases end a game quickly then set up again and have another game!

With enough changes it may one day turn into bolt action.

Played straight from the book since release and never had a problem.

I'll get my coat.
Amen!
Greg P.
Tucson, AZ, USA
Munin
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Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by Munin »

I use it when I'm teaching or putting on a "learn to play" game at a convention. No one likes to pay money for an event just to get completely housed by the opponent getting a long run of phases.
Corvusboreus
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Location: Boambee Valley, Terra straya

Re: Share your favourite house rules

Post by Corvusboreus »

House rules regarding barbed wire farm fences
Require 1 d6 to cross as per other obstacles.
1 length can be cut per phase by activating adjacent wire-cutting engineer team (no task roll required).
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