House Rules

Instead of starting with a standard hand of 4 cards as the rules suggest, we draw 3 cards + 1 extra card per opposing player. So in a 2v2 match-up you start the game with 5 cards. Some groups staert their games just straight up with 6 cards, no matter what and I have to say this will probably be the next step in our evolution as most of the rime the first round is mostly used for drawing anyways.

This probably is the biggest difference to the way most groups play. We decided very early we don't want DD without line of sight in our game. So to deal any DD you need to have LOS unless the card specifically states otherwise. This also has the biggest impact on the way my own decks are designed. It not only saves some now unnescessary text on cards. It also reduces the power level of all DD cards in the game. So keep that in mind if you pull out one of my personal decks before you think the DD is to high. If you play under standard rules you may need to change those values or the cardtext so it is clear damage can only be dealt with LOS.

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Admitedly it also complicates quite a few cards that deal some kind of indirect DD damage. That happens when you have cards that have an effect that could cause you to take damage. For example if you are forced to discard but can't and the penalty is DD. There are quite a few occasions in decks around the community that can cause problems. That is the reason I try to avoid those kind of cards in my decks alltogether.

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Another side effect definately is that it opens a bit more room for turtleing. You can sit in cover quite cozy and draw cards pretty sure you won't get hit by Force Lightning or the dreaded Thermal Detonator. For us to prevent that kind of behaviour movement is king in any shape or form.

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Before you ask, yes we also play the O12 by those rules.

It usually does not come up that often but it can be a huge fun killer and almost forces you to start the game over (if it hits real hard). I am talking about hitting somebody with a Thermal Detonator before he had any chance to move his guys. As you are forced to line up your guys adjacent to each other at the set-up this can get very ugly. So no area damage cards on the very 1st term. It feels more like a code of honor than a necessary rule.

We change this quite a bit depending on mood, how much time we have and what kind of game we are looking for. Standard procedure is when one player or team looses all it's majors. Next up would be to play until all characters with a name are gone. This of course can take way more time so we more often do it the quicker way.

We tried using a chess clock a few times. It offers quite some cool options that can spice up the game. Nowdays we don't feel the necessity for it as games usually go pretty quick. It used to be more a problem when playing 3v3. Nowdays we almost exclusively play 1v1 or 2v2. I also could see us using some kind of timer when we play another tournament with lots of rounds to play. Here I like the idea to just have a set time for the game and after the time is up you get points for the kills and damage you caused.