[WFB] 8th Edition House Rules (Mini 9th Edition)

[Haravikk]

Here's some house rules that have been proving to be quite fun, and possibly an interesting look at what 9th edition might have in store (a few years from now anyway)…

Weapons (Combat)

• New rule "Strikes First" is a parent rule of Always Strikes First. Models with this rule strike ahead of normal Initiative order, but after Always Strikes First. Strikes First cancels out, while Always Strikes First versus Strikes First cancels, granting the Always Strikes First model(s) Strikes First instead.
• Halberds grant +1 Initiative against enemy units that charged your front in the current round of combat.
• Spears (Infantry) grant Strikes First against enemy units that charged your front in the current round of combat.
• Spears (Cavalry) grant +1 Initiative against enemy units that you charged in the current round of combat.
• Lances grant Strikes First against enemy units that you charged in the current round of combat.

These little changes give quite a nice improvement to how halberds, spears and lances working, making spears an ideal anti-cavalry choice, and bolstering their defensive nature, while allowing various cavalry units to strike first on the charge again. Not enough to make cavalry over-powered again, but means they're less likely to all be dead before they get their turn to fight!

Shooting

• +1 to Hit at close range (within 25% of weapon's range).

This is to counteract one of those silly cases where you have a solid block of missile troops that can't hit the horde that's 1" away from it. It also gives a bit of an interesting boost to Wood Elves, who can close while firing, helping them get within the 25% range (9").

Unit types

• Cavalry gain Stomp attacks.

Another slight boost to cavalry, as one of the things that cavalry did do is use their steeds to muscle into units and cause mayhem. Most cavalry units are already balanced relative to Monstrous Cavalry anyway as their mounts more often have a lower Strength.

Rules

• Inspiring Presence and Hold Your Ground (army general and battle standard) can't be used in Disrupted units unless the general or battle standard is involved in the same combat, or within line of sight.

This is an alternative to the myriad calls to remove or nerf Steadfast, and is actually plenty effective without ruining the purpose of Steadfast. Essentially it means that Disrupted hordes are liable to lose their general's Leadership and Battle Standard re-roll bubbles, which has a big impact on weaker hordes as opposed to elite ones.

Magic

• Magic Resistance works as follows:
  
  • Magic Resistance test is taken on a D6, aiming to get equal to or less than the unit's best Magic Resistance value (they do not stack).
  • Against successfully cast hexes or augments, the target unit must take a single Magic Resistance test to ignore the spell's effects (does not count as a failed casting).
  • Against other successfully cast spells, all affected models will roll a Magic Resistance test to ignore the spell's effects, this may require the spell to be partially resolved (template placed etc.).
• Only spells that target single models may cause instant death regardless of Wounds, all other spells cause a single Wound only.

Basically makes Magic Resistance works against everything and cannot be ignored (as it is no longer a type of save). It doesn't unfairly nerf spells that happen to include a unit with Magic Resistance as a target, but also provides some measure of protection against all spell types. The no instant death clause is really an amendment to the über spells, which should only inflict single Wounds to begin with.

Victory Conditions

• Return of half Victory Points.
• If a unit is reduced below 25% of its starting Wounds (but not destroyed) then it will give 75% of its value in Victory Points.

Basically prevents your losing all the Victory Points for a Deathstar or super-Horde, just because you couldn't get rid of that last pesky model! This one actually balances the Chosen Deathstars quite a bit, since you can still get at least some of their massive points cost.


So uhm, yeah, these are a few rules that I've been using in house-ruled games, not always all at the same time, but they even out of the some of the more extreme rules issues in 8th edition. The spear changes are most fun, as they give a kind of rock/paper/scissors mechanic to spears countering cavalry, while also balancing the spears currently a tad too high cost (particularly with shields).

I have a feeling I may have forgot one or two, so watch this space

[kaulem]

I10 Spearelves with Speed of Assurian is a bit insane! but most changes are nice.

[Haravikk]

I10 Spearelves with Speed of Assurian is a bit insane! but most changes are nice.

Ah, you seem to have found one case that hasn't been considered heh, since none of my regular opponents play High Elves (some have them, just don't use them very often).

Hmm, the better alternative would probably be to have a simpler "Strikes First" rule which only grants striking out of Initiative order, but not re-rolls, with Always Strikes First occurring before even this, and granting re-rolls (kind of like how Heroic Killing Blow is an upgrade Killing Blow).

That is for if it were going in an actual update, for the house rule we'll probably just ignore it on units with Always Strikes First.

Oh, I also noted a mistake with Magic Resistance dispels, it should have been worded to apply against Remains in Play and non Remains in Play effects, I've edited it accordingly, haven't done spears yet though as I'm not 100% sure of the best way.

[yabbadabba]

MR should work against friendly as well as enemy spells.

Only spells that target single models may cause instant death regardless of Wounds, all other spells cause a single Wound only.

Not sure. Maybe spells cast with IF should be able to cause instant death if able to do so.

Pursuit: If in pursuit the chasing unit catches the fleeing unit, the fleeing unit must make an armour save for each attack of the chasing unit if it is the same size or smaller than the chasing unit, or half the attacks (rounding down) if the chasing unit is smaller. Characters, monsters, single models and chariots always count as being equal in size to the fleeing unit for this purpose.

Panic: Fleeing units that are less than half the size of nearby friendly units do not cause cause panic for any reason. Units with a Ld value more than 2 points higher than the fleeing unit do not take panic tests. This includes character bonuses.

I'll have some more later

[Haravikk]

MR should work against friendly as well as enemy spells.

The problem is trying to come up with a nice simple way to do it; personally I like the new style of MR representing the model's ability to actual resist magical effects, but it's certainly a lot less simple to extend as there are loads of cases where regular damage isn't being done.

Hmm, perhaps if the MR rule for dispelling spell effects took place at the start of each magic phase, and units with MR have to use their MR dispel dice to try and dispel those effects, even if they don't want to (because it's a friendly augment)?

Not sure. Maybe spells cast with IF should be able to cause instant death if able to do so.

Well, the thing is that these spells are supposed to be for discouraging hordes, in which case instantly killing loads of multi-wound models isn't really necessary, as such big units are already paying a considerable premium to exist in the first place, which should be covered by the return of partial Victory Points. I suppose there can always be edge cases, but as a house rule it can always be disputed or rolled for in any unusual situations

Pursuit: If in pursuit the chasing unit catches the fleeing unit, the fleeing unit must make an armour save for each attack of the chasing unit if it is the same size or smaller than the chasing unit, or half the attacks (rounding down) if the chasing unit is smaller. Characters, monsters, single models and chariots always count as being equal in size to the fleeing unit for this purpose.

Perhaps this could be simplified slightly to something like:
If a fleeing unit is caught, then the pursuing unit may fight a round of combat, hitting automatically and striking as if they had charged. If this results in greater than 25% casualties, then the unit is destroyed (disperses beyond recovery), otherwise it reforms to face the pursuer, and a new combat begins.

This has the net effect that the pursuing unit may fight two extra rounds of combat as if it charged, so the fleeing unit is already at a significant disadvantage, however, elite units that shouldn't have fled in the first place should be able to take it, avoiding the silly cases where a block of elite troops somehow manage to flee from a few Snotlings and then get run down

Panic: Fleeing units that are less than half the size of nearby friendly units do not cause cause panic for any reason. Units with a Ld value more than 2 points higher than the fleeing unit do not take panic tests. This includes character bonuses.

I can understand the first part, but is the 2 points of Leadership that important? Surely such units are just already much less likely to flee so it won't matter? Panic can be a pain, but in some armies it's pretty important, for example, Skaven, as it's a deterrent to clanrat unit spam, as they can end up taking the whole army with them.

[Son of Sanguinius]

I advise eliminating all "always strikes first" and "always strikes last" rules. Using the current initiative system, make magic items and certain weapons cause initiative bonuses and penalties instead.

[yabbadabba]

The problem is trying to come up with a nice simple way to do it; personally I like the new style of MR representing the model's ability to actual resist magical effects, but it's certainly a lot less simple to extend as there are loads of cases where regular damage isn't being done.

Hmm, perhaps if the MR rule for dispelling spell effects took place at the start of each magic phase, and units with MR have to use their MR dispel dice to try and dispel those effects, even if they don't want to (because it's a friendly augment)?

There should be something there at least. MR would of course come down in points. Of course it also over favours Dwarves.

Well, the thing is that these spells are supposed to be for discouraging hordes, in which case instantly killing loads of multi-wound models isn't really necessary, as such big units are already paying a considerable premium to exist in the first place, which should be covered by the return of partial Victory Points. I suppose there can always be edge cases, but as a house rule it can always be disputed or rolled for in any unusual situations

Victory points should be closer to true VPs with bonuses for banners etc. As for the uber spells, I don't like the idea of multi-wound models getting away with it. It will over favour Ogres for a start. You face a horde of Ogres you are going to want everything to work! The other way is to go old school and say IF causes D3 wounds. Instant death for mono-wound models and a pain in the fundament for characters. That could extend to the effects of miscasts on characters/wizards too.

Perhaps this could be simplified slightly to something like:
If a fleeing unit is caught, then the pursuing unit may fight a round of combat, hitting automatically and striking as if they had charged. If this results in greater than 25% casualties, then the unit is destroyed (disperses beyond recovery), otherwise it reforms to face the pursuer, and a new combat begins.

Hmm, no. You don't want units rallying like that. And that complicates things, more dice rolls etc. You could simplify it by saying the fleeing unit suffers one automatic wound for every attack in the pursuing unit, armour saves as normal.

This has the net effect that the pursuing unit may fight two extra rounds of combat as if it charged, so the fleeing unit is already at a significant disadvantage, however, elite units that shouldn't have fled in the first place should be able to take it, avoiding the silly cases where a block of elite troops somehow manage to flee from a few Snotlings and then get run down

Elite units tend to be better armoured anyway; however the WFB design ethos is about mega killy death. While this stops the stupid situation of a single Knight running down 20 Orc Boyz, it means that pursuit is still a very desirable and destructive phase of the game, and can lead to some interesting tactical choices.

I can understand the first part, but is the 2 points of Leadership that important? Surely such units are just already much less likely to flee so it won't matter? Panic can be a pain, but in some armies it's pretty important, for example, Skaven, as it's a deterrent to clanrat unit spam, as they can end up taking the whole army with them.

Its a ball park figure, rolled over from WAB where statlines are more closely linked and some units can ignore any panic caused for example, by units with a Ld of 5 or less. The long and short of it is that in some cases Elite units from all armies should not have to test because a rabble decides to run for it.

I advise eliminating all "always strikes first" and "always strikes last" rules. Using the current initiative system, make magic items and certain weapons cause initiative bonuses and penalties instead.

Or a weapon reach ranking rule.

[Haravikk]

The other way is to go old school and say IF causes D3 wounds. Instant death for mono-wound models and a pain in the fundament for characters. That could extend to the effects of miscasts on characters/wizards too.

Another way could be to test once per Wound? So if the unit has a total of 20 Wounds left, then you roll 20 tests, regardless of how many models there are? This way a character with 3 Wounds has to fail three tests in order to die outright, which is a lot less likely, but they can still suffer some pretty horrible damage.

Hmm, no. You don't want units rallying like that. And that complicates things, more dice rolls etc. You could simplify it by saying the fleeing unit suffers one automatic wound for every attack in the pursuing unit, armour saves as normal.

What if a new combat simply began, with the pursuing unit charging the fleeing unit in the rear, and following the rules for overrunning into a fresh enemy? If the fleeing unit breaks in the next round of combat, then it's destroyed for good, otherwise it gets to hang on.


On a similar vain, one of the other very annoying things when it happens is when a unit flees but gets a staggeringly good roll and just leaves the battlefield. It can be especially annoying when combats cluster toward a board edge, or unusual circumstances force you to flee straight toward the nearest board edge.

Basically the idea to counter it being that if a unit fleeing the table would normally be able to rally, then it may immediately attempt to do-so, if it fails then it's gone for good, but if it succeeds, then it may re-enter the table as if it pursued off the table edge. If the pursuing unit pursues off the table as well, then no roll may be taken (the fleeing unit is routed away from the battlefield).

The idea being to try to counteract some of the more annoying cases of unit destruction. Admittedly they happen a lot less in 8th thanks to the longer combats, but when a seemingly impossible roll has your elite unit flying from the battlefield it can really mess up a game! Typically my friends and I deal with this in the spirit of the game clause by just assuming a unit that had no right to break simply didn't, but it'd be interesting to see rules that support it instead, or at least give you a second chance to reduce the damage of one dreadful roll.

[theunwantedbeing]

+1 initiutitive for a halberd seems a bit unnecessary. Especially as it just makes things like chaos warriors even nastier with halberds than they already are (they're in5 to begin with afterall).

The in10 spear thing is a bit unwarranted as well, perhaps making them count as a defended obstacle when charged from the front would be more appropriate.
Similar idea about the in10 spears&lances when mounted&charging.
Bringing in a weapon reach rule would solve the issue better than just slapping on in10 to these weapons in certain situations.

+1 to hit at close range is alright. You're not too likely to get that close to most large shooting blocks anyway, plus it means things like fast cavalry are much better at what they are supposed to do. Perhaps call it point-blank-range to avoid confusion.

Cavalry getting stomp would be a handy bonus.

Inspiring presence alterations would be good when disrupted and not containing the general. It can often become absurdly tricky to deal with large almost immovable block of troops just because the general is sat somewhere nearby.

Not sure on the magic resistance alterations, it probably needs a big overhaul completely rather than a few arbitrary things. Certain uber spells could do with being altered as well.
One thing I'de like to see is simply to have the boosted versions of spells not be pickable, but simply to happen if you reach the required value. eg. You want to cast purple sun, so you roll 6 dice, you easily hit the higher value so the higher spell happens whether you wanted to use it or not.

I'de count any unit fleeing at the end of the game as 50% destroyed.
That way fleeing at the end of the battle actually has consequences and encourages larger units to stick around and fight rather than flee.

[Haravikk]

Bringing in a weapon reach rule would solve the issue better than just slapping on in10 to these weapons in certain situations.

Yeah, I'm starting to think the Initiative values my friends and I are using are too situational since we don't really see High Elf or Warriors of Chaos armies fielded so haven't encountered these kinds of issues

What would be the best way to implement weapon reach do you think? Give weapons a "reach" value like 1 for hand-weapons, 2 for great weapons, 3 for halberds, 4 for spears (infantry and cavalry) and 5 for lances, if you have the greater reach value then you strike first in the first round of combat if fought to your front? In the case of Great Weapons this would simply negate Always Strikes Last, or not bother with them (treat as 1)?

Not sure on the magic resistance alterations, it probably needs a big overhaul completely rather than a few arbitrary things.

Yeah, well I've been focusing mainly on house-rule style stuff, rather than total rules re-writes, basically trying to identify the stuff I'd like to see 9th edition (eventually) address. I do prefer the 8th edition style of Magic Resistance, since it's more resistance than prevention, but the problem is that there are too many different types of spell so resisting in that way gets very complicated.

One of the other things I'd thought of is that Magic Resistance would essentially let you spend it as "points" toward resisting a spell's effects. So if you had to take an Initiative test but had Magic Resistance (2), then you could choose to boost your Initiative by +2 in order to resist the spell, if the spell does normal damage then you would boost your Ward Save, and so-on. But even that gets very complex to try and account for.

I'de count any unit fleeing at the end of the game as 50% destroyed.
That way fleeing at the end of the battle actually has consequences and encourages larger units to stick around and fight rather than flee.

Perhaps Victory Points could be scored for every 25% of the unit destroyed, and with an extra 25% for fleeing units. So a fleeing unit with 25% damage wold be worth 50% total.

[theunwantedbeing]

I'de not do anything that stops great weapons striking last, as I feel this is a reasonable mechanic for them, although I would allow them to strike at the models initiutive when charging (same goes for any other strikes last weapon).

With regards to weapon reaches, it would work to allow models with a longer weapon to always get to strike, albeit not necessarily first. eg. a knight with a lance will always get to strike with his lance, however he may be killed before doing so...in which case his steed won't be allowed to strike.

I'de prefer to see a harsh penalty for fleeing at the end of a battle.
25% doesn't see quite harsh enough to me. Scoring 25% per 25% destroyed would of course be interesting, but I wouldn't extend this to big things with multiple wounds simply having them be an all or nothing thing, scoring an extra 50% of their starting value if they are fleeing at the end of the game. (upto 100% of the units value)

One change I would like to see would be the ability to loot enemy magical standards that you take from the enemy.
Allowing you to benefit from the effects of the enemy magical banners, similarly defeated enemies in challenges...you'de possibly be allowed to steal the enemy magical weapon to use yourself. This would perhaps simply be a trait of only the darker races, not the good ones but it would be an interesting change.

[Haravikk]

With regards to weapon reaches, it would work to allow models with a longer weapon to always get to strike, albeit not necessarily first. eg. a knight with a lance will always get to strike with his lance, however he may be killed before doing so...in which case his steed won't be allowed to strike.

Ah, so something like a "Long Reach" rule that allows a model to always make its attacks in the first round of combat provided the combat is to its front. The exception being if engaging the enemy to the front, and they also have a weapon with Long Reach, so Infantry Spears still act as a counter to Cavalry Spears/Lances?

I'de prefer to see a harsh penalty for fleeing at the end of a battle.

Well, the question how quickly it should scale up. I think with 25% it isn't too harsh, as I'm not sure a player should be penalised if a unit is fleeing that would almost definitely rally if another turn were fought.

I suppose the alternative would be for a more severe penalty, but at the end of the game both players get to try one last Rally attempt for each fleeing unit, so you're not automatically losing a heap of Victory Points due to a normally reliable unit that fled from bad luck in the last turn.

One change I would like to see would be the ability to loot enemy magical standards that you take from the enemy.

Hmm, an interesting one, but that's maybe better for campaigns, as there'd be no guarantee that a magic item doesn't have wards to prevent the enemy from using it, that would need to be undone first? It could also devalue the Little Waaagh! Nickit! Nickit! spell that allows stealing of items?

I expect you've seen the Sword of Last Resort in Storm of Magic? It has a fun changing hands mechanic that can result in a great deal of chaos, though it's a tad too destructive for smaller games due to the worryingly rapid loss of characters

All that aside, you should certainly get the value of magic items that you've captured, in a similar way to regular standards, even if you can't use them. Though I suppose you already do get the VP's for them as you have to have killed the character by that point anyway, but it could act as a deterrent against silly unit champions or unit standards with magical items.

[Von Wibble]

Weapons (Combat)

• Halberds grant +1 Initiative against enemy units that charged your front in the current round of combat.
• Spears (Infantry) strike at Initiative 10 against enemy units that charged your front in the current round of combat.
• Spears and Lances (Cavalry) strike at Initiative 10 against enemy units that you charged in the current round of combat.

Fine. SoA seems nasty with I10 but against most units it makes no difference whatsoever as they already had high I

Shooting

• +1 to Hit at close range (within 25% of weapon's range).

Not sure.

Unit types

• Cavalry gain Stomp attacks.

At the strength of the mount I presume? Seems to be very limited for the units that actualy need the improvement (silver helms, mounted wights) and too good for the ones that don't (chaos knights, dark elf cold one knights)


Rules

• Inspiring Presence and Hold Your Ground (army general and battle standard) can't be used in Disrupted units unless the general or battle standard is involved in the same combat, or within line of sight.

I like this a lot

Magic
[list][*]Magic Resistance

Too complicated imo. My own houserule is as follows.

When a spell affects one or more units with magic resistance, the caster rolls a d6. If the roll is equal to or less than the magic resistance of the unit in question, the spell does not affect that unit. If the roll is greater than the magic resistance, the spell works as normal.

2 things to note

1 - magic resistance would work against freindly spells too
2 - it does not dispel the spell so we don't have the problem like the casket of sould used to have, where one unit with mr stopped it affecting a whole army.

Missed vps - I like this rule.

Overall a good set of additions.

[Haravikk]

Fine. SoA seems nasty with I10 but against most units it makes no difference whatsoever as they already had high I

Yeah, I'm thinking the whole house-rule for that needs re-working. As I noted above I'm thinking that a good way to do it within current 8th edition would be something like:

Strikes First
A model with this rule, or bearing a close combat weapon with this rule, will strike first in close combat, ignoring normal Initiative Order. If the model is fighting an enemy with the same rule, then they will strike in Initiative Order as normal.

Always Strikes First
The model strikes even before models with the Strikes First rule. In addition, if their Initiative exceeds that of their target, then they may re-roll any failed to-Hit rolls, unless the target has the Strikes First rule or otherwise negates Strikes First.
If the model is fighting an enemy with the same rule, then the rule is negated and they will strike simultaneously.


In this way, infantry spears will grant Strikes First during any round of combat in which they were charged to the front (unless already in combat). Meanwhile, cavalry spears and lances will grant Strikes First during any round of combat in which they charged. Halberds meanwhile would work like infantry spears except that they would only negate Strikes First when charged, meaning the enemy may still strike first in Initiative Order, but potentially lessening the impact of Always Strikes First.

When a spell affects one or more units with magic resistance, the caster rolls a d6. If the roll is equal to or less than the magic resistance of the unit in question, the spell does not affect that unit. If the roll is greater than the magic resistance, the spell works as normal.

I assume you mean that when a spell has been cast successfully, the target may then attempt a Magic Resistance roll? This is probably the most sensible method, however this would still offer no protection against things like magic vortexes which have no explicit target. The rule could stipulate that if the spell has no immediate target, then the caster should determine which unit(s) would be hit, meaning they would move the vortex first, before Magic Resistance is performed.

[Von Wibble]

I assume you mean that when a spell has been cast successfully, the target may then attempt a Magic Resistance roll? This is probably the most sensible method, however this would still offer no protection against things like magic vortexes which have no explicit target. The rule could stipulate that if the spell has no immediate target, then the caster should determine which unit(s) would be hit, meaning they would move the vortex first, before Magic Resistance is performed.

Yes, I would say whe a magic vortex (or casket for that matter) hits a unit they roll to see if they are affected. If the spell doesn't affect the unit then the vortex just moves through it with no rolls to wound and will work as normal against the next unit in its path.

Casket of souls would roll to affect a new unit as normal - the only exception I'd make is the spell plague, which spreads from unit to unit - I would rule here that if plague doesn't affect a unit it can't spread to a new one so the spell stops.

Wouldn't your strikes fiurst rules mean that charging cavalry can strike before spears, a wepons that is supposed to give benefits against cavalry?

[Haravikk]

Yes, I would say whe a magic vortex (or casket for that matter) hits a unit they roll to see if they are affected. If the spell doesn't affect the unit then the vortex just moves through it with no rolls to wound and will work as normal against the next unit in its path.

Right that sounds good! My only concern now is that this could in theory be less powerful against a lot of damage spells, since you'd be ignoring the spell at best 50% of the time, the other 50% you'd suffer the full damage of the same, which is maybe not quite as good, as a couple purple suns and some bad magic resistance rolls could still result in a very messed up unit! I'm just wondering if perhaps the behaviour should change depending on spell type, so against a Direct Damage spell you roll per-model, while against an Augment or Hex you roll per-unit. This wouldn't be too bad for a new edition change actually since they could define what a Magic Resistance roll is, then specify how to resolve it for each spell-type? Still gets a bit confusing for hex spells that can cause damage such as the cage spells (move and take wounds), but I think it makes sense that they could bypass MR if the unit fails to stop itself being hexed to start with?

By switching to per-model for direct damage or similar then plague should be okay as a unit with MR could still take wounds, but they'd have the MR save against actually dying. It also makes sense to pull MR back out from being a Ward save; on a per-model basis it would be much the same thing, but it means it won't be ignored (not a save) and can be easily adapted to augments/hexes for the single effect, unit-wide stuff.

So formally the rule would look like:

Magic Resistance
Magic resistance can allow a model or unit to ignore the effect of a spell. To take a Magic Resistance test, roll a D6, and if the result is equal to or less than the number in brackets, then the spell was successfully resisted. A spell that is successfully cast but whose effects were resisted is still considered a successful casting in all respects.

Direct Damage and Magic Vortices: Each model makes a Magic Resistance test, using the highest value available to the unit. If passed, then the model is ignored while resolving the effect of the spell.
Augments and Hexes: The unit takes a single Magic Resistance test on the highest value available to it. If passed, the unit suffers none of the spell's effects.

Wouldn't your strikes fiurst rules mean that charging cavalry can strike before spears, a wepons that is supposed to give benefits against cavalry?

If both the charger and the charged unit have Strikes First then it would cancel out into Initiative Order, or maybe strikes simultaneously, not sure which would be best. The point is the cavalry would be guaranteed to strike first against most units, but spears would counteract that effect, meanwhile against other infantry the spearmen would have the advantage (if charged).

[yabbadabba]

Spears aren't long enough to counter a cavalry charge with lances - the lance is longer. For that you need pikes. In addition and man on a horse has a longer reach with a spear than a man on foot. Finally spears on horse were mostly used for thrusting rather than charging, that's part of the development of the lance to give an even greater reach beyond a spear to maximise the charging force.

[Haravikk]

Spears aren't long enough to counter a cavalry charge with lances - the lance is longer. For that you need pikes. In addition and man on a horse has a longer reach with a spear than a man on foot. Finally spears on horse were mostly used for thrusting rather than charging, that's part of the development of the lance to give an even greater reach beyond a spear to maximise the charging force.

Unfortunately pikes don't exist in Warhammer beyond the old Dogs of War, and what constitutes a spear and a halberd in Warhammer is a little on the loose-side anyway. I think if cavalry were to be boosted in striking order then it makes sense for something to be able to counter them; a spear on foot or while mounted would definitely still be preferable to a hand-weapon in terms of reach, so I think it's a fair mechanic personally, it's also fun to play

[yabbadabba]

You're writing house rules and you are worried about the non-existence of a weapon type? This is why I have always favoured a WAb style weapon ranking system.

Horses will baulk at charging a unit with spears presented - this doesn't give the spearmen a better chance of hitting the cavalry first or quicker it makes it harder for the cavalry unit to effectively engage with the spearmen. It wards the cavalry off and makes it harder for the rider to attack.

In this case a fear test seems more appropriate.

[logan054]

maybe lances could be something like a single Impact hit on the charge at +2 strength, if a model has multiple attacks then any additional attacks at made at the base strength in initiative order.

I like the magic resistance rule here, would work rather well, much better than stacking with wardsaves.

With great weapons I think something like attacking at -2 initiative would be fine if halberds are striking at +1 strength and +1 initiative

Maybe spears could be +1 strength when charged or AP?