Zone Mortalis - 10th Edition 40k House Rules
This month I’m sharing a set of house rules I’ve been working on that have been adapted from the “Zone Mortalis Version 2.0” rules from Goonhammer (I could not find the link to these anymore) and the “Theatre of War – Zone Mortalis” rules from Adam Fasoldt of the Masters of the Forge podcast (https://mastersoftheforge.com/on-your-tabletop/zone-mortalis-9th-edition).
Why Zone Mortalis instead of Boarding Actions?
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with the Boarding Action rules by Games Workshop. I’ve played plenty of games with them and enjoyed it immensely. But, for me, the games always feel a bit small – 500 points is not a lot to work with – and are missing a key element: dreadnoughts. There are so many great moments in 40k novels and lore where a dreadnought defends or assaults a voidship in the cramped hallways and not being able to recreate that in Boarding Action feels like a miss.
The other big reason I’m doing this is because I own a Zone Mortalis board. This project started when the Necromunda Dark Uprising set was released, and since then I’ve slowly been acquiring more and more pieces and tiles – including the boarding action terrain, which I’ve incorporated into the board.
So, naturally, instead of using a set of official rules for my terrain set, I’ve written my own.
Design Philosophy
One of the things I dislike about playing Boarding Actions is relearning the intricacies of the rules every time I play. I wrote these Zone Mortalis rules with ease of play in mind: doors are very simple and most of the special flavour was moved to stratagems. For example, there were originally rules beefing up Blast and Torrent weapons, but inevitably one player would forget them, giving a strong advantage to the player who remembered them (especially if that player was a Salamanders player with a big unit of Infernus Marines). As a result, this was moved to a 1 CP stratagem, making it pretty accessible to all players, but not putting them at a disadvantage if they forgot, as they didn’t spend any CP. The hope is that most of the rules are quality of life adjustments and intuitive clarifications: i.e. this works the way you think it does.
The other big thing I wanted to do was remove as many restrictions as possible allowing players to build the types of thematic forces that make sense for a boarding action. At the time of writing, the 10th edition Boarding Action supplement has gone up for preorder and the previews I’ve read show that there are a ton of thematic ways to run armies in Boarding Action, but rather than writing out restrictions for each army, these rules will assume players are self regulating.
If you have thoughts or suggestions for these rules, please drop us a line at ContactUs@WrongSideOfTheMaelstrom.com.
The Most Important Rule
These rules are designed for narrative play, and have not been standardised for any sort of tournament setting in mind. It’s important to remember our Golden Narrative Rule when playing. Also, having that conversation with your opponent before the game is just as important here as in any other narrative game.
Therefore, every rule in this supplement can be broken.The variances of different players’ collections, terrain, and imaginations can’t be accounted for. If you have a house rule in mind, clear it with your opponent before the game and have at it. Converted a character who should be able to hack a door? Have a board with wider hallways and want a rampaging Screamer Killer duelling a Redemptor? Transdimensional warriors teleporting through walls? Go for it! And definitely let us know how it went.
WRONG SIDE OF THE MAELSTROM ZONE MORTALIS RULES – 10TH EDITION 40K
Cover image copyright of Games Workshop.