My friend and I are both new, we play as per the BRB, everything is allowed. if it's in the book we can do it. if we are not sure with things we just shelve it for later. the only rule we changed is that hills are infinitely high and anything behind them is hidden from view as per LOS rules.
We have about 15 players and when we started about a year ago many were new to the game and all were of course new to 8th. We agreed to go by the book and it has worked out well. we will occasionally run a game with house rules but it is between those players to choose. The most common is neutral third setting up terrain and no special terrain.
1. No hellcanons, or Chaos Chosen or Chaos Knights or Sorcerer Lords. Our WoC player is a hardcore power gamer (and kind of a douche all around, and he still wins 3/4 of his games) so we also have several handicaps placed on him. 2. if it's someone's first time playing he gets an extra 300 points in his army and we play with no Magic for his first few games.