Cult Of Games XLBS: Are We Using Wargaming Terrain Wrong?
June 28, 2026 by crew
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Happy Sunday CoGs, OTTers and as always, Backstagers!
Terrain as a 2.5D element in games of SAGA (for example) or the 2nd ed. Necromunda box set (Spacehulk too?) are definitely abstracted for the sake of beer&pretzel play. Its easiest using the simplified version over true line of sight and the dynamics of cover make for quicker games that aren’t hard and fast crunchy reenactment like others. If it gets new people into playing easier and whet their appetite for more I’m for the simple rules. Let the complexity grow with interest and experience.
I will have to post my terrain rules section from my game. I haven’t finished the photography and layout for that section yet, but it will show how I’ve handled the surprisingly difficult subject.
When you were mentioning Topic bars ( which are no longer produced I believe)were you going to say Squirrel Sh*t?
I would say most historical games have rules regarding terrain and the effects to cetain troop types
During Pickets charge at Gettysburg which in wargaming terms was over flat terrain through a wheat field . In the actual battle there are reports of the Union troops losing sight of entire regiments due to the slight undulating terrain
humans would have trouble running down a steep hill as well.
Isn’t there some thing where folk chase after a cheese wheel rolling down a hill ? … and as they say : hilarity ensues.
Hard cover vs Soft Cover vs Concealment should be a thing, but it is likely ignored as a -1 for cover or a -1 for concealment is the same thing in terms of how it affects your rolls. That may be why terrain rules often get simplified.
Basic weapon features such as ‘ballistic trajectory’ vs ‘line of sight’ would resolve differently against cover as well (there’s a reason troops hide in trenches when there’s no mortars, but run like heck when there are … )
Maybe the reason terrain gets treated as an afterthought is because it requires the use of a brain?
How to build a good table is something a lot rules ignore as well, which only reinforces the simplistic layouts with a solitary hill or wood that is so often used as a setup.
Then there’s the other extreme that we’re getting in 40k 11th edition where full table layouts are pre-determined. All you get to do is decide the look&feel. Everything else has been ground into dust to please the small tournament subset that can’t fathom having to think on their feet for once.
Happy Sunday!
Sunday. Nice show. To hot comment. See you next week
Talking of cover and what type will stop a bullet, the check out this YouTube channel; Yee Yee Life – YouTube https://m.youtube.com/@YeeYeeLife
It’s all tongue in cheek but he does experiment with a wide variety of items to test which caliber rounds from a .22 right upto 50 cal will be stopped.
As for horses going down hills I can attest having grown up riding horses that they don’t like any type of raised slope, never mind a hill. It’s because they feel unstable on a slope and it’s quite easy for them to misstep and break a leg. It’s because all the weight and momentum is on those two front legs.
Soft sand will also throw a track, which was happen to my Self Propelled gun in Desert Storm. We had just finished a Shoot and Scoot, the driver spun the gun round not realising the sand was quite soft and threw the track. Now was a pain in the rear to put back on.
A lot of people think a car will stop a bullet, mainly this misnomer comes from Hollywood. Most rounds from a 9mm go through a car, especially the door. All a car does is block line of sight, it’s certainly not actually stopping the round.
The effect of terrain most rules don’t take into proper account is whether the enemy can be seen or not. Muskets and Tomahawks is a rule set that do visibility well as you have to try to spot the enemy in the heavily wooded American North West where the rules are set. It can mean that troops need to get quite close before they can even see each other which stops players blazing away from the back of the board in unhistoric fashion.
Great GBs this week. Fantastic work everyone.
One of the overlooked aspects of terrain in aircraft combat games is there never seems to be rules for clouds, or planets or asteroids can be hit and miss if included, so quite an absence.
Similarly costal combat with Age of Sail, or costal raiders seldom has rules for shallow water, and may pop up as a scenario special rule if featured at all.
Ok Gerry’s milk drinking from the container has just sent down a rabbit hole. There was a documentary about Scotland from possibly the late 90s by a posh English critic, political commentator or architecture historian(?) with a dry sense of humour. There were bits of Aberdeen, a train journey where the next stop is Kirkcaldy and a bit on the Scottish diet with people drinking milk from the carton and a reference to Thatcher stopping free milk at nurseries. If anyone can help with the title I would be gratefully. It might have been made leading up to devolution? I’ve already wasted 45 minutes.
Jonathan Meades Off Kilter. 3 episodes. Another thing by the BBC that’s not on iplayer. Just like Cricklewood Greats. Why do I even pay for a TV licence?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PE6RH7APXfw&pp=ygUaam9uYXRoYW4gbWVhZGVzIG9mZiBraWx0ZXI%3D#
The first and second episodes are quite good for terrain references. The 1st would be handy for anyone looking to do Traitors Toll in granite or for less spectacular Bladerunner style industrial offices. The 2nd episode is good for nature reclaiming stuff, rust, broken down vehicles and post apocalyptic stuff. The 3rd episode can mostly be ignored as there is little useful architecture shown and some of the statements are as accurate as an Orsen Welles speech on a Ferris wheel in Austria. Nobody puts lamb in a bridie. He must have had a West coast pie that someone had stepped on.