Cult Of Games XLBS: What Wargames Surprised Us & Changed Our Minds?
September 27, 2026 by crew
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![Sneak About With Star Wars: Legion’s Guerilla Troopers & More [UPDATED]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2026/09/g-troops-star-wars-cover-600-338.jpg)
Happy Sunday Backstagers, OTTers and (with a gentle involuntary wiggle of the shoulders), How ya’ goin’ CoGs? queue sexy ‘Beast dancers’.
I haven’t seen the brothers in a while so I think the Sexy Beast dancers are on hiatus
I hadn’t put much thought into the game for points building or the era, but after watching an intro game for Pillage I might be persuaded to start into getting the book and playing games (more use for the figures I have now). Good luck everyone to getting more games and hobby done this week
we want synchronized shimmying …
Happy Sunday.
Just in case nobody noticed: The Weekender is now “The Ben & Gerry Show” XD
00:00 Editor go BRRRRRRRRRRRRR
03:00 Too fast mr. Editor!
07:00 Lovely dice… all the dice
09:00 Die! DIE! … oh Dye. Sorry.
13:30 Nine Mens Morris. Never heard that name. But I know the board. It’s called Mühle (Mill) and is part of every “family game collection” in the 70ies and 80ies
14:30 Oh look. It was part of a COGITOS LUDOS? https://www.ontabletop.com/nine-mens-morris/
19:00 Waaaave
25:00 Dead people everywhere
31:13 Editor John goes AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH
37:45 Denial is always a b**ch. XD
1:03:00 Also there is a fan made re-cut of that reading somewhere on YouTube as final episode.
1:13:21 Gerry got cut off! The Triffids got to him!
Now Gundam
theres 2 games that have surprised me mechanics wise. The first being Trench Crusade. When i first read the rules, i saw “every action succeeds on rolling a 7 or more with 2D6”. I thought that was a bit crap to honest. Every action having a 50% chance of succeeding sounded way to simple. Sure i saw there were mechanics that altered those chances, but didnt feel like it was enough. However actually having played the game, those mechanics that alter those chances are very effective, and appear on almost every roll, and actually trying to roll that 7 is can actually create some very tense moments
The second, and probably most surprising for me is Moonstone. Having grown up playing dice based wargames, it was very hard to imagine how a dice-less wargame would work, but as Gerry said, the mechanics in the game are bloody solid and very exciting, and just not found anywhere else
Happy Sunday Backstagers, Otters and Cogs……when I was a kid and the school i went too the Farmers hand shake was an indiction you wanted to shag the girl you gave the hand shake too…..Oh the memories of getting slapped round the face if that didnt agree….lol
Lovely GBs. Well done all.
Surprising mechanics have included the Saga boards which add a depth and complexity to the decision making that I’ve never found in any other small unit or skirmish game.
A fun mechanic that really adds some flavour to the game is the disaster cards in Strength and Honour. These accumulate for each player during the game but are hidden and have a range of values so the exact number they represent isn’t known. Players can call “Homunculus Est” when they think the opponent may have enough to exceed their army break point. This is a tense and funny moment that I’ve never seen in another game.
I had the exact same experience with shatterpoint. I played the game on a whim, and realised how good it really was.
Same here.
Happy Sunday
Thanks for the Button – totally rediculouse
What Gerry suggested is actually what I have done, there are three seperate tables one for each carrier and one for Midway Island. we set the three tables up in the club, but we did not have enough people turn up for it to quite work as i intended.
The event I am doing it for is next weekend for the Naval Wargames weekend at The Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton , so if anyone is in the area and wants to play please drop in.
Happy Sunday Backstagers, Otters and CoGs.
Happy Sunday! MCP Terrain and character Throwing was mind blown when it first came out in 2019, a very simple concept but I had not seen myself in any game I had already played at the time, absolutely sold me after one demo game on that alone
Hi XLBSers 👌👍
Who’s cloned Gerry for the D an D figures 🤔🤔🤷😄
Good indy of week, brought a fair bit oc Blotz over years. Update for @brennon from Sunday, Keith did buy all those painted Flintloque figures, and plan is for them to have 1st game outing on Weds for Silber Bayonet.
Bam
For me the set of rules that really “hooked” me was a very simple set from Irregular Miniatures
Irregular Ancient Rules
The rules are printed on seven “postcards” (with the rules on one side and examples on the other). It uses different dice to denote troop quality, and a simple mechanism of regulars on rough terrain become disordered while irregulars don’t (if irregulars had anything such as a formation), You simply cycle through the cards for each phase of a game turn, and everything is based on “strips” of 6mm figures (as irregular do their 6mm in strips of 5 figs).
But what amazed me about the game was the overall results pretty much mirrored what other much more complicated rulesets did. Thus games were fast, fun and really no need to delve into rulebooks during the game. For a fiver you can’t go wrong. Pick up a copy (before they finally go OOP, I bought mine probably about 40 years ago and I still play games with them. So in 40 years I haven’t found another set that matches them for playing BIG games in 6mm).
Sure the production values might be a bit rough and ready (no glossy pages full of photographs), but it’s well worth a gamble if you have any 6mm (or even 15mm) ancient or dark age armies. Units are 2 to 4 strips for auxiliary/irregulars, and 6 to 8 strips for regulars (in case you already have any armies already based up, this gives you an idea if it’s workable for you without any effort rebasing etc).
Give them a go, highly recommended.
BTW here’s a review (written in 2010 which shows how this oft missed gem still has legs)
Shaun’s Wargaming with Miniatures: Irregular Miniatures Ancients Rules Review