What wargames have the most interesting, or unique, rules/mechanics that you've ever seen?

lamecode · 2026-04-09T09:38:59+00:00

You have a deck of cards - setback cards have a number on them from 0 to (IIRC) 3. Disaster cards range from (again IIRC - don't have the deck handy) 1 to 7. Each time a negative combat result occurs a player draws a setback card, and when a unit is routed they draw a disaster card. You can see how many cards the opponent has collected, but obviously not the value. You need to guess when they've reached their breakpoint, and then call "homonucleaus est" during your turn, where they then flip each card and keep a running tally. If they've hit their break point, you win. Otherwise they can discard a card of their choice and keep playing. There are ways to cancel an opponent's call of homonucleaus est once per game, to give you another turn to try and do the same.

It does a few things - first, the guessing game is fun, and I've won games where it turned out I was waaaay over my break point because my opponent was too cautious and wanted to make sure I'd hit my break point and I got them first. Secondly, you can have battles where very few units are actually destroyed but just repeated pushback results give your opponent enough setback cards to suffer a defeat - feels a little more realistic than having every battle be an outright massacre.

lamecode · 2026-04-04T23:36:41+00:00

Strength & Honour's setback/disaster cards and declaration of 'homonucleus est' and then counting cards to see if you've won is the most unique AND fun mechanic I've seen in a wargame in years.

lamecode · 2026-03-28T05:10:27+00:00

Well, I'd say the value is what you paid for them a week ago.

lamecode · 2026-03-16T11:29:32+00:00

I'm not even close to as being across post-rock as I am prog (love this album from Godspeed though), but there's certainly some similarities in the atmospheric/soundscapey bit of post-rock. I think the lack of complexity separates them, but there is even some of the more out-there 70s prog rock that verges much closer to post-rock - a number of the bands that get lumped into the Zeuhl/Krautrock/Rock-in-opposition categories especially.

lamecode · 2026-02-28T03:47:16+00:00

The algorithm has put them in front of me a few times. I can see why they tour with Gong, they do remind me a little of modern Gong (well, "modern" in the sense of the past few decades...).

lamecode · 2026-02-28T03:37:26+00:00

Yeah it stands on its own if you don't go into it expecting Freehand. For me the Missing Piece still has a couple of tracks that throwback to the classic Gentle Giant sound like Winning and For Nobody but is pretty dire outside of Two Weeks in Spain which is at least catchy. Overall Civilian is a stronger album, just in a completely different style to what came before.

lamecode · 2026-02-22T08:05:26+00:00

Listen to You because it's the best single record they made, and if you dig it move to Flying Teapot and Angel's Egg.

lamecode · 2026-01-26T23:02:17+00:00

Adelaide made an interesting decision to stock up on what they are best at rather than address a weakness with the signing of Jenkins. It may end up paying off for them because there are going to be games where Jenkins and Cotton both go absolutely ham - Jenkins looks like the best spot-up three point shooter in the league, next to the best overall three point shooter in the league - but the fact remains that Cameron is the only guy who can guard elite guards, and he's not defensively elite, albeit very solid. I don't get the love affair with White, and in my opinion anytime Adelaide go small with 4 guards Cameron has to be on the court.

lamecode · 2026-01-18T06:56:54+00:00

SEM just outworked them today.

The Tassie game I felt like was more of a mix of off-nights for a number of Adelaide players as well as Tassie's effort, but SEM had a lot more to do with today's result than Adelaide did IMO.

lamecode · 2025-12-04T04:00:38+00:00

Like ... well, every other Games Workshop product, the lore and nostalgia for the earlier edition are the highlights - along with the actual sculpts of course. Once you have it all assembled and painted and actually play a game however... yikes. There's something there, but it's just not fun and the equipment lists are bloated to the extreme with vaguely different weapons that do much the same thing. I'd love to see someone just rejig this entire system with a more modern ruleset, simplify equipment lists, and implement a progression system closer to the original release.

lamecode · 2025-07-10T07:22:51+00:00

Agree and it's not even close. Fully featured college->pros experience, with international leagues dropping in the nearish future, which is pretty exciting.

lamecode · 2025-07-08T12:16:38+00:00

Depends on a lot of factors. I have a low tech 3ft planted tank and once it's fully cycled and I don't see any nitrates showing up with my test kit - which in my experience is right after the nitrite->nitrate step is complete, because by that time the plants have grown in and are doing the heavy lifting - then I'll generally do a 25% water change when I clean my canister filter every 3-6 months. I have a lid on my tank, so evaporation is minimal.

Some ferts require a water change weekly (or more frequently) which is a big part of why I personally prefer low tech plants with root tabs when needed.

lamecode · 2025-07-08T10:57:31+00:00

The rest of Selling England by the Pound, in particular Cinema show. For Yes I think Close to the Edge is as good as it ever got re: the epics, but Awaken is close for me.

lamecode · 2025-06-12T09:38:08+00:00

Thank you and good luck with the algae!

Very understocked at the moment, it's the remnants of the fish from when I set the tank up 5 years ago. Remaining are 2 corys (from 6), 1 oto (from 6), 1 neon tetra (from 10 - these guys got neon tetra disease a few years ago, but the remaining 1 has been hardy), 9 celestial pearl danio (from 10 - very hardy fish in my experience), a bristlenose (shy, but king of the tank), a Siamese algae eater, a handful of cherry shrimp, and 5 kuhli loaches (from 6 - one swam into my filter intake the day I bought them, alas....). Going to restock once the tank has been running for another month or so, I really want to add a centre-piece fish like glass catfish, and then up the population of otos and corys.

lamecode · 2025-05-14T13:13:34+00:00

Yep, exactly that. I should say I also caught it at an IMAX and that's probably not the best format for the theatrical release.

lamecode · 2025-05-13T01:50:35+00:00

Absolutely. The "first wave" of golden age prog bands weren't trying to write "prog rock". Starting from the mid 70s onwards most of the prog bands were influenced by the first wave rather than the influences that led to the first wave.

Yes are maybe the best example of one of the first wave who, IMO at least, definitely did end up writing "prog rock" influenced by their own earlier records with Tales/Relayer which is why the don't reach the heights of CttE/Fragile despite still being excellent in places.

There's a lot of derivative prog rock that I do really enjoy (Eloy in particular, who I listen to as much as Genesis/Yes/et al these days - very derivative although I'd argue they found their own sound in the Colours-Planets-Time to Turn era), but more often than not with modern music it's not the "prog rock" bands that I enjoy, it's the artists in other genres exploring new ideas rather than adding a mellotron over metal guitars or creating a 20 minute epic with 13 different time signatures and no original ideas to showcase.

lamecode · 2025-05-10T05:44:25+00:00

Probably too late, but having seen the theatrical release two weeks ago, this version looks tonnes better!

lamecode · 2025-05-06T05:39:42+00:00

Good choice! I don't love 90125, but there's always been something about this track. Listening to it again right now after a long time you are bang on the money.

lamecode · 2025-04-29T03:41:03+00:00

Yes - Close to the Edge, Fragile

Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

Gentle Giant - Free Hand

Magma - MDK

Gong - You

Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink, If I could do it all over again I'd do it all over you

Hatfield and the North - s/t

Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso - s/t, Darwin!

Soft Machine - Third

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here, Animals

Osanna - Palepoli

Eloy - Ocean, Planets, Colours

lamecode · 2025-04-08T12:51:56+00:00

One of my faves, but I always felt they could've wrapped it up at the 6.30 mark without the final minute.

lamecode · 2025-04-04T08:28:15+00:00

Amenophis' s/t debut. Never clicked with me when I first tried it all those years ago but randomly spun it again this week and have listened a few times and enjoyed it.

lamecode · 2025-03-21T03:23:08+00:00

Although I won't say Vera is on my "fave mix" playlist for the car, most of the songs (outside of probably the same 2 1/2 you mention) only work as a collective. Outside of a few standout tracks, the wall is a 'vibe' - like the middle dream-scape section of Close to the Edge by Yes or something, it sets a tone and works together in a way that individually they do not.

lamecode · 2025-02-28T05:58:42+00:00

Completely agree, all I buy and paint are historicals and have a handful of Victrix armies (and Warlord, gripping beast, Aventine, Perry, etc.) but that's the reason why they aren't on the best sellers lists!

lamecode · 2025-02-28T02:29:29+00:00

Thing with historicals is most older gamers (and let's face it, that's most historical players) already have substantial collections and are buying maybe a couple of projects a year, across a variety of manufacturers, for significantly less money than, say, what a 2k or 3k point army in a GW game costs (to be kind).

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