A

Army List – A roster of all the models, units, and upgrades you bring to a game, built within the rules and point limits of that system.

AoE (Area of Effect) – An ability, attack, or spell that affects multiple models within a set radius, rather than targeting a single figure.

Activation – The moment in a turn when a unit or model takes its actions, common in skirmish and alternating-activation systems.

B

Backlog (or Pile of Shame) – The unpainted models waiting in boxes or on sprues. Every hobbyist has one.

Battle Report – A written, video, or photo-documented account of a game, often used for tutorials or entertainment.

Beta Strike – A tactic where a player deliberately takes the opponent’s first attack (alpha strike), then counters heavily in their own turn.

Bolt Action – A popular World War II miniatures game by Warlord Games, often used as shorthand for that ruleset’s mechanics.

Buff – A rule or ability that improves a unit’s effectiveness (e.g., increased attack rolls or defense).

C

Campaign – A linked series of games with persistent results, often telling a story or tracking unit progression over time.

Clipping – Moving a model so only the edge of its base touches an enemy, limiting the number of models that can fight back.

Command Points (CP) – A resource spent to activate special abilities, rerolls, or stratagems. Widely used in modern wargames like Warhammer 40K.

Core Rules – The basic mechanics that govern how the game is played, before adding factions, supplements, or house rules.

D

D6 / D20 / Dice Pool – Shorthand for dice types. D6 is a six-sided die, D20 a twenty-sided die. A dice pool means rolling multiple dice at once to resolve actions.

Deep Strike – Deploying units onto the battlefield mid-game, often from reserves or teleportation mechanics.

Deployment Zone – The section of the board where players set up their armies at the start of a game.

Doomball / Deathstar – Slang for a unit stacked with buffs and upgrades to make it nearly unstoppable.

F

Faction – A distinct army or group within a game, defined by lore, aesthetics, and playstyle (e.g., Orks in 40K, Romans in historical games).

Fast Dice / Batch Rolling – Rolling many dice at once to speed up gameplay, rather than resolving each attack individually.

Fluff – The lore, story, and world-building that surrounds a game. Opposite of “crunch,” which refers to rules and mechanics.

Friendly Game – A casual, narrative-driven match where fun and theme take priority over competition.

M

Meta – Short for “metagame.” Refers to the dominant strategies, army builds, or rules interpretations currently winning in competitive play.

Melee – Close-combat fighting between models in base-to-base contact.

Min-Maxing – Optimising an army by maximising powerful options and minimising weaker ones, sometimes at the expense of theme.

Mission Pack – A set of scenarios or objectives that structure how a game is played and how victory is scored.

O

Objective Marker – A token or terrain piece placed on the battlefield to represent goals like capturing ground or retrieving resources.

Overwatch – A reactionary shooting mechanic where units fire at enemies moving within range, often at reduced accuracy.

Open List – When both players fully reveal their army lists before a game begins. Opposite: Closed List, where some units are hidden or secret.

P

Points Limit – The agreed number of points each side can spend on building an army. Ensures balance.

Proxy – Using a stand-in model to represent a different unit, often until the correct miniature is available.

Power Creep – The gradual increase in strength of new factions or rules, making older ones weaker by comparison.

PTO / Pick-up Game – A casual, unplanned game arranged on the spot at a club or store.

S

Skirmish Game – A smaller-scale game focusing on individual characters or small squads (e.g., Kill Team, Infinity). Opposite: Mass Battle games like Warhammer Fantasy or historical epics.

Suppression – A mechanic where units under fire lose effectiveness due to morale or pinned-down status.

Splatbook / Codex – A supplemental book providing extra rules, units, or lore for a specific faction.

Stratagem – Special rule cards or abilities, often powered by Command Points.

T

Tabletop Standard – A level of painting where miniatures look good for play (base colours, washes, simple highlights) without requiring competition-level detail.

Terrain – The physical scenery on the battlefield, from ruins to forests. Affects movement, line of sight, and cover.

TO (Tournament Organiser) – The person running a competitive event, responsible for rules, scheduling, and disputes.

Turn Sequence – The order in which game phases occur (movement, shooting, melee, etc.).

W

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) – The idea that a model should be equipped with the weapons and upgrades shown on its miniature.

Warlord – The leader of your army or the central character in a game, often with unique abilities.

Win Condition – The specific objectives a player must achieve to win the game.

Wound – A measure of a model’s health or durability, reduced by attacks until the model is destroyed.

X–Z

XP (Experience Points) – In campaign play, points gained by units or characters that improve them over time.

Zerg Rush – Borrowed from video games, used to describe overwhelming the opponent with masses of cheap units.