Planning a gaming table

[Jal]

Hello, fellow oldhammerers!

I've decided to start my own gaming table... So i've got myself some wooden boards, a ton of polystyrene to carve terrain, and a few bags of scenic grass, sand... The problem (and i guess it's something usual) is "not-having-enough-space-to-set-up-a-full-table".

I actually have no experience at all playing warhammer on a "small table"... I used to set up my games at the local game store, but i recently moved out of the city to countryside, so friends will come to my place in order to have our games. I'm actually aiming to something more skirmish-like (perhaps 4 to 5 units with a few heroes) than full scale battles.

So... What would a good table size for such games be? Is 25 inches per 50 inches too small?

 

[treps]

There is no real given size, the standard is 4'x6' or 4x8' but :
This is one thing where size does matter !

The biggest you can afford to have is always the best, you can play skirmishes on a big table but you won't be able to play big battles on a small one.

So my advice would be to build the biggest you will be able to fit in your gaming room...

 

[zoggin-eck]

Ah, "not quite enough room" is what I had trouble with in my games room recently.

I bought and painted four 4x1-1/2 foot sheets for my setup, only to find 4x6 foot is a little bit much for the room. I even painted a river on the reverse side!

Turns out lady-Zog isn't that comfortable reaching across a four foot table anyway (clumsy, she is!). To be honest, while I'm taller, it only encourages me to knock over models or look down to see a pool of coffee spreading across the table...

In the end, I used two of the original 4x1-1/2 foot boards, along with a 3x2 footer to make a 3x6 table. It's certainly different, but I like smaller games anyway. Again, it's more comfortable (intimate?) and suits our laid-back (lazy?) style of play, being able to reach across so easily. Just play appropriate sized games, and perhaps rules more suited to small games, and all is good. I gave it two sides. One a neutral brown (so it looks OK for desert as well) and a generic grey (fantasy city street, 40k industrial or even ocean) side.

I can always clear the loungeroom and get out the larger setup when needed, so I won't miss out on larger games entirely. Hopefully it will mean larger games will be planned and looked forward to well in advance, rather than set up and play smaller games.

It's hard to tell in these photos, but I gave the grey side a couple of stages of drybrush with a roller. It's much more obvious in person, and I wish I did the same for the brown side!

One of the more interesting semi-regular articles in 2000's White Dwarf were those by Mike Walker, who I remember wrote a piece on having his own "slightly too small" table, and a scenario he wrote to suit it.

 

[craigm999]

Looks good - i've got a similar space issue. So I've bought one of these;

4x2 folding table
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Redstone-4ft-Fo ... ding+table

Might do a wee project log on my blog when it comes to topping it, currently building up a load of 12'x12' vinyl floor tiles which I'm painting/texturing for various surfaces (Urban, Ash wastes, grassy, Rivers, Roads etc), works pretty well and the idea is to velcro them down on the table top so they can be swapped around.

if this all goes well i'd like to invest in another table to give me 4x4, which should just about fit in my games room!

Currently 4x2 is fine for smaller board games, like heroquest, Space crusade, and the smaller Zombiecide scenarios.
I've also had a few 1000 point Epic (Space Marine/Titan Legion) skirmishes which worked well.

I reckon for the likes of Nercomunda/RT it should be ok as long as there is plenty of height options in the terrain.

Cheers,

Craig

 

[Jal]

Thanks for the ideas!

In the end i've decided to set up two 6x3 planks, which the dining room table can hold quite nicely once unfolded. Luckily, both can be stored inside the small closet which holds the ironing board, thus solving the space issue. Somewhat, at least.

I've prepared the planks and hopefully i'll be able to show some progress on the orc burrows i'm setting as scenery.

More soon!