Anyway, these games are usually played on a 4'x4', 4'x6' or 4'x8' table with various pieces of terrain/scenery for strategery. I've started making such a table, as I'm more interested in the terrain aspect of the game than the actual playing.
My table is 4'x6' with a plywood top and 1"x4" bracing for stability.
One can stop at this point, drop a cloth over the board or paint it whatever color you want and badda-bing, you have a gaming table. You want a forest? Green felt or paint. Desert? Light brown.
I'd like to go a little farther than this, though. I want to play multiple games on multiple types of boards but limit my storage concerns. My plan is to leave the plywood as is except for some holes cut in it. Around the edge I will have some sort of molding (I already have .25"x2" strips) that will extend up from the plywood about .25" or so. This will form an outer shell.
Next, I will get 4'x6' sheets of that pegboard material (thin MDF or hardboard) but without the holes, and paint each side different colors, appropriate to the terrain on which I would like to game. That board goes into the shell and appropriately based terrain gets placed on that board. Alternatively, I could actually model terrain onto the board (hills, sand dunes, lava cracks, whatever) and the shell would hold that as well. The holes in the plywood will allow me to push up a corner of the MDF board to exchange it.
We'll see how far I get with this project, but it's faster than de-sprueing miniatures! I think my only concern at this point is weight - the plywood made it a little heavier than I expected - and possibly scratching the surface of wherever I rest the table. In a move sure to cause my gaming friends (with armies ready to go) to roll their eyes, I am thinking about getting felt and stapling it to the bottom of the 1"x4" boards so it won't damage our kitchen table.
21 comments:
That looks pretty cool, I understand that you like the "battle field" aspect to the game. Do you like the future type stuff only or do you like fantasy type like LoTR stuff? What are you going to use for trees and buildings and such?
John
Man you are a stud with a table saw and some horses!
Neat idea, should do nicely.
Alternatively, you could so 3x2 sections of different terrain setups and then mix and match, rotate them around, etc etc. A lot of work though...
-mw
@John:
As long as you go genre-neutral, you could service both sci-fi and fantasy, as well as old west, etc.
You could make generic trees, rocks, cliffs, etc, and it could be for any game. Once technology enters the picture you start getting more specific (buildings and such) and can get really specific (structures only found in futuristic alien races, etc).
@Mike:
Thanks! Yeah, I'm definitely interested in the modular/mix and match approach, and originally I wanted to do a lot of 1'x1', 1'x2' or 2'x2' Cityfight tiles, but that would be a lotta terrain!
Also, a 4'x4' terrain square in the center would leave room on either side for casualties, reserves, papers/codices, etc.
@John:
I realized I didn't answer some of your questions! I'm primarily future/modern/sci-fi, at least for miniature wargaming, but fantasy and/or LOTR is good too.
I plan on posting terrain articles once I get going, but check out www.terragenesis.co.uk for examples of how to build stuff, or even google/ebay search on 40k terrain.
Wow that is pretty cool. Was going through the forums and found this,
http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1842
That is crazy...alot of work went into that. Now I know why you like strange looking stuff, you had a plan... ;-)
John
Trey,
You should see some of the city fight modular terrain that Mike C (a.k.a. Hank Cowdog from TerraGenesis) has done. I'll try and remember to take some pictures the next time I'm over his house.
We are getting together this Friday for some Warhammer Quest action, but we will be playing at John's house.
Basically he did a nummber of (I want to say...) 1x2 sections, each with a different building/ruin on them with streets running along 2 or 3 of each edge, so that when you put them together it looks like a 1 big ruined city scape dilly. Lucky!
-mw
I like the idea of the sheets of MDF painted different colors.
However, I have to agree with Mike in that the 1x1 sections when it comes to cityfight terrain. A "grid" of tiles always seemed better for ruined urban combat.
I dont think you would want to do this for other settings though. Fantasy and typical 40k/sci-fi settings wouldnt need the amount of terrain so individually based pieces work.
but for urban combat, 1x1 grids would work wonderfully. 4 tiles by 6 tiles. with a few 1x 1/2 tiles for roadways, etc.
way cool!
and despite primarily being interested in sci-fi, i'm going to force you to play some fantasy too. :)
keith
I love Cityfight terrain, but I'm not sure Tau are the best cityfighters - lotsa LOS helps!
@Mike: definitely take some pics of Mike C's terrain.
@John: that's pretty insane! I wish I had the time to dedicate to something like that.
@Keith:
I'll go fantasy, as long as they are skirmishers! You know how I feel on fantasy formations!!
@trey
good thing the roman legions didnt think that fighting in formation was silly. :)
as for city fight terrain not being conductive to your army... well, DUH! Who is going to want to play you if all you have is terrain that benefits YOUR army? :)
My army is also best suited to clear fields of fire... but how boring is THAT?
So much more fun to have squads running from ruin to ruin, tanks grinding through the abandoned buildings, fire fights to take control of ammo dumps. :)
keith
@Keith:
Roman legions - sure.
Beastmen? Skaven? Somehow (given that everything else from GW is logical...) I don't see warpstone-crazed, bloodthirsty wild animals lining up.
Re: cityfight - what I meant was that if you take away room to shoot, and cityfight boards degrade to hand-to-hand, Tau wilt! I want at least a fair chance!
Your fair chance comes from the randomness on whether or not you fight on urban terrain or not.
an army doesnt always get the ideal terrain.
what you say can be said against you as well. what if i played a very close combat army... is it fair for me to always have to fight on wide open battlefields where the tau railguns blow me away at a distance?
true, any general would love to always fight in their ideal terrain.
that is why at tournaments there is a variety of terrain.
trust me, i completely understand that your alien army doesn't do well in hand to hand. :)
and who likes to lose... but you should at least HAVE different types of terrain. :) so that it is fair to everyone.
otherwise, you'll force me to insist we play at my place every other game, and i will ALWAYS do city fight just to conteract your never doing it. :)
as for chaos fighting in formation... a lot of chaos *IS* skirmishers.
but if you think chaos fighting in formation is silly, dont play chaos. what *IS* silly is to dismiss an entire genre of table top wargamming becuase you feel one army is silly.
besides, they dont do formations simply for "accuracy" (how accurate is a fantasy army game in the first place?)
it is also a game mechanic to simplfy the game.
i play a 40k army that is relatively large... 25 men in a single unit of troops... could be as much as 65 men if i wanted.
I can tell you what a PAIN it is to move those men... and they are in "skirmish" formation... as all 40k units are...
personally, i'm GLAD that i can move entire units in WHFB at one time. i LOVE that.
i've got 1 unit in my Empire army that has 36 guys in it. you have any idea how a game drags when you've got to move 36 miniatures per unit? and there are numerous units on the table?
want to know about a slow game, play against a Tyranid genestealer army! man does it take time to move all the guys!
give me movement trays and formations any day!
keith
you mentioned stapling felt to the bottom to keep from scratching the surface you place it on while using it. I would suggest the little plastic feet you put on wooden chair legs to help them slide, or the felt sticky backed ones. Staples into felt will eventually wear out and then you scratch the table with the staple.
Go work on your models........
Dave
I like Daves suggestion. The plastic dilly-bobbers will hold up, much, much better of time.
In hind sight, you might have considered making the table 4x8, that way you have a foot on each side to give you space to place your armies before battle, rest your bowl of Cheetos (TM), and room for your Mountain Dew (TM). :)
Unless of course the table/surface you are placeing the game table on (say a pool table or ping pong table) is bigger then the game board, then your fine.
Overall not a big deal, just convient.
Can't wait to see your assembled and painted Tau army on that board next week!
-mw
Re: the great 4x6 vs 4x8 decision::I already had cut the plywood at Home Depot before I talked to everybody. I went with the "official" 4x6, but then everyone mentioned that they can put extra minis on the border parts, and I hadn't considered that.
I can't wait for you to ship me that painted assembled Tau army so I can put it on my game board too!
Is it okay if the Tau are converted and painted in a Space Wolf theme? :P
Not a biggie... the 4x6 will do nicely.
mine is no where near as good as yours, but it is 4x8....
because i was to lazy to cut the plywood is the main reason...
but also because it allows for easier battles with more than 2 players... when i play at home we had 3 to 4 armies on the table. one time we had SIX!!!
keith
I'll keep working on this table and make some 4x6 boards for it, but I'd like to try a 4x8 one as well.
In the interest of weight, I'm thinking about trying it again but with the pegboard material instead of plywood, still with the 1"x4" bracing. Of course, I'd also like to make a portable table too, but my project list is long enough!
Trey,
Good news. As it turns out we will be playing at Mike Churchill's (Hank Cowdog) house tonight. So I will bring my trusty camera along and snap some pictures for ya.
~mw
Nice! I have some ideas for modular stuff that I'll be posting relatively soon.
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