At the War Room chugging slowly towards completion, I've been turning to the question of what sort of table I can fit in there. In an ideal world, I would have a twelve by four which would allow me to run Overlord games at home, sadly unless structural walls are coming down, that isn't going to happen.
However, I have had a great deal of fun playing Breakthrough style games and I've decided that these should be the limit of my ambition. I can always play Overlord in a smaller scale like 6mm as I have suitable Second World War Eastern Front and American Civil War Armies. With that in mind, I laid out my mats and had a look at how they stack up.
A normal game setup will require something that's six feet by four or possibly five to allow for dice, cards, drinks and so forth. A breakthrough setup will require something six by six and a half feet. I have an old army table that is about five by three, so I could add an MDF top to it possibly with a leaf or two and at least have something temporary rigged up. I would definitely like to see how well the room works with such a table, before buying an expensive piece of furniture.
All of this stuff is in the future of course, but it was nice to daydream about it.
The War Tomahawk of Big Chief Kinch
All the clearing and unpacking meant that some old boxes unopened for several house moves were discovered. I found this in one of them. Dad made me the tomahawk above. No store bought toy could have filled me with great joy, though it is a lot smaller than the might axe I remembered.
Thanks Dad.
I was in the same decision making process that you are in 3 years ago and opted for a 2' X 4' battle board. I didn't want anything bigger as one day I will move and the issue will eventually come to where will I put it or as you age where will I eventually store it? I am working on concepts where by the battle comes to the figure and not the other way around. The latter has been a great space saver for me as I can hobby, build stuff, while playing a campaign all at the same time. I do solo war-gaming so I can keep the space down when I run battles and campaigns. This was a real eye opener when my wife and me moved her folks into a home. I realized one day I'll be in the same boat and space is at a premium in a home. Less is More!
ReplyDeleteJeff
I can see the attractions of a small board and I have kept my memoir 44 kit for traveling games. However, Mrs Kinch and I have no intention of ever moving again. I suppose it's one of the reasons we've been quite careful and taken our time - this should be our last home.
DeleteAs for ending up in a home, that might be a concern for Mrs Kinch - but the Kinch make line is not a hard wearing one.
Conrad, I'm having a similar dilemma myself regarding the sizing of a wargames table for a room in my house which I'm converting. I've been asking around, and I came to the conclusion that 6' x 4' is definately the way to so. 8' x 4' is just too huge for most rooms and 6' x 5' is an odd shape - would you really use the extra foot?
ReplyDeleteI think 6' x 4' gives me the room I need for almost all 25/28mm action, and should do for 15mm and smaller scales.
I know all this is a bit strange without knowing the dimensions of your room! But good luck in any event!
I can see the argument for sticking to 6 by 4, but I would like to try a bigger canvas at least at first. I'll bodge something together and see how it holds up. The long term plan is to buy a decent table that could be used as a dining table when we are entertaining on special occasions.
DeleteHi CK,
ReplyDeleteThe last thing I can remember my Dad making me was the Airfix kit of the Sunderland Flying boat. To this day whenever I see the box art I think about the wonderful sliding bomb racks.
All the best,
DC
They are good memories - aren't they?
DeleteI have been working on a 3' x 4' table but I think my frontages would probably work better with larger. I have been thinking about hex mats for a memoir 44 style campaign, but not sure if I should make my own or buy them. What are yours?
ReplyDeleteMy hex mats came from Hotz mats and they are very hardwearing and have seen quite a bit of service.
DeleteMonday Knight Productions make mats with two inch hexes and those are good too.
And he made the table itself 4x6 feet, consisting of two halves. Everyone else folded in half on hinges. All this economy when folded is stored on the balcony (we live on the 7th floor) and entered for home games. Table of this size is enough for most of our games.A dining table is less useful for games (unless you go to a smaller scale miniatures).
ReplyDeleteAlthough not as gentleman's club as your most excellent HQ, my newly heated Hobbit Bunker also brought me to the what size of table question recently. In the not so distant past I had a battens and hardboard thing that was c. 7 feet by 5 feet. That was jolly good, but unwieldy, and still ended up sagging. Now I've got a 5 feet x 4' 6" of two pieces of MDF on a table. So far, so good.
ReplyDeleteHuh. My dad carved me a bowie knife out of wood when I was little. I think I still have it packed away somewhere.
ReplyDeleteFMB