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My wife and I are renovating one of our rooms and turning into a painting / gaming room. We are going to put folding table in the middle for family board games, but we want to put a removable top for use with wargames. The question is what size should this be? I was thinking 4x8. But maybe 4x6? What would be a good size?

It depends on what wargames you plan on playing. Warhammer, Dust Warfare, and some others are on a 4x6, but many other games are going to a 4x4 or 3x3.

What games are you into?

If you have the room, 4'x8' is a nice choice. You can run two skirmish games at the same time, a standard 40K game with room for your models/templates/rulebooks, or an Apoc sized game with a few friends.

We have Warhammer, 40K, Bolt Action, Kings of War, Dust, Song of Blade and Heroes, Infinity. Plus a bunch of other crap I'm forgetting.

We can get 4x8 in there. But it would be tighter than we like.4x6 would fit better, but I don't want to cramp the game board.

4x6 is standard, 4x8 is awesome.

If you play wm, 4x8 lets you play 2 games or smaller games of
other games like 40k.

Ping-pong table sized.

If you make modular tables that are approximately 4.5x5.5 feet, then they can be placed together to make a table that is 9x5.5 feet.

This is effectively the largest table most average height people can reach to the middle of.

But I tend to like larger tables, as I don't do a lot of skirmish gaming, and tend to use a lot of miniatures, or portray elaborate scenarios that use only a portion of the table into which both sides may move (this allows the explicit detailing of what are abstracted "flanking moves" in most game systems).

Having this larger room is especially helpful for WWII to Sci-Fi period gaming.

MB

 the_Armyman wrote:
If you have the room, 4'x8' is a nice choice. You can run two skirmish games at the same time, a standard 40K game with room for your models/templates/rulebooks, or an Apoc sized game with a few friends.

This. If you have room, 4x8 is nice, but otherwise the standard 4x6 is fine.

3/4 inch plywood comes in 8x4 by default. Should be 30 bucks or less. Don't use anything thinner. It will warp and you will hate it.

Compromise on 4 x 7 if 4 x 8 is a bit too large to be able move around the edges freely.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Compromise on 4 x 7 if 4 x 8 is a bit too large to be able move around the edges freely.

This.

Having a space for resereves, dice, cards (x10 if you're playing maelstrom), books etc etc etc is AWESOME. Nothing sucks more than having to constantly find space for all that stuff

I would go slightly larger than 4' across, to give you some room on the ends so you don't have your models bleeding off the edge.

 Daba wrote:
I would go slightly larger than 4' across, to give you some room on the ends so you don't have your models bleeding off the edge.

This.

I like a table that is an extra foot in width/length, so that you get a comfy 6" on all the edges, or you can push the play area into a corner if you need a full 12".

In my new gaming space, my primary table is going to be a 5x8. But if you don't have room, I'd recommend at least an extra 6" in width/length. 3" on either side might not seem like much, but it cam make a lot of difference.

I'd suggest 4' by 6'. - A lot of games now play this size or smaller. And even 40k, you don't tend to use the entire board normally, especially after the first couple of turns, there back of the board for at least one person is usually empty.

I have a 5 x 7, perfect for any game I play and I have a 4 x4 urban board that goes on top when needed.

if you can fit it and plan to only have one table I'd go 8' x4' for these reasons:

1. Standard 40K/fantasy uses 6'x4' and you can use the extra two feet as a sideboard for models/books/etc.
2. Many skirmish games use 4'x4' so an 8'x4' allows two games to be played at once if you have friends over, or again sideboard option for single game.
3. 8'x4' allows you to play bigger games like Apoc or whatever when desired.

The best of all worlds.

I like 6x8!

Granted, that takes up a lot of space.

 Phobos wrote:
My wife and I are renovating one of our rooms and turning into a painting / gaming room. We are going to put folding table in the middle for family board games, but we want to put a removable top for use with wargames. The question is what size should this be? I was thinking 4x8. But maybe 4x6? What would be a good size?

What games do you play ?


Lots of games play on different sized spaces. Warmachine plays on 4x4. Warhammer Fantasy / 40k play on 4x6 or more. Xwing is 3x3 in most cases... etc., it varies.

I think your bases are 90% covered with 4 x6, and if you have the room, REALLY want to make sure you can play whatever you want, 4x8 should accommodate all but the craziest games of apocalypse style 40k.

4x6 is plenty for most games.. and if you want to play a smaller game you can always down size. I think a 4x8 would look a little weird...

 Haight wrote:


What games do you play ?


Lots of games play on different sized spaces. Warmachine plays on 4x4. Warhammer Fantasy / 40k play on 4x6 or more. Xwing is 3x3 in most cases... etc., it varies.

I think your bases are 90% covered with 4 x6, and if you have the room, REALLY want to make sure you can play whatever you want, 4x8 should accommodate all but the craziest games of apocalypse style 40k.

What games you play is the key question.

If you're going to just have a card table setup in the middle I'd suggest two standard square card tables (usually around 3x3 yes?) and two 4x4 tops for wargaming. You can always fold up the second table and put it and the tops aside, but if you play any games that might use a 4x8, then you're covered.

I'm planning something similar too. What I'm going to do is get 2 2x4" folding tables. I can put them together for a 4x4 board, or spread them out a little to fit a 4x6 hunk of plywood. I can't fit a 4x8, but it would work for that too. I'll probably be sticking with 4x4 the most so it seemed like the best option.

I have a 4'x6' table made from three 2'x4' 3/4" thick MDF boards that I covered with Woodland Scenics Grass Matting.



Simple. Easy to store in my basement's utility room. Relatively cheap.

Personally, with the game size I play, I would do a 6X8. However, because it doesn't apear to be an option with space, I would say go with 4X6 with fold sections, that might work.

2 boards 4x4. You then have 2 options, then if you really want to get wild, add a third 4x4. 4 by 12 ft is for us out here with the crazy terrain and armies to spare. And the room.

Regular people start with a 4 x4 table, though. You can put the board on a card table, or get as elaborate as you want to.

Also, pics when you're done would be nice

A standard ping pong table is a good investment for gaming. When you are not playing table tennis you can remove the net and cover it with a layer of cheap indoor-outdoor carpeting. I use the heavy felt looking stuff. I have several that I painted the backs on to look like various surfaces for fantasy or sci-fi. At 5' X 9' the extra space makes for some great games. When finished it folds up and rolls away for easy storage.

If you calculate the surface area it really shows the extra playing space. At 4 X 6 you get 24 square feet of gaming space. A ping pong table gives 45 square feet of battle space.

I don't know that I have room for a ping pong table. I mean, I
don't have room for a ping pong table AND other furniture.

You can use your ping pong table for a good old beer pong game also

4X8 would be nice just for the side board space to keep the table clean.

IIRC you can get 2x8 shelving units. if you put them on casters you could roll them to the side of the room and bolt them together when you need it for play.

 Desubot wrote:
4X8 would be nice just for the side board space to keep the table clean.

IIRC you can get 2x8 shelving units. if you put them on casters you could roll them to the side of the room and bolt them together when you need it for play.

This seems like a good idea.

You will need to cut them down with like a cut off blade of some kind though which not everyone has access too :/
as usually the shelves are like 8 feet tall. (so buying 1 set would net you a full table.