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A hundred bucks is a deal for a 4' x 6' fully painted and detailed battleboard is a deal in these days of mass production; ideally it should be cheaper, but let's do the math...

Considering that a 2' x 2' fully painted and detailed battleboard is required for displaying Armies on Parade, and let's say you spend $ 15-20 on materials to construct such a size

$ 15 X 6 = $ 90

$ 20 X 6 = $ 120

Taking into consideration mass production techniques (vac-formed plastic battlefield / terrain features) and an assembly-line construction format, it would be possible to crank out enough 2' X 2" fully painted and detailed battleboards to sell at a cheaper price

However, i am surprised there isn't an internet website that sells battleboards ... like battleboards.com eh

Just don't go to the battleboards UK website, it's not wargaming ... it's pharmaceutical drugs for some reason

I wanted to vote for $175-$200 but I don't really care if it's portable.

If it's beautiful, I'd go to $200.
For something robust, useable, and aesthetically pleasing (but without the "wow" factor), I'd be comfortable with a $100-150 window.

In my experience a painted plastic board looks sweet, but is terrible to play on.

They are competing with Mats which are under $100, and are more functional in a lot of ways. I wouldn't even look at buying a plastic board for more than $100.

I don't personally own a 6' x 4' plastic battle board. That said I would be willing to pay up to 200$ for a modular, themed, and quality board. The time it would take me to prep and paint such a thing makes it worthwhile to me. Not to mention the looks it'd garner when I bring that puppy to the shop for a battle.

$100-130USD seems fair for something like the GW boards. Though depending on the quality up to $200 could be reasonable. Though at that level I would expect it to be painted, flocked, etc...

Making my own is just too fun.

I've had ten or so terrain tables. I've had the one pictured in my avatar cost around $1000.... and the last table I made cost around $150-200. The table I'm working on this year is around the 300-500 zone.

Voted max. The table and terrain should cost more or around the same as the army youre fielding

I like the Necromunda tiles, but $20 CAD per tile (80 for a box) is way too high. That would be 480 CAD for a 4x6 table. Half of that would be perfectly reasonable - I know people seem to think that detailed plastic terrain should be cheap as chips, but molds and salaries aren't cheap, even if plastic is. That would only be twice what a good battlemat costs these days.

Not in the market for a pre-set table, and mats just do a better job for modular set ups.

I did a modular table years ago, with river, forrest, hill section etc. with the terrain features fixed.
I wouldn't do that again. It looks beautiful but it's not that flexible, if you are not willing to have very small tiles. I used a grid of 30x30cm and tiles of 30x30, 30x60 and 60x60.
So the "ground" and terrain features will be separate.
Using a sheet of wood (or a number of sheets for easy storage) as base is easily obtained - if the "kitchen table" isn't big enough - something GW seems to opt for considering the reduced recommended table sizes.
The cheapest not bad looking topper for the "table" ist low grass carpet (so it's not as high as to hinder placement) or flooring from a DIY shop. There is flooring looking like concrete which is nice for cities etc.

I also play on battle mats. All of the above are easy to play on and easy to roll dice on and many look good.

Plastic tabletop tiles have one advantage raised detail. But that is also a disadvantage as models might wobble and movement trays will hang all the time, when pushed.
It's also not perfect when placing terrain features, which will not sit flush on the tabletop.
Plastic tiles are usually(all?, often?) hollow, so they vibrate when knocked and might be too flimsy (or at least feel so) to lean on when trying to reach models farther away.
Dice rolling is also hindered and results in many cocked dice - if you prefer to roll dice on the table instead of using a dice box/tray whatever.
And it does not scale well. If you have the GW battle board and want to play Epic or Warmaster on it, it looks weird.
Last not least it will not be self-supporting, you will need a wooden board or a table as with the other methods.
So no matter what no plastic tabletop for me.

Battle mats are the way to go. They offer flexibility, durability, and are affordable. They are also good for your models and dice. Don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic examples of "3d boards" but they tend to be the ones with lots of time and money invested in them and they lack flexibility if you are a frequent gamer. A battle mat with some nicely painted terrain and some scatter to blend the terrain with the mat and you are good to go, it can also all be packed away and stored easily.

This is a thread from 2013, why are we continuing to necro it?

Depends. I have a mix of pre-made stuff and stuff I made. I also like having multiple battle mats for various scenarios.

There is a trade off between $ vs time. Making terrain means what little hobby time I have these days is not spent on painting and kitbashing my army, which I enjoy more.
But, pre-made terrain costs more money.

message Deleted. Necrothread..

For the love of mod, theres been no replies for almost 3 years, stop necroing.

chaos0xomega wrote:
For the love of mod, theres been no replies for almost 3 years, stop necroing.

Glad to see you've appointed yourself moderator. Good luck with that.

Perhaps you'd have a bit more grace if you knew that this poll appears on the front page with a current date. Sure it links to an older post, but hopefully you can see why folks might not notice that when this is what they see on the frontpage:

I didnt appoint myself mod, its a play on words ala "for the love of god". Its also standard practice to call out thread necromancy, which is against the forum rules:

"Posts in a topical thread that has been dormant for several weeks ("thread necromancy") will result in the thread being closed."

https://www.dakkadakka.com/core/forum_rules.jsp

That does not apply to the polls section.

But, to be fair, years old polls popping up on the front page isn't optimal, and I've found myself replying to a poll thread only to find my reply from years earlier on a previous page.