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What kinds of tables do you play on? What types of mats do you use if at all? I'm looking to building a table soon, and have the specs for that already, but I don't know what kind of mat to use. I was thinking a turf like mat, but I dont know if that would be the best. Suggestions? Preferences? Ideas?

At my FLGS we have boards we lay over tables.

At home: GW Battle board over extended dinning table.

At store: Plywood topped tables.

I like light brown felted tables. Tend to go with anything.

There are 4 articles here.

I use three 1/2" thick 2'x4' MDF boards next to each other. I glued Woodland Scenics "Ready to Go" vinyl grass mat on to them. I place these on my kitchen table, with a heavy painter's clother under it to keep them from scratching the table. They pack away pretty nicely.

So, you guys think a felt table is the best route? I read in a blog about taking a bed sheet and painting it to reflect what terrain you're playing on, thoughts on that? it sounds good, but I'd imagine storage would be difficult with bending the painted sheet.

kronk wrote:There are 4 articles here.

I use three 1/2" thick 2'x4' MDF boards next to each other. I glued Woodland Scenics "Ready to Go" vinyl grass mat on to them. I place these on my kitchen table, with a heavy painter's clother under it to keep them from scratching the table. They pack away pretty nicely.

Mine is something similar.
Instead of MDF, mine are 2" thick insulation foam sections... and they're attached to each other.
On the top of the center piece & one, Duct tape holds it together. On the other side, duct tape holds the center one and the third piece (on the underside). The Wodland Scenics grass mat (mine's self adhesive) go over these. One 2x4 section & one 4x4 section (covers the duct tape on top.
This kind of set up allows one section to fold over and the other to fold under like this:
\/\

It makes it very compact, and your minis are on a softer surface than MDF during gameplay. Also, the foam won't harm your table top.

Eric

A good and cheap alternative to the GW tablecloth is pool table cloth. Check a local pool hall and ask if they have an old cloth lying around. A gentle wash in the laundry and it is perfect for the game table. And sometimes, you might get a weird color rather than just green!

SoloFalcon1138 wrote: And sometimes, you might get a weird color rather than just green!

Especially if it's a used pool cloth from a real pool hall!

dakkamasta wrote:So, you guys think a felt table is the best route?

Maybe.

One of my buddies drapes felt over his dinner table. Another drapes an old bed sheet over a 6'x4' sheet of plywood. Another has a large sheet of plywood with not cover at all. I mostly get splinters from it. Mostly.

Anything is better than plain plywood, IMHO.

I textured and painted 2 2'x4' pieces of 3/4 inch ply and then put a hinge on the back. It's easy to store and move, the hinges also keep it in line during a game. We have an additional 2'x4' extension but we usually play with dense Cities of Death terrain so 4x4 is cool up to 1500. The whole deal goes under the stairs when not in use.

My table is 6 2X2 panels made from acoustic ceiling times attatcked to 1/4" MDF for modular setup, toss em on a couple of banquet tables in the living room

For me and my boys we put together a 5 X 6 and textured it. We used 1/8" MDF and secured it to 2 inch wooden frame.
The bedsheet trick works well. I water down my paint and drop cheap white sheets into a 5 gallon bucket. Then let it drip dry on the clothes line. Then give it a wash and dry again and its colored and can be folded and stored easily.

I have a Zuzzy matt and a Realm of battle GW board, the matt is stuck down onto a 6x4 foot board with lip all around the edges, so I can place the RoB tiles over the top as/when I need and they wont slide. I really like them both. But for the price I think the Zuzzy matt is the better option.

I have a large old dining room table in my garage that I am currently building terrain for. (will probably also be selling some if it too.)

if you're looking for some nice roll up grass, take a look at the woodland scenics turf mat's. they've got great coverage and look really nice.

I have a travel table made from three 2'x4' sections of 3/4 plywood reinforced by a frame. The three sections snap together. It is still pretty large to store and somewhat awkward to haul around. I usually put it on a standard 2.5'x6' folding table that folds in half for storage. It is textured and painted with a desert theme. To change up theme I put down a mat.

A felt table surface works just fine if you have a table that is the right size to put it on. The typical problem with gaming tables is that the sizes ideal for many games (4'x4' or 6'x4') are not standard table sizes. Most square card tables are 3'x3' and rectangular tables tend to be 2.5'x5' or 2.5'x6'. This is why many wargamers build their own tables or table tops.

You can push two 6' long folding tables together to make a 5'x6' surface and spread a felt mat over that. That has the advantage of also giving you some space for models, dice, etc. You can even get reasonably priced plastic tables that fold in half and are easy(ish) to transport and store. That route would also not require any construction on your part.

If I had a game room, I would install my own hand made gaming table with a storage area underneath. Sadly, I live in the South Louisiana where there's no basements and my foolish first-time-home-buyer self did not consider the impact that the lack of a garage would have on my gaming habits (the yard is nice and big though). Oh well. You can't have everything.

I have a Brown Desert mat and a bunch of matching hills and stuff, and I built a load of Tau structures to go with them. It's enough to set up a very dense table/

While not my table (belongs to my buddy Alex), this is where we do most of our gaming. Obviously from the site and the rest of the pictures, it's designed mostly for D&D, but works great for table top wargaming once you slap some nice terrain on it. I'd like to get a nice mat to cover it, but the ones I want aren't currently big enough to cover the playing surface.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/the-lair-this-is-where-we-game

Maelstrom808 wrote:While not my table (belongs to my buddy Alex), this is where we do most of our gaming. Obviously from the site and the rest of the pictures, it's designed mostly for D&D, but works great for table top wargaming once you slap some nice terrain on it. I'd like to get a nice mat to cover it, but the ones I want aren't currently big enough to cover the playing surface.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/the-lair-this-is-where-we-game

Crikey that is one nice setup. The contents of that room are without doubt priceless....

I have a realm of battle board that I lay across 2 folding tables for big games.

I also just made 2 small 2x2 demo boards for my game, where I used a zuzzy matt and glued it to plywood, spray primed it and drybrushed. Quick & easy and it looks good. If I ever make a big table, I'll be using a big zuzzy matt.

We are very lucky to have someone as devoted to the game as he is. Been friends with and gaming with him for about 10 years now.

I have been thinking of making a 6' by 4' board made to play 40k. My friend and I go between 1.5k and 2k, so a larger board would be good. After reading this thought, most people have 4' by 4' boards. Now I am not so sure about my plan.

At home Mars board with fitting based ruïns

at Local GW store, various gaming tables

Happygrunt wrote:I have been thinking of making a 6' by 4' board made to play 40k. My friend and I go between 1.5k and 2k, so a larger board would be good. After reading this thought, most people have 4' by 4' boards. Now I am not so sure about my plan.

4'x4' is too small for standard sized 40K games.

A minimum 6'x4' surface is needed imho, and even that size seems crowded with many 1500pt. 40K armies.

IF I could only build and have one table in my gaming space I would have an 8' x4' surface. This covers most popular tabletop games: 6'x4' standard for 40k with option for 8'x4' for apoc., two simultaneous 4'x4' for many skirmish games (warmachine, etc.),etc.

I'm currently spoiled for space in my basement game room and have two 6'x4' and two 8'x4' tables currently. All are textured with wood glue and fine sand as a base surface. Then drybrushed/sprayed/washed/flocked as needed to achievethe look I was after.

Maelstrom808 wrote:We are very lucky to have someone as devoted to the game as he is. Been friends with and gaming with him for about 10 years now.

Yep.
I haven't known him for as long, but he's right. Alex (the owner) is a good guy to game with. Also, he's devoted enough to his gaming that you never need to worry about him being a flake. That's important (IMO) in a gamer.

Eric

MagickalMemories wrote:

Maelstrom808 wrote:We are very lucky to have someone as devoted to the game as he is. Been friends with and gaming with him for about 10 years now.

Yep.
I haven't known him for as long, but he's right. Alex (the owner) is a good guy to game with. Also, he's devoted enough to his gaming that you never need to worry about him being a flake. That's important (IMO) in a gamer.

Eric

Indeed. When are you gonna get back in for another game? Been doing well with the new edition so far, until I decided to get cute and play around with my Nids which Loren promptly spanked with a CSM + Epidemius ally list he proxied.

I have a sturdy 4x6 made of 2x3 and birch ply with a portable 2"x4" table that I made. 4 bolts and the whole things comes down. It's HEAVY. Stays assembled in the garage 98% of the time. I also have a 1"x"3 framed table that has thin wood paneling on it with 1" foam glued to it for a very light semi-portable 4x6 table.

Mine is a 6x4 made from 3 pieces of 4'x2' mdf (1/2") and held together with foldback clips (55mm).

One side is painted as an urban street layout (roads enter and leave from the same 6 points on each board, so they line up if you rotate the boards 90/180*). The other side is an encroaching desert board (roughly half grass mat, half textured sand.

My terrain is all in modules that I can place on the table where they fit and it allows me to vary the terrain around as needed.

I have a pair of Gamescape 6' x 4' mats that I provide for our games. The 4' x 8' plywood table uses one mat, at the other place we play on a big 6' x 10' ping pong table with 2 mats turned crosswise.

GW battlemat. It actually is really good value. It's inexpensive (even for a good battlemat), is made of tough cloth and is flocked. That is, if you want a green, grasslands battlefield. But, as someone said, anything is better than plain plywood.



Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to actually game on it. Not enough room where I live.

I have a plain table made out of 2X4s, then topped with plywood. I make MDF table-tops for it, most of which are game specific (40k, infinity, warmahordes)

Maelstrom808 wrote:While not my table (belongs to my buddy Alex), this is where we do most of our gaming. Obviously from the site and the rest of the pictures, it's designed mostly for D&D, but works great for table top wargaming once you slap some nice terrain on it. I'd like to get a nice mat to cover it, but the ones I want aren't currently big enough to cover the playing surface.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/metzger/wikis/the-lair-this-is-where-we-game

I see HackMaster books! The PHB, GMG, Hacklopedia of Beasts... Member of the HMPA or HMGMA? Also, there's some nice Dwarven Forge sets there, too. We use a lot of those in our D&D sessions.

Very nice, man. I'm most impressed!