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I'm looking to get a nice gaming table but when I do a Google search, I come up with a lot of noise and very little interesting stuff. If anyone has links to a decent table for wargaming, I'd be very appreciative.

Also, I am most certainly not interested in that stupid $15,000 table that's been making the rounds these past couple of years.

You're not interested in making your own?

For a 1/3 of the price of the GW one you can make a decent table.

Frontline gaming has some nice gaming mats. All you have to do is lay them on a surface.

If you have the time, six 2x2 pink foam insulation sheets make decent tables that can be stored and transported. You just need to shape the sheets to your choosing. But they allow for easy way to make a trench table.

I second the frontline gaming mats. Also, they make terrain and I think it's for a fairly good price. But, I'll tell you what I did. First I bought in on the MegaMat from Frontline Gaming (the I just referred to in my first sentence), then went on eBay on found terrain I liked and contacted Axebaneblade. He is a newer Terrian Commissioner and has incredible talent with affordable pricing. Give him a try...

I spent with everything included....$350. All of my gaming buddy (even the wife) comment on how well but together my gaming table is!

Mr. Raynor

Pretty much no one makes them and makes you realize how tiny a market exists for 6x4 tables :p Honestly, it's a size that has no useful application beyond miniature games. My advice (as someone who used to run 16x12" games in my basement.. Don't make silly tables, just buy 8x3" folding tables from stores because FOLDING TABLES = smart

Static gaming tables = divorce imo!

Two of those above tables gives you 8x6 which is what large games should be played at minimum, then you can just buy more to create larger surfaces. Since they're all the same table you can roll out a gaming mat (which are vastly superior to foam boards) such as zuzzy or the others youve seen in kickstarter. I can personally get an apoc sized game ready in like 10 mins by using folding tables + gaming mats.

The 15,000$ table also isn't for wargaming, because wargaming is an almost non-existence thought in most minds. It's for DnD and card games.

The ones I've found are from geekchichq.com which are pricey or the one from montyhaulgaming. You can check them out if you don't have a big garage workspace to build nor have tools and skill for it.

These seem studier that the foldable tables. I've had too many table bump incidents with those.

 milkboy wrote:
The ones I've found are from geekchichq.com which are pricey or the one from montyhaulgaming. You can check them out if you don't have a big garage workspace to build nor have tools and skill for it.

These seem studier that the foldable tables. I've had too many table bump incidents with those.

Pretty sure that's the exact designer the OP was talking about for making overpriced tables :p As geek chic is the only website that I know of that makes gaming tables.

Yeah, their price is absolutely jaw dropping. :p

Monty haul gaming is more reasonable but it's in Australia I think.

 Breotan wrote:
I'm looking to get a nice gaming table but when I do a Google search, I come up with a lot of noise and very little interesting stuff. If anyone has links to a decent table for wargaming, I'd be very appreciative.

Also, I am most certainly not interested in that stupid $15,000 table that's been making the rounds these past couple of years.

Assuming you are not looking for a DIY option - call up a custom cabinet shop.

Most are more than capable of producing furniture as well as kitchen/bath cabinets. Tell them what you are looking for and let them sort out the particulars within your budget.

At the very least for something like a 4x6 game table with slide out drawers in the apron and a wood top with solid legs you should be able to get something done for $1000-1500 in most areas of the US (East and Left coasts excluded due to stupidity there). Prices go up from there of course depending on the bells and whistles you want, wood selections and any unique moldings/turnings used.

Unless they are a good bit incompetent - it wouldn't be hard to design it so that it can double as a formal dining table either - to keep the spouses happy.

Just noticed you are on the left coast...you might need to double the number to get a cabinet shop to bite on the project. Those states make it difficult on manufacturers - especially manufacturers who actually make things, and as a result of the increased compliance costs...everything else goes up as well.

There seems to be only a few routes to go when it comes to getting a table:

Pay that company an exorbitant amount of money for one then wait a year or more to get it. Hand made heirloom quality furniture is expensive and their seems to be ample demand for their product so I can't fault them for the prices (no wait I can) but I have heard stories of people waiting over a year to get their table and they have to put a hefty deposit down.
Build it yourself - which you either end up with plywood crap or you have to learn to become Bob villa. Let's face it, the majority of us are gamers and didn't pay attention in shop class.
Buy non-gaming furniture that doesn't really suit what you need.

It's a shame there is no reasonably priced maker of game tables.

Hmmm who wants to go into business with me? lol

@We
And Sean_OBrien's suggestion of hiring a cabinet maker/ carpenter.
We have 'pods' made for our sales centers that are very close to being perfect gaming tables (large table surface, multi-use storage below) and those cost us around $3,000 (price exaggerated by being in Calgary).

Even at $3-4,000 I think that's very reasonable for a solid piece of furniture with storage that you would potentially use weekly. That assumes a permanent gaming location though. It's the route I'll be going if I go with a gaming room over a gym in our next house.

Anything that you can just fold away will have to compete with a dirt cheap folding table or trestle and the market is much to small for something in between to be practical.
Unless IKEA decides that tabletop gaming is an untapped market we're not going to see any other options emerge any time soon.

We wrote:
It's a shame there is no reasonably priced maker of game tables.

Really depends on what you consider reasonably priced.

For a decent quality table (any kind - not just game) - $1000 is about where I normally start looking and I go up from there. You can get custom work done for that price. If you are looking for Walmart pricing...not going to have too much luck there though.

Granted, if all you are after is something that is 4x6 (or another size for gaming on) without any additional features...then you could probably get a cabinet company to bang something like the Ikea Norden out for about the same price as the Ikea $500-600. Still about twice the price of the Ikea - but it isn't made in bulk quantities...so you have to take that into consideration.


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 plastictrees wrote:
@We
And Sean_OBrien's suggestion of hiring a cabinet maker/ carpenter.
We have 'pods' made for our sales centers that are very close to being perfect gaming tables (large table surface, multi-use storage below) and those cost us around $3,000 (price exaggerated by being in Calgary).

Even at $3-4,000 I think that's very reasonable for a solid piece of furniture with storage that you would potentially use weekly. That assumes a permanent gaming location though. It's the route I'll be going if I go with a gaming room over a gym in our next house.

Keep in mind that those sale center "pods" are normally covered in a plastic laminate which adds cost and labor too. Years ago, I actually wrote some software for a major cabinet company to do their estimating...so I have a fair understanding of the process involved in pricing (plus working with wood for almost as long as I have been gaming...which has been a few decades now).

The laminates though normally add $4-5 per square foot over a wood veneer like maple or birch plywood. When you have laminate tops, laminate modesty panels and the rest of that...it doesn't take much to add $1000+ of plastic laminate material.

I've built plenty of gaming related furniture - both for myself and for others. I charge more for my time than most cabinet shops do, and I would put my goods up against GeekChic any day...both in short and long term performance. I can also copy what they offer for about half the price (again - I am not looking for work, just using my own small shops schedule for illustrative purposes). Would cabinetry be my business - I could have it done in a month or less on top of that.

Stained hardwood in our case. We're paying a finishing carpenter to do those, anything construction related is significantly more expensive out here compared to anywhere else in Canada outside of Toronto and Vancouver.

My votes for the GW one. If it is out of reach then a DIY board. Lots of tutorials. I just got done redoing my table.

GW does not sell tables. They sell terrain tiles (or boards if you prefer). You put terrain tiles on top of tables.

Breotan is looking for a table - not terrain to put on top of the table.

Lowes have ton of tables.

Yeah, literally the cheapest option (at least in the states) is to go to Wal-mart/Lowe's and get two of the 6'x3' folding tables and toss a mat/RoB tiles on top of it.

Beyond that, your options are Geek Chiq or making one of your own.

I made one of my own and it was awesome. Also my wife didn't divorce me because I put it in the basement.

 slowthar wrote:
Yeah, literally the cheapest option (at least in the states) is to go to Wal-mart/Lowe's and get two of the 6'x3' folding tables and toss a mat/RoB tiles on top of it.

Works for me.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Breotan is looking for a table - not terrain to put on top of the table.

Exactly. I have plenty of terrain. I just need a good table to put it all on.

If you were closer, I'd just make you one. Maybe approach a store that has nice gaming tables, and ask if they made them, or had them made by someone?

If you have room and are not looking for something that folds or is easliy moved out of the way, you could use this for starters...

http://www.amazon.com/2x4-Basics-Workbench-Model-90158MI/dp/B005SQ365M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1402340205&sr=8-2&keywords=work+bench+kit

Use OSB or plywood for the top and shelf. Some 2x4s for the edges. It's a nice little DIY game table. Best part is that the legs let you build the size you want. I would build 8x4. Even if you only play in a 6x4 area, it leaves room for drinks, food, and out of play models. You can get a 8x4 piece of sheathing at Home Depot for $8(OSB) to $26(3/4" plywood).

That is actually something worth considering. Thanks, 2112.

Too bad the folding tables aren't TALLER. I'm 6'2", and one thing I hate is short, tiny little tables that I constantly have to kneel down to see stuff. Something at hip height would be idea for me.

I think you could build a custom table out of plywood and 2x4s for about $100. Maybe a little more if you think of some fancier features like drawers, folding legs, modular etc.

Your wife might leave you, though.

I just use painted plywood. Our dining table is almost the right size, so I just put the plywood on top of things that look like hockey pucks with some type of high friction surface on both sides (I forget what they are called, buy at lowes/home depot used to space wood above a work table so you can cut through it or if you are painting/staining to hold above the table to keep clean) to make sure we don't damage the table. Thinking about buying a mat to go over the plywood so it will look a little nicer. Plywood lives in the garage until game time.