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Ok,

so beer with me... (typo will become apparent soon )


I homebrew, and as such, i've built a bar to house the various brews I make. Now we're actually moving, so i'm intending to break the bar up and rebuild it in our new home.... HOWEVER... I'm wondering if I could make it a bar/gaming table

now underneath the bar in my photos is a ruddy great chest freezer, which is temperature controlled to maintain cellar temperatures i.e. it keeps the beer cold ready for serving. There's also a C02 bottle to pump it all through... anyway... all that gubbins takes up a fair amount of space, so potentially I could have a decent sized board on top.

I think the board will still be bigger than the freezer, so I'll probably have space for some cupboards too.

I'd be keeping the door, as this allows access to the freezer, which slides out to let me change kegs etc.

What i'm hoping you lovely lot can help with is advising the size of the table as shown in the third photo?

Do I want to allow for a 8' x 4' board to go on here? or something bigger? or 8' x 4' as a seperate board, then a gap around the board for books/cards/models.

I want the table top itself to be very multiuse. Sometimes it'll be a bar, sometimes it'll be a gaming table, sometimes it'll just be covered in rubbish and i'll watch the telly in the room sat on a bar stool.

The tap tower will need to be altered but that's no big deal. Just think it would be a cool playing space... and if not, well.... it has beer on it.... you'll grow to love it after a while

so yes, advice on length and width of the table would be great.

4x8 is big. Probably bigger then you need on a regular basis, unless you play very large games. 4x6 I think is a more reasonable table

Yeah, 8x4 is really unwieldy. We used to have a bunch of them at our club but once we made some new 6x4s we exclusively used those and have never had any problems with that size. I think most modern wargames will work fine on that size. I can't think of any that need an 8x4 space. Room for cards, books etc is nice to have but I find it's not really needed as most games that use a full 6x4 end up with enough dead space on both sides to place those things.

awesome cheers, I can make the top 8x4 in that case, then end 2' will allow for the beer taps and then 6' allocated to play area.

looking forward to getting started.

On the other hand, if you've got the space, it's easier to shrink down to smaller sizes than it is to scale up, right?

8x4 is great.

6x4 for the game, then you have a 2 foot section at the end for your gear like books, dice, laptop, camera set-up, your pretzels, and your pint of beer.

8x4 is best as it allows you to have some space at the ends as Easy E said but also for playing the full Monty "Apoc" games.

Extra space on a table is a good thing.

All of my tables are 6x5 (on account of being made up of two 6x2.5 tables), so having that 1/2 foot space on either side for dice, cards, and so on is useful.

I would suggest you make the gaming area higher than the utility area of the table, that way if you spill a drink it won't run onto the gaming surface...

I've seen a lot of tables that either have recessed areas for the game, or something that goes on the table to create a raised playing surface.

I see both of these as things that limit the actual playing surface. The bigger and flatter and featureless it is, the better. More utility. More room for activities ().

yeah that's the thing, it's a bar that will double as gaming table rather than the other way round so it'll likely be made from scaffold boards.

The gaming table itself will be a separate board to sit on top.

4x8 if you have the spaces works great. As has been said, having the extra space for books and you dead models makes the whole area more playable.

I usually play 1000pt games so I usually have a 4x4 play area but a 4x6 table for that purpose.

well, in my gaming plans , for investing, i think really long time

dont get me wrong, here, i like this game, War cry


but, i say, its alot of money

its my point, i have some alternatives yet



first, is a Underworlds shadespire, which i'm planning to buy next month

but, for

hex board game i see alternative in latest Battletech, really nice edition


i really really always wanted to have this game, and i think, time has come


soon i will buy, because its really cool



or, hot whatever


but, just now i spotted in my sight, has appeared, Scythe


and, its Buy nr 1, for now


despite, i still think, Risk , that hasbro produced years years ago,


eons , has passed, and Risk has very low strategy rating


but, i'm thinking about this game too



Automatically Appended Next Post:

consult this, Hex (board game) wikipedia page

i didnt know, hex based games has "solution"



like this page shows



best wishes


orc strategist - run first - think later - hit


when you have bombs,

My imagination loves the idea of a bar and game table combo. However, the combination of potentially spashing beer, and terrain/minis is not a great one. Plus, maybe you will want to have friends around the bar when you're not wargaming. I think a sidebar against or near a wall and separate (potentially moveable) gaming table is a better idea.

Sorry to wiz on your dreams, but I think separate instalations is the way to go.

If you do go through with it, I think simply setting it up as a big10x4 table (8x4 plus 2 feet of bar) with nice reclaimed wood look and the bar section 4 inches lower than the table would be fine. Leave room for chairs to be pulled up to it so you've basically got a really big dining table. Height is up to you. Bar height would be fun.

Then you can just roll a terrain mat out over the table when you want to game.

 Eilif wrote:
My imagination loves the idea of a bar and game table combo. However, the combination of potentially spashing beer, and terrain/minis is not a great one. Plus, maybe you will want to have friends around the bar when you're not wargaming. I think a sidebar against or near a wall and separate (potentially moveable) gaming table is a better idea.

Sorry to wiz on your dreams, but I think separate instalations is the way to go.

If you do go through with it, I think simply setting it up as a big10x4 table (8x4 plus 2 feet of bar) with nice reclaimed wood look and the bar section 4 inches lower than the table would be fine. Leave room for chairs to be pulled up to it so you've basically got a really big dining table. Height is up to you. Bar height would be fun.

Then you can just roll a terrain mat out over the table when you want to game.

the challenge there is the bar setup requires alot of parts to make it work - namely a 450ltr chest freezer in which are the kegs. You then need gas to pump from keg to tap. So having all this under the table is just practical more than anything.

The gaming table won't be fixed I don't think. Having looked more into it I think i'll just have a nice flat table surface. When I want to game, I'll use an appropriate sized battlemat or similar rolled out. Once the game is done, roll it all away and i'm back to having a pub.

I mean I could just build a gaming table in the garage and keep the bar as a bar, but it's just easier to combine the two in terms of having a comfortable room to play in and a nice space to sit and drink or play darts etc.

Needs more thought

While some of the under table space will be needed for bar stuff, plenty of slots and shelves for storing terrain, mats, etc would be useful.

 Nevelon wrote:
While some of the under table space will be needed for bar stuff, plenty of slots and shelves for storing terrain, mats, etc would be useful.

Oh totally, I mean it'll be a big ol' thing so should be room for boxes and stuff either side of the freezer and gas.

Morthraen wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
While some of the under table space will be needed for bar stuff, plenty of slots and shelves for storing terrain, mats, etc would be useful.

Oh totally, I mean it'll be a big ol' thing so should be room for boxes and stuff either side of the freezer and gas.

One perk of building it yourself is you can make the shelves the size for things you need. There is a thread on this page where people are talking about how to store neoprene mats. Now you are not likely to randomly make a slot where you can slide a rolled up tube 4 feet long but only a few inches wide, but when making a custom table, you could probably fit in space for a few.

Something to consider when carving up the space.

 Nevelon wrote:

Morthraen wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
While some of the under table space will be needed for bar stuff, plenty of slots and shelves for storing terrain, mats, etc would be useful.

Oh totally, I mean it'll be a big ol' thing so should be room for boxes and stuff either side of the freezer and gas.

One perk of building it yourself is you can make the shelves the size for things you need. There is a thread on this page where people are talking about how to store neoprene mats. Now you are not likely to randomly make a slot where you can slide a rolled up tube 4 feet long but only a few inches wide, but when making a custom table, you could probably fit in space for a few.

Something to consider when carving up the space.

very true.

I mean the freezer is a little over 4' long, 2' deep so a sizeable chunk is associated with that - and being able to wheel that out. But yes, space for mats, and other bits is definitely going to need to be considered.