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So I recently played an all vehicle and aircraft game on a floor surface using a 125 inch long area by 48 inch width area.

Imperial Guard vs Orks using only vehicles and aircraft. (Orks had battlewagon, dakka jet and two truks, vs. two Lemon Russ tanks and a manticore) Only 5 battle rounds using the Stand Off mission from open war pack (no twist).

I've got to say it was really cool getting to see the Lemon Russ tanks firing at max range, as they closed with an Ork Battlewagon on their way to trying to take an objective. Meanwhile, a manticore was firing from incredibly long range while a dakka jet actually had to move 60 inches each turn to close quickly and open up with its supa shootas!

As much as I don't enjoy playing on a floor surface, this was so much fun I may need to try it again. Has anyone else tried playing games like this?

Yes.



The imperium was trying to defend the bunker with the statue on it while orks were coming from one side and thousand sons were summoning stuff on the other. All those fortifications models were active and using their datasheets.

Long story short, even the speed mob just barely managed to reach the center of that board in turn 5, and since most armies don't have super-long ranges I doubt it would be as much fun for most as it was for your guard player.

What's funny is that the first miniature war game, Little Wars (created by HG Wells no less) was also played on the floor.



Spoilered because big picture is big.

Dekskull, you can't make a post like this without pics!

I don't think I've done a 40K game like that but back in the day we would occasionally put all of our Lotr Minis together in one giant battle using the whole room. I think our biggest game was about 4000 points on each side (which would be about 7000 in 40K terms).

Oh yes. (Sadly only a few times in recent years)
They tend to involve lots of tanks, super-heavies, & titans.
And aircraft nowadays.
Looked like we were playing Epic - in 40k scale.

You can bring other stuff. Just know that you WILL have to move (alot). So transports, deepstrike, etc is really valuable.

It's also a really unique feeling to shell someone with a companies worth of Basilisks - at near max range & know that you can do so for several more turns with near impunity.

It's one of those things that sounds cool when you first see it but sucks in practice. Someone's model gets stepped on and destroyed, everyone has aching knees the next day from crawling around on the floor all day, and you all swear to never do it again.

CadianSgtBob wrote:
It's one of those things that sounds cool when you first see it but sucks in practice. Someone's model gets stepped on and destroyed, everyone has aching knees the next day from crawling around on the floor all day, and you all swear to never do it again.

Yes the broken models part definitely happened when I was experimenting with the set up. Good thing super glue can fix nearly anything.

I do promise there will be pics soon!

As far as game balance. Definitely think about how long the armies will take to reach various objectives. If you have a ranged army like guard vs a non ranged army like orks, give the non ranged army flyers to make up for it.

When you play epic or on a bigger board you really start to realize just how constrained the game is by the current play size.

Why they chose to go to an even smaller play area with 8th i have no idea.

So long as you don't accidently tread on anything, its a great idea. Slightly uncomfortable at times, though.

We find the floor better for games with larger models, rather than smaller ones.

 Sledgehammer wrote:
Why they chose to go to an even smaller play area with 8th i have no idea.

Because the boards for the new play area fit into the standard cardboard boxes that GW uses, while making boards for a standard 6x4 play area would require keeping inventory/material handling/etc for an additional box size. And most tournaments went along with it because they can fit more people into the same space and because the TO group behind some of the largest events coincidentally launched their own line of mats sized to fit the new standard. There is no gameplay reason for it, it's purely a sales issue.

CadianSgtBob wrote:

 Sledgehammer wrote:
Why they chose to go to an even smaller play area with 8th i have no idea.

Because the boards for the new play area fit into the standard cardboard boxes that GW uses, while making boards for a standard 6x4 play area would require keeping inventory/material handling/etc for an additional box size. And most tournaments went along with it because they can fit more people into the same space and because the TO group behind some of the largest events coincidentally launched their own line of mats sized to fit the new standard. There is no gameplay reason for it, it's purely a sales issue.

The real mystery is why did so many of the players (even those with 6x4/8x4 tables & mats) buy into it?

As promised...

BTW quick disclaimer. I regularly convert my kid's unused toys into models. (So this game was almost entirely a show case of my somewhat unfinished conversions).

The big loooong, battle field. I called this the battle of the flooded road, but there were no terrain effects. (Though if I did this again I'd let the roads allow vehicles to move faster on them).



I threw an extra tank into this picture for fun. But you get the idea. The Lemon Russ tanks barreling down the highway at maximum speed, engaging the battle wagon and trukk at a thrilling 72 inches.



Last but not least, the Dakka Jet swooping in to close ranks with the manticore. (Bet you've never seen a Death Eagle rocket like that before!)



In any case. Suprise! Guard DID NOT win this. Orks won because they got to the middle objective first. Guard could have prioritized their artillery strikes better to knock out the trukk that was camping the deployment zone and racking up points, but it was also a matter of not being able to predict the dice.

Fighting wise, the Guard racked up a large amount of damage, taking the battlewagon down to 1 wound. (Survivor). The Orks barely scratched the Guard, but hey, a win is a win right?

Hah, reminds me of the days back in the '70s spent on the floor playing with my WW2 army men. Hope ya had a lot of fun, ...and next time you should break out the marbles to handle ranged combat.

once played a huge game on a circa 10ft by 8ft floor. It was a pig because it was carpet, but it was a brilliant apocalypse game (when apoc first came out and all there really were was baneblades). probably 6-7k of orks vs imperials. I seem to recall that the game was called off because one of our parents wanted to use the living room so we never got a conclusion :(

I've played games on the floor.

Not something I'm in a rush to do again.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I've played games on the floor.

Not something I'm in a rush to do again.

Yeah. As cool as using the long ranges were. I would much prefer to just connect some tables and do the same thing that way.

Now I just need to figure out a way to do it without making the Mrs. even more irritated!

I've played a few games of floorhammer in my team, and like HBMC said - not something I'm in a rush to do again. Absolute murder on my back, even as a younger man than I am now in my teens and early twenties (not that I'm old, only 32) I would be paying for it for days afterwards in soreness from all the bending and hunching over. A multi-table surface is perhaps better but doesn't allow for as much drama due to the need for cutouts , etc. in order to get access to models.

IIRC there used to be a big floorhammer megabattle event in the US back in the day that had some pretty impressive showings, I think it was called Siegeworld but the most recent images I could find from that event show everything being played on tabletop.

ccs 805605 11383303 wrote:The real mystery is why did so many of the players (even those with 6x4/8x4 tables & mats) buy into it?

tournaments shape the meta, specialy the big one. That is why the proposed table size, becomes the regular game size, why the game is played at 2000 or while legends is not accepted to be played. Seems to be a world wide thing.

ccs wrote:

CadianSgtBob wrote:

 Sledgehammer wrote:
Why they chose to go to an even smaller play area with 8th i have no idea.

Because the boards for the new play area fit into the standard cardboard boxes that GW uses, while making boards for a standard 6x4 play area would require keeping inventory/material handling/etc for an additional box size. And most tournaments went along with it because they can fit more people into the same space and because the TO group behind some of the largest events coincidentally launched their own line of mats sized to fit the new standard. There is no gameplay reason for it, it's purely a sales issue.

The real mystery is why did so many of the players (even those with 6x4/8x4 tables & mats) buy into it?

Because despite the change not being made for that reason, many people have found that smaller boards actually make for a better play experience for anyone not running a high range gunline.

You just don't see people talking about that anymore because they keep getting shouted down here on dakka.

 Dekskull wrote:
So I recently played an all vehicle and aircraft game on a floor surface using a 125 inch long area by 48 inch width area.

Imperial Guard vs Orks using only vehicles and aircraft. (Orks had battlewagon, dakka jet and two truks, vs. two Lemon Russ tanks and a manticore) Only 5 battle rounds using the Stand Off mission from open war pack (no twist).

I've got to say it was really cool getting to see the Lemon Russ tanks firing at max range, as they closed with an Ork Battlewagon on their way to trying to take an objective. Meanwhile, a manticore was firing from incredibly long range while a dakka jet actually had to move 60 inches each turn to close quickly and open up with its supa shootas!

As much as I don't enjoy playing on a floor surface, this was so much fun I may need to try it again. Has anyone else tried playing games like this?

We do, it's called epic 40K using the 8th ed index 40K rules with halved ranges for movement and shooting. on an 8X4 table the basilisk can use it's total range from corner to corner with a few inches to spare.


Admech/elysians VS world eaters



DKOK VS iyanden eldar





space marines VS tau-



And the even better news aeronautica & titanicus minis are compatible, and building the armies still will cost you 1/10 of doing it in 28mm scale even with the FW units in 6mm.