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Just wanted to get some thoughts on play area size and design. Board games seem to top out around 20 inches square. There are economic drivers (most large retailers won't give more than about 10 inches of shelf space) and practical limits (box size limits) that don't come into play with miniature games. That being said, larger sizes are still less convenient, generally, and face practical limits. Games like X-wing use 3x3 fields, Warmachine tends to be at least 4x4, while Warhammer and its ilk go for 6x4. 15mm scale games tend to range from about 2x2 (DBA, HoTT, Mighty Armies) to at least 4x4 (FoW). By way of comparison, a standard square card table is 34 inches square and a typical folding table is close to 6x3. Standard billiards tables are 9 foot by 4.5 foot or 8 foot by 4 foot.

With miniature games, there also has to be sufficient room to reach all parts of the table, so you are looking at an extra footprint of 2-3 feet on any given side for table sizes where everything cannot be reached from a single position. So a 4x6 table is going to need at least 8x10 actual space, meaning such tables will require sizable dedicated space. By comparison, a 2x2 game could probably be played on any standard game or table surface, and would be much more accessible.

Now, obviously, a simulationist game using 1/50th scale armies won't fit on a 2x2 surface. OTOH, most miniature wargames have a large degree of distance compression to begin with, so there is already compromise. What is the ideal balance here? Is the prevalence of 4x6 tables in 28mm wargaming a significant barrier to accessibility? Is there a better way?

Its an interesting question, table space comes at an expensive premium most players do not have for various reasons, 6x4 and 4x4 are industry standards set by the behemoths of the industry and designing for these means you may find players or clubs who have these tables because of it.

But if you aim for a wider variety of customers, such tables are gigantic, boardgames realised once they went more mainstream that the huge tables are owned only by the hardcore minority, game cafes value their space a lot ectr ectr, and made their boards conform a space mandated by practicality.

Personally at the moment I aim for ease of play and convenience, everything I design must fit on an IKEA table, why that? they are the quite global, cheap and there is a vast probability gaming cafes and houses have such furniture, moreover they design in globally established dimensions if your game fits on their table it probably fits on most tables (probably with some space left too).

Simulation takes a hit but I do not want simulation games I want realistic games.

I believe there is a small niche ready for experimentation in the 60x60 or 60x90 cm play area with few figures and more detailed rules, it might or might not be enouph for a wargame company to have a growth enouph to go big, but if tied in with a "wargame expansion" like business plan it might work quite well.

 jmurph wrote:
Just wanted to get some thoughts on play area size and design.

Now, obviously, a simulationist game using 1/50th scale armies won't fit on a 2x2 surface.

OTOH, most miniature wargames have a large degree of distance compression to begin with, so there is already compromise. What is the ideal balance here?

Is the prevalence of 4x6 tables in 28mm wargaming a significant barrier to accessibility? Is there a better way?

Functionally, I recognize only two standard sizes for play area:

5' x 3' Kitchen Table - this should be considered the default for board and skirmish games, designed to play on 90% of all kitchen tables in the US. If there is a map, it is typically no larger than 2' x 3', leaving room around the edges for player components such as Monopoly money & deeds, Risk cards, etc. I think this is a good size for most wargaming. Note that small skirmish games (Infinity, Malifaux, Guild Ball, Relic Knights, X-Wing) are also sized this way, along with starter sets such as Battle for Macragge, Dark Vengeance, Flames of War: Open Fire, etc.

6' x 4' Wargaming Table - this is where we move to dedicated wargaming, as codified by GW and appropriated by every other large mass battle game that wants to be the next GW. It has a nice feel for space, and the dedication to gaming makes a huge difference.

A 1/50 scale 28mm simulation game is definitely possible within a 2' x 2' play area, with a 1:1 figure:ground scale. Your real world space is 100' x 100', which is not a bad size if you consider an office building or warehouse to be the play area. It works out in a variety of enjoyable ways:
- 1 Hero vs 1 Villain: Paintball / Airsoft. Any duel.
- 1 Hero vs X Mooks: Die Hard. Batman.
- X Heroes vs 1 Villain: SWAT entry
All of those skirmish games are playable within that space.

I don't believe in compression beyond 2:1, and barely accept 3:1. When ranges get compressed more than that, I cannot believe it simulates anything at scale. I won't play Bolt Action for this reason. I dislike Flames of War for their excessive scale compression as well.

4x6 tables are a luxury, and I would not design for it specifically. I would always design for the 5' x 3' kitchen table, which is not that much smaller from a functional space. I assume that an IKEA table is the Euro version of the American kitchen table.

So you exclude the quite popular 4x4 that many companies use these days?

4x4 is played on a dedicated 4x6 gaming board, but you're just not using the wings.

The key difference is that the table is 4 feet across instead of 3. That's the game changer. It's bigger than any of the "ordinary" (i.e. kitchen) tables one would have bought for merely eating or working on. Those are pretty uniformly 3 feet across.

It's the same reason I don't distinguish 3x3 from 3x4 from 2x3 or 2x2 -- all of those play comfortably on a 3x5 kitchen table.

So essentially you only care about table width now depth, ok I can understand the logic, but would not call them by measurements of both dimensions.

3x3 also comfortably fits 15mm at a 1:100 scale (or up to 1:300, depending on acceptance of compression). At 1:100, it becomes an 100 yard square, which is pretty good for infantry conflicts. At 1:300, it is about maximum engagement range for infantry. In terms of appearance, a 3x3 table with 15mm would probably look less crowded than a 6x4 with 28mm figures.

For larger encounters, units are largely abstracted anyway as infantry blocks or whatever, especially in ancients/medieval combat, so should be fine for that too, since such encounters rarely are concerned with individuals in all but the most abstract ways.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
So essentially you only care about table width now depth, ok I can understand the logic, but would not call them by measurements of both dimensions.

OK, that was super unclear.

For me, I care about:
a) whether the game fits on a 3'x5' kitchen table, or
b) whether it requires a dedicated 4'x6' gaming table to play.
Those define the overwhelming majority of games played today. Whether you use all of the space, or how you use it, there is flexibility. To split hairs about every possible table configuration and playing area only muddles the issue. It makes no difference whether a game is 4x4, 4x5 or 4x6 - they ALL require a dedicated gaming table that is 4 feet across. And if you're going to design a game that requires such a space, then you're catering to the niche of players who already have such a table. If they are going to acquire or build one, they will probably build a 4x6 so they can then play 40k and other such games.

Doesn't matter really essentially we agree but express the technicalities differently.

Oh, OK. Thanks!