Hey all!
I've been playing Infinity for a while and after spending hours and HOURS reading old forum topics and posts across the web on all the different and creative ways people have made their own gaming tables for Infinity, I wanted to give back and share what I think is the best bang-for-buck playable table that won't look like total ass! Well, besides just using several sets of the scenery you can get in the in the official Infinity starter sets, of course.
As everyone knows the real kicker with throwing together your own terrain setup is time and money. No one has a lot of either, and those that do probably invest it in building and painting their minis (As they ought to). So I wanted to give a little back and give some hopefully helpful pointers on how I made a very cheap Infinity table for myself so I can play in my own home (Something I bet a lot of you probably like to do).
So with no further ado, here's what you'll need to throw together a cheap but okay looking table for Infinity!
1. The Board
Just buy
one of these packs of 1'x1' gym mats in either black or dark grey. It's $20 for 16 mats.
Besides finding a flat surface of choice to set these up on, that's it.
The advantage of having a bunch of 1'x1' mats is you can build a table layout of any size you please. I personally have a 3'x3' table to game on. You can totally cover a 4'x6' area, or any other area you want. You can downscale or upscale depending on the size of your games with no sweat.
They're not only cheap but make for a cool industrial looking textured gaming mat (Which typically can be expensive with dodgy quality). Here's an example of my own unpainted Grunts prowling around my personal shipping-yard table:
I hope you like the shipping crates in the photo because that comes next.
2. The Scatter Terrain
The part where everyone's wallet runs screaming for the hills. Scatter terrain is absolutely necessary in Infinity but it's also expensive to buy. This part is "technically" cheap. The trick is to already own a color printer or have access to one (Via school, your library, or whatever) where it's hopefully mere nickels and dimes per page.
The iKube is honestly ingenious, good looking, and, even if printed on just normal-ass paper, can hold up to several metal models (Though I can't vouch for TAGs as I don't own one). They're totally free to download from their website and don't require master origami skills, there's instructions included with each PDF print file.
While I built mine with normal paper, they have held up with regular use and display for YEARS. I taped nickels on the inside of mine to give them a little heft, though I'd recommend just printing these on cardstock instead (Which I plan to do when these eventually fall apart, but like I said, they've been sticking it out for way longer than they should have).
3. BONUS: Adding Verticality
You can absolutely get away with just gym mats and a whole heap of stacked iKube shipping containers, but the cinematic intensity of Infinity really shines when you have unique and varied terrain features.
From personal experience, I can recommend shipping container foam pieces above all else. When you or someone else buys something large like a TV or computer monitor, just take the specially shaped foam out of the box and see how it looks placed upright/downright/sideways. There's a very good chance it looks like a building of some kind. You can texture or paint from there or leave as is. Likely you can just cure and spray paint it and you're good to go.
You can obviously use any combination of these. I personally use one large piece but you might find it more fun to have several medium or dozens of smaller buildings, or whatever combination you please. You can just carve ladders into the side of these with pretty much any sharp instrument except your wit.
I personally use this huge pink foam thing I got from work after some monitors were ordered and the leftover packaging was going to be marched out to the trash. It's a tall, rectangular piece with enough variation on the roof I feel comfortable using it without adding anything. You might want to scout around your shipping department, your friend's recycle bin, or anywhere (ideally clean) where this stuff is dumped or left out to be taken away.
Extra Credit
Hopefully by this point you're well inspired to throw together your own table with several day's worth of lunch money (Or in my case, my treasured tuition fund
). But if you want to add more variety to your table, here are pointedly cheap ways for doing so:
- PVC! Get some cheap PVC pipe and any combination of elbows and joints so it can free stand on its own!
- Pringle cans! Everyone's favorite, just color with spray and smatter on some texture to make some industrial smokestacks or generators!
- Soda cans! Clean 'em and flip 'em upside down then give 'em a blast of spray and a little weathering for shorter generators or chemical vats!
- Plastic wire mesh! You're likely to find heaps at your local dollar store. This is trickier to work with to make chicken-wire fences but it sure is cheap!
I hope by checking this topic out you haven't just found some inspiration for your own tables but also saved your wallet some strain in the process!
If you have any suggestions you'd like to add from your own experiences (Or theoretical terrain building supplies you want to try) feel free to post in here!
