6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... |
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nightserpent
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries...  Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 2:53 am |
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Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 5:34 pm
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Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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:drool: 
that GD terrain is amazing... my only concern with doing something so permamanent is that it would be limiting as far as variety in gaming goes. It would be nice to be able to rearrange the pieces often, otherwise games would get too predictable, "gee, I never thought you'd deploy over there... again...yawn!!"
I realize that specific display was meant primarily to show off some cool terrain and promote interest in the hobby. And, for that purpose, it excels, greatly!
the trick, for regular play, seems to be finding the right balance between aesthetics, versatility and playability.
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Legion 4
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 4:43 am |
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Location: Ohio - USA
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All my terrain is "modular", so I can mix and match as I see fit.
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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
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darkone26
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 8:03 am |
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I am hoping to do terrain (city fight style) that is as fleixible as possible. I dont want to have the pieces glued down to the gaming board or fixed in any way as that takes away all flexibility.
As long as you have a variety of terrain pieces and they can be placed anywhere anyhow I'm sure you can prevent repetition in your terrain setting.
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Jimbo
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 11:01 am |
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Location: Wessex
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my own cityfight terrain (seen here with my Ork Kult of Speed) is pretty much a good compromise between the niceness of "fixed" terrain with the flexibility of "moodular" terrain. Each of my cityfight boards is roughly 10" square.
_________________ Jimbo
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Tas
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 11:45 am |
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Like many here I also aspire to modular cityfight capability...I have been thinking of 1' square tiles- did you find 10" too limiting in what you could put on each tile Jimbo?
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Tas
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darkone26
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 1:38 pm |
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Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2003 2:34 pm
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Jimbo,
It was your stuff that helped me make up my mind whether to fix terrain like that to board or allow for different terrain formations. I like the dropship city terrain boards but after a while I would change them so I will try to make sure stuff can be moved around and used with little repetition.
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TuffSkull
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 6:46 pm |
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Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:49 am
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Location: South East UK
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The easy wayis to mount individual buildings onto small bases. Use some plastic stock to make the surround look like pavement. Then just take a board, and paint it up like you would the roads on a permanent board.
That way you can alter your layout as many times as you want.
My cityfight board (if I ever complete it) will be a cross between this and a fixed piece board. Its split into 60% city & 10% defences & 30% ruined suburbia / countryside. The city section will be done as mentioned above, meaning I can fill it with just a couple of tank factories leaving most of it open, or fill it with hundreds of ruins for an enclosed fight.
Similarly, the suburban bit has a number of slots planned for switchable terrain, which will range from defences, cratered areas, to town-size churches.
_________________ Cheers, Paul "TuffSkull" T. http://hobbybrush.com - My New Website, with thousands of painted Mini Pics :) http://hobbybrush.blogspot.com - My Hobby Blog TuffSkull's notepad- My Old Blog on Wargames Wiki.
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nightserpent
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2003 6:18 pm |
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Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 5:34 pm
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Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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I am thinking I might cluster 2-4 similar buildings together (ruined buildings, hab blocks, factory types) and mount them all on pieces of thick plasticard. That way I can indulge a bit more, modeling-wise, while still being able to mix and match to a degree.
sound good??
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MaksimSmelchak
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:23 am |
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I base all of my terrain, especially buildings.
I took an alternative route for my city terrain: I made roads with blocks between them on which I can stick my buildings, which are all mounted on bases that measure in whole or half inches. Sidewalks and roads frame the "lots."
Some buildings are mounted singularly while others are mini dioramas. I'll try to get pictures of the Mars Forgeworld Factory that I made and the Adeptus Mechanicus Temple. The Factory is mounted on a 6" x 6" base and I haven't mounted the AM Temple yet.
I like the flexibility and better aesthetic properties of the terrain when it is based. Putting in little details really brings the buildings out. Another nice touch is that the bases can be be switched between "whole" and "ruined" buildings when needed. Another good thing about having "lots" is that units on the building bases are in building terrain and ones anywhere else are on roads.
I mount woods and hills on bases as well to dilineate their edges.
Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
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MaksimSmelchak
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:44 pm |
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As far as table size goes:
4'x4' is the minimum size I would want to play on.
4'x6' is what I usually play on. Partice board sheets conveniently come on 2'x4' sheets. Buy three, paint them, flock them, and you have a 4'x6' board.
4'x8' makes for a better game with more maneuver.
Even bigger can be better for larger forces.
Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
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Periodic
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 5:44 pm |
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When I actively played Space Marine, we used to play on a 4'/8' table, which was just great for all sorts of gaming. It was actually two 4'/4' tables attached togethor, covered in green felt, and decorated with buildings. Thats all we really used, hills (books under felt) and building, as well as the occasional river (long line of cut blue felt). I also had literally a single figure 8 shaped "woods"... It was only about a foot long, six inches wide, and had about two or three token trees stuck on it. We used to joke about it as the "golf course". ?
I probably should've added a putting green and a little hole, but I just described to you the effort I put into terrain. 
A friend of mine had an even massiver (englis iz fun) terrain table cut out of pink foam. But the hilarious thing is he never got around to actually painting the foam any colors, so we always had battles on this hideously pink chaos world. We used more pink foam to do hills and such, and again mostly urban terrain. We also played more 40k scale stuff at his house, so made alot of use of the Necromunda terrain.
Ahh memories.
I'm personally more fond of the simple, yet infinitely customizable battlefield. Half the fun sometimes is building up a battlefield from the stuff thats available, and constructing a scenario around it. You can use just about anything if your standards are low enough. I used a seashell to represent a tyranid node that needed to be destroyed, and a door from Hero Quest (anyone remember that? got me into GW games...) to represent an EVIL CHAOS GATE OF DOOM.
I personally hate the idea of a fixed table, no matter how beautiful, but whatever floats your boat. The advantage of felt is it looks decent, realistic hills are easy to add (though can topple titans if you're not careful), is insanely cheap and flexible, and if you wanna throw some buildings down just cut out some grey felt the appropriate size and slap it down.
Have fun,
-Periodic.
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nightserpent
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 6:35 pm |
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Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 5:34 pm
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FWIW, somewhere in the E-A intro, newsletter or FAQ it mentioned thet E:A is intended to be played on a 4x6' table. Obviously, it can be played at any size, but I guess they took this size the most into consideration when creating ranges, movement, etc.
- I think, for simplicity's sake I will just assume that the negative space in between the building clusters/blocks are streets.
?
- I want to be able to mix and match my terrain to keep it interesting.
- I am doing the scenery up in a desert/arid 'armageddon' style, so I could see the roads covered is sand, anyway.
I have been using felt cloth for 40K for some years now, and I have mixed feelings. ?
Pros:
- It is convenient. It feels nice.  Piles of dice rolling sound better (rather than the grating sounds they make on hard surfaces).
Cons:
- The fabric (at least the type I have) "pills" over time (meaning: from constant use, the fabric rubs off and collects in these tight little knots), which looks pretty crappy after a while. It also doesn't look quite as nice. My girlfriend jokes that it is a pool table.
I really love modeling, painting and converting, so I will admit that I am a bit of a snob when it comes to the aesthetic aspect of gaming. ?
- It really adds to the experience, IMO.
- So, my plan is to make two 4x4 sections of masonite (a thin mdf like board) and cover it with some form of ?mild texture paint, then drybrush it with the exact colors that my bases are painted in (I paint fine sand on mine). ?
- Decent home paint shops ought to be able to mix small cans to match your mini paints.
I hope to get my friends to base up their armies in the same fashion...
I think it will look great!!
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nealhunt
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:45 pm |
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| Purestrain |
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Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2003 10:52 pm
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Location: Nashville, TN, USA
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I was in an arts and crafts store about a week ago and found something that looked promising - cans of "velvet" spraypaint. ?The texture seemed to be similar to a chalkboard, but softer. ?I think they might work really well for covering playing surfaces and the bases of terrain.
I should have written the name and company down,  but they were in with the "crackle" and "speckle" paint, so they shouldn't be too hard to find. ?I don't know if they would be in an average DIY store or just arts and crafts places.
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Neal
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nightserpent
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:55 pm |
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Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 5:34 pm
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That stuff reminds me of the fleck-stone spraypaint that is designed to make a surface look like granite...
Hmmmm, I wonder how much you'd need for a table?
It's kinda pricey for spray paint, IIRC.
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MaksimSmelchak
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Post subject: 6mm Gaming Table and Terrain Queries... Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:25 pm |
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That stuff reminds me of the fleck-stone spraypaint that is designed to make a surface look like granite...
Hmmmm, I wonder how much you'd need for a table?
It's kinda pricey for spray paint, IIRC. |
Funny you should mention that, NightSerpent.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
The stuff is too expensive to cover a table unless you're bankrolled or really dedicated!
I was trying to think of a type of terrain in which I'd want a chalky surface like the "velvet" spraypaint Neal mentioned.
Maybe a road surface?
But a road surface would be too hard to get where you'd want it with spraypaint.
I'm baffled.
Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
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