Not Enough or Too Much? (Table Terrain Setup)

Most games that require terrain such as Flames of War require enough to fill a 6'x4' table. Setting up the table so that it is 'fair' to both the attacker and the defender is key.

Today I offer some tips in setting up tables for Flames of War, but this can be used for any other tabletop wargame. Make do with what you have and use some of the pictures as guidelines.

Our House (....in the middle of our street)

Table layout plays an important part of any game. Whether you are playing an old school game of Monopoly where the bank has to be laid out just right, or Flames of War, it all comes down to planning. Preparing a table layout with very little terrain isn't much fun and the same goes for having too much. How can you move around the board and find the enemy or have any fun? The answer is simple, balance. It's a fine line you need to learn, whether you are having friends over for a weekend gaming session, or you are setting up tournament tables, balancing terrain over a 6'x4' surface takes time.

Open sides with a little bit of everything in the center makes for a balanced table where there is something in every table quarter for either player. It also helps focus the action, as both commanders will be vying for territory. The biggest issue with setting up a gaming table is terrain, the simple fact is whether or not you have enough to make up a full table or even two without spending a lot of money. You may have a ton of buildings, but no roads, mountains/hills or any type of trees. What then? Being creative in your setup with a few buildings can make for an excellent table.

Infinity Scratch Built Terrain - Attempt #1

So with a few of the lads and I getting more games of Infinity I thought I would try my hand at scratch building some basic terrain to add to our collection.

I decided to start simply, and test out some ideas. To get things going, I bought two 2'x3' sheets of foamboard for about $8 total. I then set about measuring and cutting out pieces to build two simple buildings.

The goal of the buildings was to introduce line of sight blockers while still encorporating multiple access point and windows. Here is what I started with:

As you can see, I make them stackable, as well as aligning the opposite doorways to allow us to put them together to make one, larger building. I simply used my hot glue gun so assembly time was all told at about 10 minutes (after cutting out the parts).

To start on the painting, I decided I wanted them to appear "prefab" or concrete looking. To keep things as simple as possible the base coat was Krylon Grey Primer. It came out an great mid level grey. To add some texture to the flat grey, I lights sprayed a dusting of Krylon White Primer on all the surfaces. The end result can be seen here :

In the last few pics, I added a couple of my Yu Jing models for scale, and to show that I managed to make the whole building a great line of sight blocker. I think they may even make for some interesting indoor firefights in our upcoming games. Once I have done some more detail work (like making stair for when they are stacked, and adding interior details) I will update the blog with another post.

All told, my total investment so far is:

~$8 -Two 2'x3' sheets of foamboard (one sheet I haven't even touched yet!)
~50 cents of hot glue
~$8 - 2 cans of Krylon Spray Primer ($4 at walmart each)
1.5 hours of my time.

All in all, pretty decent starter, and super fast and simple to make. Expect to see them on our table top soon!

Cheers,

Ca$h

Flames of Summer Part 1-3

Tester River

Test river, one thing about these rivers is its easy to get the paint off, just need some warm water. I think its too bright but the flow looks preaty good. Just trying to get some comments. I know the banks need a bit more work.

Rivers!

I got my order for rivers in from maelstrom today, I figured I would do a quick review. They are made by http://www.totalbattleminiatures.com/ I got 2 sets, both made for 6'x4' Narrow and Wide sets.

And so it progresses..

Flames of War has bitten my pretty hard, and I ordered some much needed 15mm terrain for our upcoming gaming this Friday. Here is some quick picks of it prior to being painted:

It is all from "JR Miniatures" ordered from the Warstore. Very cost effective at about $5 per piece ($7 for the bridge). Matt Varnish has mentioned a desire to start painting it this Friday while we get some games of FoW in. I will be posting WIP pics of my German PanzerKompanie tomorrow - Stay Tuned!

CA$H out.