"Card Table Board?" Topic

Just looking for ideas. If you thought it likely that at some point in your life your maximum table would be 3'x3' (90cm on a side for the metrically inclined) what would you consider good options by way or periods, figures and rules? There are no wrong answers, but could we just take "it can't be done" and "it can't happen to me" as having already been posted, and go from there?

Me? Best options so far have run to microscale, somewhere between 1"=100 yds and 1"=150 yds and an ungridded board. Works up to small armies for SYW, corps for Napoleonics and regiment/brigade for WWII. But I'm wondering what other choices there are.

Pulp Alley rules are designed for small tables. Skirmish-level "Pulp" adventures, but the rules system can work fine for historical periods, too (just leave out the perils and trick cards) -- the mechanics of movement, combat, initiative, and unit rosters are very clean.

Most skirmish level games are played on a 3x3 board. Also you can easily make up a gridded board to play The Portable Wargame.

QILS. Most of the scenarios were designed for the 3'x3' table.

You can also scale most 1" based scenarios for a ~6' table down to <3'x3' by swapping "inch" for "centimeter".

You can run some Battlegroup Platoon size games on a 3' x 3' board in 15mm or 10/12mm. But you would need some terrain pieces like hedges, some tress, and a few buildings to break up line of site.

Not sure just what your situation is. A friend has a room for his table, which he can leave up so we can come back to finish the game in a week or two. One thing and another, I've never had the space to set up a really big table for large games. I do have two folding tables, but no place to set them up since my parents died and I took in all the old family things like China and photos. I have used the dining room table but made sure to have it cleaned off by the time my wife got home.

I do have a 2'by 2' end table I can use for small skirmishes. Several years ago, I built a board for Saga, which goes on top of the end table. It is 3' X 4' but folds in the middle to become 2' X 3' for storage.

For D&D and similar games, there are books with scenery printed on them from a company named Loke. Open the book and you have two pages to play on. Maybe even get two books and put them side by side. Like I say, they are intended for D&D, but the concept might be ported over to micro armor games.

Grelber

Situation's fine now, Grelber--but I've also reached an age where it could get worse on very little notice and no one would be shocked, so I'd like to do prep work if necessary.

That's why I keep asking questions about ability to manipulate small stands, distinguish colors and such--and available play space. consensus seems to be that if you're allowed games at all, or have any room of your own, you can manage a card table. Sometimes the extreme constraint is storage space, which is where 2mils come in. My 2mil forces are about complete, and seldom require as much space as a card table, but I started this thread to see what options I might be missing if I had as much space as 3x3.

Interesting range of answers so far. Thank you all.

If I were constrained to a 3x3 table, I think that my storage space would likewise shrink. Also, my painting/ assembling/ thinking/ plotting space would also shrink.
3x3 sounds like a computer table with a large CRT.
There are many wonderful single player military games from the past and the present that could satisfy my conquering urge.
Those teeny-tiny little troops keep getting smaller, but your computer screen can make them larger for the old eyes.
My friend and I still play Empire Deluxe from 1985 (updated to Windows 95 around 1995)!

Honestly if I were limited to a 3x3 I'd get a new hobby. It's the spectacle for me.

The Neil Thomas One Hour Wargames book has simple rules for all periods, plus 30 excellent scenarios, all designed for a 3' square table. Also includes campaign ideas and solo rules

Seven replies. I wondered how long it would take.

Thank you, EC, but spectacle is one thing my existing 3x3 table games do not lack. I'll have almost 1,000 horse & musket castings in colorful uniforms, flags flying and drummers in livery whenever I can get away with it on a nicely-terrained board if I do say so myself. I can also switch to a 4x2 table for Big Battle DBA and put nearly 300 hoplites on a board with the customary variety of hoplite shields--or everyone with the Lacedaemonian "L."

I've GOT the spectacle. Now I'm trying to see what else there is.

Two Hour Wargames has games, in different genres, that use either a 3x3 board or a notebook paper size board.

Years ago when Pete Bennett was developing his Napoleonic "Aux Armes" rules, I remember him doing solo play-testing on a card table. A couple of reinforced brigades per side was do-able. This with 12mm figs-- 10mm would work as well.

You can have a great skirmish game in 3x3'.

There are some great 6mm figures out there.

You can create a spectacle with 2mm figures. Someday I want to do that, with some really tiny castles and villages.

Naval combat would be tricky, you'd need very small ships. possibly too small to be much fun. You could do 2-4 ship actions. I have an idea for a medieval naval game that would take about 3x3.'

I think air combat might be less satisfying, but other than that I think the world is still your oyster.

d88mm1940, storage space and game space are only loosely related. Consider junior enlisted men: personal volume, even in garrison, may be only a fraction of a footlocker. But playing area seldom or never drops under a card table. If I get to where all my belongings have to be stored under the bed, obviously 2mm is my friend and I've planned accordingly. But a 400 square foot "tiny house" might easily spare a closet for wargaming gear without being able to accommodate a 4x6 table.

Still at a loss on why I'd want to trade in my miniatures for a computer taking up an equal amount of space, and requiring--because they all do--continual and expensive "upgrades" to maintain the same level of performance.

Robert,
Fifteen years ago, I asked on TMP when you got too old for the hobby. Here's a link to the responses: TMP link
It was a somewhat different question than you are asking, but some of the answers may provide some insights.

Grelber

Still at a loss on why I'd want to trade in my miniatures for a computer taking up an equal amount of space, and requiring--because they all do--continual and expensive "upgrades" to maintain the same level of performance.

Computers absolutely do not require updates to maintain the same level of performance.

In very, very rare circumstances or under conditions outside their performance envelope (like being dropped from a desk on to a hard floor or run over with a car), they need to be fixed.

Both my TRS-80 and Atari 2600 work to the same level of performance that they did in 1977 with zero upgrades at a cost of zero dollars.

Another idea that you can kick around in your head comes from an article in Wargames Digest back in the 70's. Somebody converted Avalon Hill's board game Panzer Blitz into a miniatures game using micro armor and replicating the boards with 3D foam terrain. I think there were a couple b & w photos, which looked nice. Panzer Blitz/Panzer Leader/ Arab Israeli Wars came with board segments that could be arranged in various ways to create different battlefields.

Grelber

Interesting, eto. My computer-gaming friend is maintaining three different computers due to lack of "backwards compatibility" and has to maintain much too close a relationship with a repair shop. I generally take a working and not a gaming approach to computers, and find that every "improvement" in operating system, Word, Excel and such requires more processing speed and memory than the previous one, so that just holding even means new equipment at 5-10 year intervals.

On the other hand, 50 year old troops, terrain, rules and dice function as well as ever.

Good point, Grelber, and thanks. I'd been exploring some of that in 2mm. If I could ever find a source for 1" geomorphic boards, I'd be even more thrilled. The PB/ASL 3/4" are a bit of a tight fit. But the only 1" boards I ever found were in a flea market, and not labelled. Oh, well…

This is why one should press for a pool table or baby grand piano in the house; Of course, the ulterior motive is that it can be converted into a gaming table… ;-)

3x3? Go 10mm. Can play pretty much any game on a 3x3 with 10mm. If you are military, this might be the easiest to transport as well. I use a 3x3 and have no issues. It is basically an over built boardgame approach, but then I guess, the same could be said of any scale wargame.

Not sure where it is coming from that 3x3 is somehow limited. It isn't. Just requires some thought. Foamcore really comes into it's own and it is the only scame I am aware of that can realistically portray hills as they should be without needing a gymnasium.

One thing is for sure, storage will not be a problem at 10mm/card table gaming.

Good luck!

very "improvement" in operating system, Word, Excel and such requires more processing speed and memory than the previous one

So, you're not talking about maintaining the same level of performance. You're talking about needing upgrades to hardware because you've significantly increased the performance space of the software.

Most performance "improvements" I have seen over the last 30 years and change have been useless, counterproductive crap from my viewpoint. Sounds like you would agree.

That problem is the result of consumers who don't want to invest anything into understanding the technology they use, they just want it to do stuff for them.

My computer-gaming friend is maintaining three different computers due to lack of "backwards compatibility"

Continuing the same line, your friend "has to" buy the new systems because he wants to increase performance space and do new things. The whole backward compatibility issue runs completely counter to your argument. The old systems are, in fact, still maintaining the same level of performance. Without upgrades.

On the other hand, 50 year old troops, terrain, rules and dice function as well as ever.

The same as the two computer systems I mentioned, which are, admittedly, only 47 years old.

I am lucky enough to have an otherwise unused pool table in my cave. I can set up two 3x3 games, or use the entire surface for a larger one.

A large gaming board could also be supported on chair seats (though be prepared to stoop over it to play… ;-)

I would do 6mm or 10mm games. Skirmish games with 28mm. I would use DBA rules and Song of… style rules,

You can play mass battle games on this size table with any scale. DBA or the One hour wargame rules.