"Do we need square tables?" Topic

I play a lot of Call of Duty online. I'll save the game bashing for a different time but I enjoy it a lot. When my brother and I gave Gruntz a test drive I used the idea of COD as the rules judge. If it felt more COD to play Gruntz in a certain way… that is how the rules went.

Well, as I have a chance to do some painting this weekend I pondered how I am using my tiles. These MDF tiles were cut for me back in 01' maybe? They are 10" squares. Well my first plan was just to put them in a square or a rectangle and just play on that.

I'd not a fan of vehicles in general in my games. I prefer it to be small skirmishes between small bands of combatants.
So for me a super small board works just as well as a large board.

So going back to the COD bit take a look of a few of the maps

They are all different shapes and sizes but they all have a few things in common. They have blocked line of site and impassible terrain.

So as I moved my squares bases around I started wondering if I could make them different shapes and how I would use the COD area minimization thought process on my layouts.

So here is a standard 20"x20" layout

But with a bit of shifting I can make this…

The center was offset allowing me to expand the limits of my 4 boards and in the pocket I filled it with impassible terrain. Along the edges I added a few buildings to help cut line of sight from one corner to the next and they too are considered impassible and off board.

Here I have added a 5th board but blocked access to part of it in the upper right hand side with impassible terrain.

and here are more ways as well.

So the idea for me is that by offsetting the tiles I can expand the gaming area by making "out of play" edges both outside and inside the playing area. This will allow me to limit the number of tiles I need to make to have a game – as as I have to port my stuff to where I play it makes it easier for that too.

So for me this works but what do you think about using non-standard shaped boards? Have you done this before? Would it bother you having nonstandard shapes for a board?

Thanks for reading,
DZT

The last big AoS naval game I played in had a table shaped like the greek ketter pi, so I'd be happy with your table there :)

I think it works (I really paint more than game). The rectangular playing area in the boards are good for making troops maneuver and less "broadside" type of encounters.

I kind of like it. A pitfall I see is getting a map setup like one of the COD maps, ie. there is only one path through. That takes choices out of the hands of the players. Other than that, it's all good.

I like the idea! as long as you make multiple paths, like most of the Cod maps have, it would make for a interesting board to play on!

I dig! Many times while playing CoD I've felt the maps would make good gaming tables.

It would be interesting and quite different to play a game on an 'L' or a square shape table without its center.

I may need to borrow that idea for Infinity tables… I know my usual rule of thumb for deciding what to do in Infinity is, "if this was a movie, what would look coolest?" So I may need to add that idea to my table designs.

Like playing on a space ship, in this case may an asteroid.

Great looking tables by the way.

For skirmish missions this will work very well I think.

L shaped we have used and a T once or twice where the I part was a mountain pass, 2x4feet then a 6x4 feet once it opened up.

"They have blocked line of site and impassible terrain."

I played a 20mm modern skirmish once, with about a dozen figures total, on an obstacle strewn table barely thirty inches on each side.

"A pitfall I see is getting a map setup like one of the COD maps, ie. there is only one path through."

I think that's common with a lot of console games. I know "METRO" is like it. Undergrounds especially, in "Call of Pripyat" and "Shadow of Chernobyl" basically only have one clearly defined path through. They have a term for game designs where the majority of the game is just the one path, but I can't recall what it is.

Always being pressed for space, it's certainly an idea I'd consider.

Duck

One of the best looking games I put on at a show was on an L shaped table. It was a break out of San Sebastian game and it didn't make sense to do it on a rectangular or square table.

I know that this is sci-fi not historical but you should make the table like the terrain in the scenario you want to model. If you want a large area of water or whatever that troops don't really go into that could easily be a negative or void space as it was in the game mentioned above.

I like the idea and it won't take much imagination to justify impassable areas. Use examples from video games like fire, rubble, walled off, mine fields, cliffs, toxic waste, gun emplacement laying down withering fire, mortar barrage etc…

They have a term for game designs where the majority of the game is just the one path, but I can't recall what it is.

Railroaded/"Rails"

Choo Choo!

Though to be fair, this doesn't look any more "railroad"ish than any other skirmish map with choke points on it. I like the idea and fully intend to stea… er "borrow" it

May I recommend "The Battlefield" by Brent Spivey, for your CoD needs? :)

link