"Getting 1/72 onto a small table" Topic

I am interested in putting on 1/72 and 28mm gaming into my small space and exploring the possibility of doing larger battles, which might typically see something like 6 to 10 formations per side or some such.

However, in the first instance, tactical WWII is grabbing my interest.

BLOG LINK – link

I have been wargaming on a table 48" by 32" for years. The trick is to keep the number of figures in a unit small. For instance my 30mm SYW armies have 12 foot figures in 2 ranks for each unit. Adjust moves and ranges to suit the size of the table and it will work fine. For a table that size a good rule of thumb is to halve all the moves and ranges in a "standard" set of rules. Essentially that makes my 48x32 table mathematically equivalent to 96" by 64". You could also just convert ins to cms.

With WWII gaming, you can also make the battlefield dense to obstruct line of sight. Bocage fighting works well if you are interested in the Western front, or the jungles of the Pacific. Also, with more time and/or money invested, a good built up urban area breaks up line of sight and makes the battlefield smaller. With an urban battlefield, on a small table, you can fill the space up quicker than on a large field.

A harder sell at those scales is massed armored warfare. Kursk-like scenarios have been tough on a small table in bigger scales for us.

Another thought is to get a couple of folding tables that are 60" – 72" long x 30" wide, and you can get a larger battle area out of that, then fold up when finished.

Fabric "terrain" for the ground cover.

For rules, you might want to consider Chain of Command. The patrol phase might be a bit quick on a small table but you could go with 9" moves instead of the 12" in the rules to stretch it out a bit.

More experienced players in CoC tend to not to deploy everything at the same time, which helps ease the congestion on the table. There's only so many command dice and if something's not on the table, it can't get shot.

Another thought is to get a couple of folding tables that are 60" – 72" long x 30" wide, and you can get a larger battle area out of that, then fold up when finished.

Fine if you've got the space for that. Some of us haven't.

That's the beauty of folding tables, since they can also be set up outside, too.

Perhaps not in the middle of a rain, or snowstorm, unless you want the true Stalingrad, or Bastogne experience.

Picnic table cover clips will hold the fabric on the tables, if it's a little windy.

Your set up sounds great! Battlegroup Kursk is tailor made for smaller battlefields and can be played at squad level with just a few figures and vehicles per side. A lot of fun, and realistic in that the system seems to reward real world WWII tactics.

BTW those Armourfast tracks can be improved very simply by gluing a length of screen mesh around them which gives a better impression of the 'waffle' pattern plates. Nice to see that old Dapol (ex Airfix) church is still going too – I customized mine years ago by putting a Christmas tree bauble on top of the tower to give it an Eastern European look.

Thanks all. It is really interesting to get other folks take on things. It sounds like MajorB's situation is very similar to my own.

When Mako11 mentioned fold down tables, I smiled and asked myself 'where would I store the fold down tables?' I am guessing from MajorB's response that the same may apply to him.

One of the interesting things I have found since doing the 'wargames in small spaces' blog is the number of people who are gaming at 4 x 3 and smaller by absolute necessity seems significant.

For years I have gone to wargame shows and seen those magnificent large table dominate the show, nice but not a true reflection to most of our home situations. Over the past 2 years, I have seen a shift at shows to the inclusion of much smaller set-ups. I am not sure whether that reflects tougher economical times, the accumulative effect of a building program that for the last 30 years has been building smaller homes or because vast choice allows us to collect in several periods, tending to cause smaller collections in each period, perhaps it is a mix of all three.

Again, thanks to all who comment and to those visiting the blog. Norm.

That's the beauty of folding tables, since they can also be set up outside, too.

Not in the UK climate …

Folding tables can be fairly thin when folded down. You could pull the fridge out a little and leave one behind it. Place one or two under your bed. Behind the couch. Between the kitchen table and the wall. Etc etc. As a recent college graduate, I learned the skills of apartment storage Tetris. If you don't care about appearances, then there is no limit to the possibilities.

I have played plenty of good games of Battlegroup in 20mm on a 4 x 4 and a 6 x 4.

I actually find the smaller games just as, if not more, exciting and challenging than bigger affairs.

I also theme my smaller tables, my 4 x 4 is often used for urban games and gives a very dense street fighting set up.

Folding tables can be fairly thin when folded down. You could pull the fridge out a little and leave one behind it. Place one or two under your bed. Behind the couch. Between the kitchen table and the wall. Etc etc.

The problem isn't so much where to store them when folded down as not having the space to set them up.

As always, it is just a question of ground scale and level of unit representation. I've run Corps level 20mm games on a table 2' wide, albeit using one base per battalion.

I play Memoir 44 using Hexon terrain and 15mm toys (although 20mm would work just as well). That only needs about 2' x 3'.

Tactical games in dense terrain lend themselves to it of course, but you can still do Grand Tactical stuff. You can have a perfectly good game of 20mm Command Decision on a 4x4 (representing an area roughly a kilometre square) at battalion/brigade level.

I regularly play on a 3ft x 3ft table with my son, mostly defensive positions, BUA or terrain heavy tables though, we use both 20 mm and 28mm, we use rapid fire or force on force

Cheers
Matt

When I used to play 28mm we worked out the large scale movements on a map for the larger battles & gamed the smaller local battles where the clashes actually took place on a smaller table.