"The 20' x 12' Table" Topic

Is the pinnacle of wargaming when you get to play in the Big Game on the Big Table?

Depends on the game.

24 X 6

32 X 6

24 X 60 ( basketball court )

and here are "smaller" boards

Nah, my favourite is a game on a 4' x 6' table with three good friends.🥳

I have two parallel 7' x 40' tables and four 30" by 7" side tables along the wall in my custom built wargame room.

Still under construction, this photo is a few months old.

link

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

I've played great games on a 20' x 6' table and equally good ones on a 3' x 3'. It all depends on the company.

Size isn't everything….

Meh.

I am perfectly happy with my 6' x 4' table. Whatever floats yer boat.

No, too wide.

6' x 4' works for me. For us, I mean. Six regulars at our weekly game nights.

Not that we do large scale mass battles but that works fine for RPGs and skirmish-level combat.

That is what you may expect, but the best games are the ones that you realize afterwards were the best games. Large or small. You walked away feeling good.

There is a game coming up in Scotland this summer which will be 24 x 8 metres.

A couple times a year it is good for the spectacle and grandeur effect. But you only get to interact with your immediate opponents (except during the lunch break) so it has its limitations.

9'x5'

+1 Red3584

That said, our club has 8 or 10 tables, each 6x4, mounted on wheels. So we can make tables up to 24x6 quite easily. We play some games on 6x4 but most are either 6x8 or 6x12. Those are a good size that allow for 6-10 players, a good game, and socializing.

Me shed is up. My intent is to have a 16 x 6 table permanently built with the option to have trestle tables along side to give a total of 22 x 6.

Tally Ho!

5'x9' works fine for me – everything in 25/28mm.

That would be silly.

I do like the extra maneuvering room afforded by really large tables, but anything wider than about 6 feet makes reaching and/or moving figures/vehicles in the center of the table(s) difficult.

Reaching is not a problem if you have parallel tables with an aisle between the tables, just like at the Wargame Holiday Center in the U.K.

Usually use a 6 x 4 table but do have a fondness for the really big tables – especially for 28mm SYW as my armies have now outgrown usual sized tables

All REAL Americans play on a 12' x 6' table!

…Well, THIS "real American" did for many years until the opportunity was lost.

Clearly, there's a point where increasing length provides diminishing returns. And long practice indicates that anything over 6'6" in width simply can't be reached by the average gamer. Indeed, that "just out of reach" portion of the table becomes a sort of no man's land which might as well be filled with some impassable terrain item. Why artificially divide the playing space into "your side" and "my side" of the table?

But perhaps the biggest danger of an extraordinarily wide/long table (or, arguably, ANY table) is the inevitable draw to FILL IT with figures/miniatures. Gawd Knows a table with perhaps literally thousands of miniatures on it is an awesome sight and one which everyone ought to be able to experience at least a few times in his hobby life. But such a table automatically eliminates maneuver from any scenario, at least none other than head-on attacks.

How many games (frequently Napoleonic and ACW) have had the table paved with toy soldiers from end to end along both sides, limiting the action to largely foredoomed frontal attacks, and then have the RULES criticized by the disappointed players?

I don't claim to have the formula, but there probably could be one devised by minds far sharper than mine that could determine the optimum number of figures (obviously influenced by their scale) that could actually MOVE around a table of given dimensions, without flanks firmly anchored
on the sides or ends.

In days of youre (when we still had functioning knees), we played naval games (and a few memorable Ancients) on gymnasium floors. The former were played in true 1:1200 scale (60' horizons) for over ten years (nearly weekly!), and truly let the naval tacticians among us practice their art! One of several 25mm refights of Arbela allowed for a Persian front of 22'! Truly an awesome sight that called for real Alexandrian nerve and intelligence to wade into.

All that said, the photos provided by Brother Nashville are a hoot and bring back some fond memories.

An Obviously Wistful
TVAG

Some of my favorite games ever played on a 2‘ x 2‘ square table, with 12 stands on each side

A big table, regardless of scale, does not feel the same as a smaller table. To paraphrase James Bond, "not better, but different."

Recently played a 54mm Army Man game on a 24' x 12' table… It was awesome! Next game will be 26' x 12'. Can't wait. For 54mm figures, a huge table is sooo much fun! Highly recommended. Cheers!

We always used a 7' x 12' table. We tried a 8' wide table but that was just a bit wide for most players.

The good games involve friends, old or newly met. The great games have that, and also winning by sound historical tactics.

A big board, a good-looking board and a large number of friends can all be pleasant and memorable, but for good and great, I'll stick with paragraph One.

Reaching is not a problem if you have parallel tables with an aisle between the tables, just like at the Wargame Holiday Center in the U.K.

How do you measure and move across the aisle?

Sometimes you need a big table.

Hope you got a lot of friends

Only one table?

Real gamers game on at least a dozen! :)

Peter's blog showing Snappy Nappy Campaign in a Day (Peninsula) at Historicon 2018 and the dozen tables that gamers used to maneuver around Spain and Portugal:

Peninsula Campaign Blog