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Modular or Non-Modular Gaming Board? Need Ideas.

7K views 21 replies 6 participants last post by  Jon23516 
#1 ·
I am planning on building a gaming board like that in Jon Quixote's topic. I'd like a city with a few buildings and stuff, but I have never made a board before so I'm not quite sure how to do it.

I have the table itself made from plywood, 6'X4'.

How do modular boards work? Are they like the ones that GW has in their stores? If so, is there any way to integrate buildings and scenery so they blend in with the board? I hate the way that you can see the base that the scenery is on.

What is the best way to do it? How many big buildings/small buildings, fences, obstacles etc. should there be?

Any sort of insight, or maybe you have ideas how to this from previous experience.

Thanks for the help ;)
 
#2 ·
Modular simply means the building isn't glued right onto the board, and so allow for a different environment every game... for buildings you can just not have a base, I guess, if you don't like the way it looks.

For a city board you'd probably just make roads, and then build all the buildings and other obstacles/terrain pieces and put them on the board how you want for each battle. Grassy field type boards are easier because you just make a big green base and make a bunch of hills and rocks :\

As for how many things, for 40k usually there's a terrain piece every 2ft sq however for a city board with buildings you can kind of just do whatever you want.
 
#3 ·
You could also do a hybrid board, that is a board with fixed features but with sections that are mobile (1 foot by 1 foot squares tend to work best). The downside to the Hybrid board is, it gets very easy to estimate ranges and things like that.

For a modular board, if you're doing buildings, I highly suggest making the base look like a sidewalk. This has the advantage of disguising the base, and fitting in very well with other buildings (and allows you to make roads effortlessly).

I'm not a fan of non-modular boards, simply because they get boring fairly quickly.
 
#4 ·
Well I could always make the buildings without any base, but then you wouldn't have any rubble or anything like that.

What do you suggest using for the roads? Just paint the table the colour of the road or make that modular too? How would you make them?

I forget it exactley, but isn't there a rule to how much scenery there should be in a 1 foot square section? I know Thief said one building for every 2 feet, but that seems a bit vague....

Thanks again ;)
 
#5 ·
If there's any rule it's more a guideline, as especially with Cityfight boards, you can just do whatever you want and adjust after you play a game or two. And with a modular board that is quite easy. For roads, I had a 8x4 cityfight board planned where there was one street going through... aw hell just look at this:



Roads I was planning on just painting the wood base, and sidewalks raised about 1/8-1/4" up I was going to actually pour from plaster to make really really realistic and awesome, and about 1" wide... that leaves those square sections (white on that pic) between those roads, that would just be flat burnt grass or something. The buildings would have small bases that would blend with the burnt grass so i could arrange any of them in any of the white squares... inquisitorial palace of course would stay but that's an entirely different story x.X

In the end I scrapped the idea because I decided my group didn't need 2 cityfight boards, and because I read this and decided to make a Lustria board for my new Lizardmen army.
 
#6 ·
Well, seeing that you have a plan, I'll post a basic plan, and with some help maybe you could improve it because it definitley is looking basic at the moment.



Basically the centre is a roundabout with say a statue at the centre (similar to the other topic). The squares are just buildings.... I was going to have about 2 or 3 tall buildings, the rest normal and then just some simple obstacles, barrels, tank traps etc.

I don't know what it is but it feels a bit plain. Any tips?
 
#7 ·
It will certainly be a lot less plain when you actually build it and have 3-dimensional buildings and obstacles that aren't in black and white :p

Well, a suggestion I would make is to make digitial plans in scale with the real thing... my plan image in previous post was 800x400px, representing 8x4', yours is... not, and if you try to transfer that to say a 6x4 you'll have some issues with spacing and such.

Aside from that, I would make all the roads 5" with 1" sidewalks on each side. That's enough room for most Imperial tanks (all, actually o_0), and in CoD skimmers can go on sidewalks... plenty of room for troops. Also keep in mind you probably wont have very many buildings that have an oblong rectangular base, rather most of them will be square... actually you could make rectangular ones if you wanted to, nevermind x.X

Hope I'm helping :rofl:
 
#8 ·
Yeah, I am going to make one to scale, but that one was just a quick sketch up. 7" for a road seems a bit wide don't you think? Well I know they are really 5" but including sidewalks its going to take up a bit of room, no?

Now, for the buildings. How many do you think is enough, and what ehight should they be? I know I want a couple tall buildings, but how tall is tall and with is regular size?

Oh, and what should my centre piece in the roundabout be? I'm going to put a statue, but of what? I'd like a large model, but a reasonable price (under €20) to adorn my board. Whats the largest Imperial model that would suit as a statue?
 
#9 ·
I don't want to tell you exactly what to do, but probably no more than 2 buildings that can see over the rest. Which would probably be 4-5 stories, and the rest varying sizes between 1 and 3-4. For the statue, look here (Inquisitor game stuff, all 40mm scale I think so compared to 40k it'd look like a statue) or look around online for big army men figures or something.

And really, for the roads, 7" out of 48" wide and 96" long isn't that much, and tanks need at least 5" wide streets to move.
 
#11 ·
Yeah, those are cool.

Look around GW for the Medusa V article on how they made their huge Cities of Death board, it's got some pretty cool stuff. Basically just pour a ton of wood glue on stuff, throw sand and rocks and stuff on it, spray paint it black (unless is has polystyrene on it -- do not spray paint polystyrene), then paint/brybrush it from there. this it also a good read. Roads and sidewalks can be done with normal paint.
 
#12 · (Edited)
IbramGaunt said:
Well, seeing that you have a plan, I'll post a basic plan, and with some help maybe you could improve it because it definitley is looking basic at the moment.



Basically the centre is a roundabout with say a statue at the centre (similar to the other topic). The squares are just buildings.... I was going to have about 2 or 3 tall buildings, the rest normal and then just some simple obstacles, barrels, tank traps etc.

I don't know what it is but it feels a bit plain. Any tips?
Is that my board? "similar to the other topic"? Practically the same.

Should I be flattered or *insert expletive* off that you didn't mention me (aside from, 'other topic')?

I have a name and that name is .......... Jon.

Mine is def going to be a hybrid with fixed features, and interchangable buildings.

Good luck with what you go with.

And I'll choose to be flattered because you wouldn't like me when I'm angry, lol.

(Green hue appears over skin and shirt starts to rip.)
 
#13 ·
IbramGaunt said:
I am planning on building a gaming board like that in Jon Quixote's topic.
Just to please you Jon, the first line in the topic :D.

Well I was always thinking about a board similar to this, minus the roundabout (was just going to have a crossroads or something) but after seeing your topic I said to myself "Hey, thats a pretty cool idea!". And so, here I am. ;)
 
#15 ·
Lol, no apology needed.

How is your table coming along?

On mine I've made the little roundabout podium thing for the statue, and made a rough tower thinghy.

What I am wondering is, how are you going to make the roads? Spray the board or make them out of cardboard?
 
#16 · (Edited)
My cunning plan for the roads was to make all the paths and buildings slightly raised (thin balsa wood strips to act as pavements and will be scored with a knife to simulate kerbs and slabs) so the road is faintly depressed compared to everything else. (I saw it the other way round and it looked strange)

Then the roads can be just painted straight. Also the foam allows me to dig into them and make craters, damage and wrecks and stuff. I have an old mk1 rhino that I'm going to model as a crash in the main Strasse.

The buildings are going to be made also out of balsa wood, but I haven't got very far along yet. Still sorting it out in my head.
 
#19 ·
Well I am a bit limited on supplies so all I really have is carboard!

Well what I do is make my building or whatever, then tape it together with masking tape, then cover it all in filler. It works surprisingly well.

I am not using foam for my board, it's just made out of plywood. I would have painted it straight but there are join lines and stuff on it, so thats a no go.

How are you doing the foam thing? Is it completley covered in foam, or just the roads? What sort of foam?

I was thinking of bringing in some colours to a paint shop and get some paints mixed up for my board. What sort of paint are you using?
 
#20 ·
The foam board is the one in the photo on the other page(that's why it's pink). It is thermal insulation board used to line walls in houses. I got it from a building suppliers, but sadly it cost me an arm and a leg.

I'll be using an airgun to paint my board, but I haven't yet found the paint for it. Then I'll dry brush it with a large brush and then I'll hand paint the small details.

It's going to take a while but it should be good when it's done!
 
#21 · (Edited)
Hey gang...


For my table, I took a note from my local GW store and used linoleum tile for my roads. They come in 12x12 inch tiles, are heavy and solid, and only cost 85 cents each (Canadian). Cut them in half, give 'em a shot of texture spray paint, prime black, then a quick, light drybrush of dark grey, and they look great! Their weight makes them solid for modular gaming tiles! (I also use full size tiles for basing my buildings...) You can get them at Home Depot, in the flooring section. They sell them in singles, so you can get as many or as few as you want/need. (And, if you want some great looking rubble, you can take grind them up... looks great! The texture of the tile looks like broken concrete already...)

Just my 2 cents...


-SkyBry
 
#22 · (Edited)
How do modular boards work? Are they like the ones that GW has in their stores? If so, is there any way to integrate buildings and scenery so they blend in with the board? I hate the way that you can see the base that the scenery is on.
First, to confirm and define some definitions. In my opinion, gaming tables fall in 3 categories: Static, Modular and Wide-Open (for lack of a better name).

A Static table has almost all the terrain features permenantly integrated into the table including sculpted terrain (hills, ravines, cliffs, rivers, etc.).
Pros: best visual continuity, materials are available to make the table a near photographic level (i.e. similar to model train boards). Most LotR tables in the White Dwarf appear to be like this.
Cons: the board never changes and can become boring or predictable after prolonged game play. Depending on the depth (height) of your terrain or buildings, can be difficult to store when not in use.

A Wide-Open table is merely a flat play space (table or board) that may be painted, textured, and or flocked. All terrain; hills, forests, bunkers, ruins, etc., is loose and seperate and can be placed anywhere on the table.
Pros: Easy creation and storage of play space. Near infinite variable table layouts with any amount of terrain including theme and density. Easier storage of terrain and scenery features.
Cons: not as visually smooth or blended as a Static table.

A Modular table, in my mind is kind a mix of the two above. The basic purpose of modular terrain is to combine the Pros of a Static table with the Pros of the Wide-Open table. 2' square modules seems to be the popular size. You can choose to build each module in the Static style with integrated terrain features along with any buildings, bunkers, and forests. Rotating and/or swapping module positions will give you a certain level of variable game environments.
Cons: depending on how you build it you are stuck with the "seams" between each module which can be an issue if you're focus is on the visual blending of the table.

On the other hand, you can also build the modules in such a way that only sculpted terrain features including roads and rivers are present but no buildings or bunkers. This is obviously closer to the Wide-Open method but incorporates the visual benefits of intergrated terrain features.

On the GW website, under their Cities of Death Masterclass they have a very complex, detailed and visually stunning Static table. Due to its complexity it may take many, many games to get too bored with it, but I would expect it would happen eventually. We can just ignore how that is going to be stored when not in use.

Whereas, in other portions of the GW website, including most of the photos in the Cities of Death expansion, the majority of the buildings are built on a thin board (probably masonite, aka hardboard) that barely sticks out past the wall perimeter. No sidewalks in sight. Though for those on a budget I can see foamcore or the 1x1 floor tiles SkyBry mentioned above as the bases for your buildings. The material should be easy to cut to size (always be carefull with sharp knives!) and even provide some built-in subtle texturing depending on what tile pattern you buy.

Several months before CoD was released there was an article in the White Dwarf where each 'terrain design team' built a 9x18 piece of terrain on one edge of a 12x24 piece of masonite. I loved that idea. Now that the CoD buildings are out I want try to combine those ideas.

I've started with buying 24x24 squares of 1/8" hardboard and cutting it down to 12x12 squares. Following the concept of the previous WD article I decided to build 9x9 buildings with the 3" border on 2 sides to function as "roads" when the different 12x12 squares were assembled on the play board.

As I began my first CoD building I realized that I didn't want every building on the board to have the same 9x9 footprint, so I think I am going to abandon that direction.

My new thought is to focus on fun and different bulidings with a variety of sizes and shapes of foot print and attaching it to custom sized hardboard bases with minimal edge sticking out. With this minimal edge painted and textured the same as my table surface I feel it will allow each terrain piece to better blend with the table.

So, IbramGaunt, to properly answer your question, I think you first need to prioritize what is important to you: visual blending of scenery and table, variable play environments, storage and transport considerations, budget, etc.

Frankly, game boards as you and SalmonThief have illustrated make me cringe. The static nature scares me. Clearly my priority and focus is tilted much more in favor of variable play environments and storage. As I mentioned a couple paragraphs up, I believe I have a plan to minimize and hide the transition between my scenery pieces and the table surface.

In terms of terrain density, the Cities of Death book is pretty clear as it describes 2-3, 4-5, and 6-8 (or something like that) for the various game levels. Otherwise, standard 40k suggests 25% terrain for your table size. So as a 4x6 table represents 24 square feet; this calculates out to 6 square feet of terrain.

The game tables in my local GW store (Concord, California) are what I called Wide-Open. This gives them ultimate flexibility to set up a game with any particular theme of terrain: desert, forest, city, chaos etc. for both 40K and Fantasy games. I suspect that most GW stores would be of this type because of the flexibility.

My work day is over and I have head home but I will check in on this thread later this evening and see where this discussion goes.

Until then,
Jon
 
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