Pictures of some of the tables that caught my eye at Interplanetario 2017. I note that whilst some were indeed as sparse of scatter terrain as I'd remembered, it wasn't true of all of those I captured. Spoiler: Game Tables at Interplanetario
I like the idea, and would get great mileage out of such a list, because I spend waaaay too much time in my day putting down buildings speculatively, and saying under my breath "But it doesn't make sense being that far away from the road ...") We could use Watchwolf for the hosting, or no doubt any other similar fan resource site, what we need is sometime to be the curator of such a project ... someone with a stated interest ... someone who has ideas about it already ... so I've made up the following shortlist. Ok, list of candidates for the role of Curator: Infinity Game Tables Database... Andre82. This concludes the list of candidates so far.
It’s always good to hear about fiscal resposibity, but I was rather speaking to the worthier goal that we all pursue regardless of our financial means: painting our own body weight in miniatures! So what I meant was, it's was great you've come up with a budget that was apparently reasonable if reviewed by say, a Significant Other; rather one that's actually reasonable in terms of strict accountancy. But hey, more power to you for achieving both! I'm sorry that wasn't clear - I’ll try to be funnier next time!
Step 1: find a SO that plays with miniatures aswell. Even better Step 1: find a SO that respects your hobby, and places enough interest into being with you instead of saving money all the time to go on costly vacations only she enjoys. Keep the acquisition rate to less of a 5% of your monthly income, and always prioritize expenses according to real needs (hobbies go last, even after savings). If even there she complains... well, she has a view of you that does not go with the reality XD
I've found with my locals that the amount of terrain is less important than how it is placed. That said I think a minimum of 1/3 of the table should be covered with larger items plus some scatter. To me the biggest issue when laying down a table is to make it balanced for all base sizes and weapon types. Some examples: - When placing snipers nests, maybe only one side gets one in deployment zone but the other has a close one for forward deploy/infiltrating. -There should be some long range sight lanes, but they should not give clear access to objectives across the board from deployment zones nor should they be so wide that troopers will get caught in the middle easily (greater than 6" wide should have scatter of some kind) -Make sure there are routes for large base models to travel with some choice so that are not forced down a single obvious lane -Vertical terrain while not essential makes all the above points easier to balance as you can make a larger usable area out of one building/cliff/whatever -Make sure there is cover in the deployment zones! The best instruction I have been given when setting up boards is to get down and look at it from the models view. This way you can see how big your sight lines really are. What looks like a huge kill zone might not actually have decent sight lines to take advantage of or vice versa. Imagine a sniper in any building and see how much ground they actually can cover. Think how a bike would maneuver around the table. Where can the AD troops walk/jump in from is another one. Basically think about how you would use each different troop type on the table and if something seems to easy or hard make a few adjustments. Sometimes it only takes twisting a single cargo pod 45 degrees to make a huge impact on a table. One of our best local players has taught me this and I can't think of a table he put together that I felt was unfair for either side. So I guess what I'm saying is it is less important to worry about covering exactly 36.5% of the table with terrain 'X' size or what ever you have on hand. What TOs and anyone building a table should do is visualize playing the game on it from the models view with every type of trooper out there.
Since i saw a couple years ago, i keep being tempted to make a periscope just for this purpose, to be able to look at the table from the right angle. Haven't yet as it's something rather awkward and cumbersome but still tempted...
Single biggest thing that tables need but which isn't present - vertical cover on rooftops. Placing a tall piece of cover on a roof allows a model there to choose its lines of fire, rather than being forced to see the whole table. Its mandatory if you don't want your ARO troop to die T1 order 1 to a sweeper
@jherazob Great idea for a table set-up periscope, and if there's one thing I learned from Keanu Reeves in 'Point Break', it's that a dentist's mirror on a stick should always be carried in a jacket pocket. @Cry of the Wind I take your point about broad principles and scenery positions rather than numbers thanks; and have been using most of the principles you describe in fact. In this case, I did want a more numerical system to structure my approach a little more. I also re-read the rule book recommendations after @Magonus' pointed those out, and in experimenting with this stuff since we started talking about, found them surprisingly good despite being very simple. I think I personally get very distracted by narrative implications and keeping things at least credible. You know, I quite often get into trouble with the facing of buildings where I feel like they should be facing each other across the street, but then don't offer practical cover. We built a new table yesterday to play a couple of YAMS games and, although lacking his recommended quantity of scatter scenery, used Section9's method as a start point. It played left to right, and it's interesting that looking at the picture, you'd be forgiven for wondering if there was any method at all, but it was achieved quite quickly, and worked pretty well in practice. [edit: difficult uploading image] So things seem to be improving, thanks for all your input. I might summarize everything so far recommended for later readers.
I made one out of some thin timber and some pet-bird mirrors from a pet-shop. The hardest part was sketching it out (I have a mitre box and a decent handsaw). That said, there ARE laser-cut plans online somewhere and any decent hand with a lasercutter can cut the pieces for you (One aussie maker even includes the mirrors in their kits. When I started gaming, back in the 80s, we actually used periscopes salvaged from old tanks (you could get them at military disposal stores here) for that "pongo's-eye-view". The one I made was done shortly after I started infinity. Inspiration may be the mother of invention, but laziness is the father (I was getting tired of constantly getting up from my seat to check LoF, and with the periscope, I could do it and remain seated. :D )
@chromedog, good post thanks (whatever happened to just chatting around the subject like that). So maybe you can tell me (as one older guy to another), if it was always inevitable that I'd end up here in the Scenery forum? It does seem a lot more fun to talk with you guys about ex-army periscopes than my usual misguided pastime of arguing with uppity kids on the Rules forum. I'm sure that only a year ago I sincerely believed people would really want to sort the rules nonsense out, and this year I'm like "Rules? Meh. Tell me again about the MDF periscopes?"
Oh no, you appealed to my laziness and my desire to make one of those has just increased, what have you done?!?!?
As OP I hereby give full permission to run this thread clean off the rails in favour of discussing the more worthy topic of scenery-building periscopes instead! @Section9 Given your professional experience; you're appointed as Chairman of the new topic, thank you.
Even better. Today started chasing the idea of a tiny homemade periscope, in the process was reminded of endoscopes, and in the end i found out about these: They call these borescopes. They don't seem to have much compatibility (sorry, iOS and many Android phones), but it looks like for many it should work. Seems like these are small enough to snake around even in dense tables. Found a local supplier for about 7€ and ordered one, will arrive sometime this week. Hopefully it's what i wanted, because it does look like it.
Of course you’re right, but you’d be missing out on the sheer geek one-upmanship of turning up at an event with an ingenious, and possibly hand-crafted mechanical contraption!
Lol. Way ahead on the one-upmanship thing, kid. @jherazob: No home colonoscopies with that thing now. But I like the idea. I had no idea these things even existed. Now, I must have one.
