I'm in the process of trying to figure out a way to fit a good sized gaming table into a fairly small space (my efficiency apartment.) Making room for it when it's set up will be no problem, however the trick is figuring out a way to store it when I'm not using it. My current idea is to work with a few 2'x4' or 2'x6' pieces of plywood. I've thought of folding tables, but so far the widest I've found has been 30", so I'd need two of them to be wide enough, which causes cost and storage problems. Does anyone happen to have any brilliant (or at least amusing) suggestions that they'd like to share? Would be a help to me and hopefully some other space challenged mechwarriors.

Put your two ideas together. Get the table that is 30 inches wide and then put a felt covered piece of plywood that is the right size on top of the table. Then when you nee dto put it away, just stack one next to the other. It works well at a couple of the venues I play at.

you might look in the chop shop section here or do a search for gaming table... I seem to remember someone making one when the game first came out that was 4'x4' and was hinged in the middle so you could fold it and put it in a closet.... you could then put felt over it and use that... like I said you should look in the modding section...

You better sit down. My table is 13' X 5' in my game room. The advantages of of working wife! It is real fun playing 2000 pt. pure faction armies. Live long and prosper.

Once I finish grad school I'll be able to afford the space for that. Alas, the life of the TA is not so glamorous. :)

Card tables are great, fold them flat and slide 'em behind a chair or under a bed.

The best "portable" gaming table I've been able to come up with is this:

Buy a 8 x 4 ft sheet of 1/2 in plywood and two 6 ft lengths of 2x4.

Cut the 8 x 4 sheet onto two 4 x 4 sheets. Center the 2x4 lengths on either long edge of the cut 8 x 4 and drill four holes spaced along their entire lengths.

Put a flat-bolt with a butterfly nut through each hole.

Disassemble and it stores in a small space. Assemble and it lays on an existing table and makes it huge.

Dang, you got me beat by one square foot, mine is 8'x8'. Needless to say it is infernally difficult to reach figures in the middle and necessitates a lot of reaching.

As far as a storable table goes, I've seen people with tables made out of sections of plywood with pegs and holes on the sides so they fit together and stay together. Say for a 6'x6' table you would use 6, 1'x6' pieces or 3, 2'x6' pieces. This is rather easy to store as they can be stacked or stood upright in a closet. Then to play the board can just be placed on a table or on the floor and fitted together.

Alternately, for people interested in a more intresting board than just a flat felt covered one, I've seen a lot of tables made from 1'x1' pieces with mountains or other pieces of terrain fixed to the board. These look really nice and provide a very flexible table as it can be configured for different width vs. length arrangements and the size can be decreased or increased up to the number of tiles available.

I use a cutting board that seamstresses use. It is 6 foot by 3 foot, folds in to itself and is marked in a grid pattern. It is made of cardboard so I covered the top with contact paper so taping paper terrain down does not ruin it. Also it fold dow to 1 foot by 3 foot for storage. It is great for tournaments because you can set up 2 battle boards any where eg. floor, table, where ever there is room. I also marked out the deployment zones

I wanted one tournament sized. So I cut a 3'x3' piece of 3/4" plywood and glued tan colored felt to the top. You can buy folding legs from a hardware store (very much like those on a card table) and attach them directly to the plywood. Simple, but it works and folds up for easy storage. Took me less than 45 minutes.

Stone Mason - How much did the folding legs cost?


-Andy_in_Indy,

You guys are fun crazy! Felt 3'x3' works great and rolls or folds up. I can see y'all working the table like they did at RAF HQ in the Battle of Britain, pushing units around with the shuffle board stick looking thingees. LOL!

The legs cost less than $20 (I don't remember exactly) at Lowes or Home Depot.

I tried the felt, but it stretched on me, then eventually tore.

Let's get economical for the grad student in a small apartment. He needs a 3' x3' game space, presumably for MW:DA. I suggest he stick to those specs, given his lack of space.

The most commons suggestion is to make a 3'x3' board (plywood, masonite, whatever) and put that on top of a "normal" table.

If you don't have a normal table, try a card table or "chuch" table, the folding leg tables for $30 from Office depot. Fake wood veneer.

You can store the game board under the bed, as well as the folding/card table. Less work for you.

If you can make the game board fold, great, but since your a grad student, I'll assume you don't have tools. You can get Home Depot to cut the plywood for you. Then glue down som felt on it, so it has a nice surface or paint it.

Janx

My suggestion would be to go with a 4x3 tabletop, rather than a 3x3, so that you can go with the larger size table for bigger armies if you have to. We've gone to using 4x3 felt pads at our venue, marked for a 4x3 board on one side, and a 3x3 on the other.