Best size for 10mm wargames table?

[Orlygg]

I know that this may well be a relative question, but I am about to begin work on a scenic table for the Battle of Maldon/Anglo-Saxons in the tenth century. What size would others recommend? Having nevef actually played with 10s I haven't got a clue!

[Sandinista]

How many units in your armies? work out the length of your battle line and add a foot either side. Personally I like huge tables as I have a lot of cavalry armies

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

My local club has 6' by 4' tables, so that's the size I work to.

Allows two or three 1870 corps a side at a squash!

[get2grips]

8' x 4' for me: the extra width gives more scope for maneuver.

[NTM]

Figure size is perhaps one of the lesser deteriming factors for table size. the rule set, figure ratio, ground scale and size of the battle will probably have a greater bearing. 6' x 4' is probably the closest we get to a standard table size. Dark Age (or Early Medieval if you prefer) battles were generally quite small affairs and the armies tended to start fairly close together so you could use a much smaller table (or really large units)

[Leman]

Go for the best fit in your available room. You never know when you might want to do 28s or naval games etc. If I need a smaller size than the table (eg. a Peter Pig 5'x3') I use masking tape to mark up the edges.

[Hertsblue]

I'd agree with NTM that rules - particularly ranges and move distances - are the chief arbiters of table-size. You can fight a reasonably large WW2 battle on a 4 x 4 table in 10mm, mainly because the forces are spread out. Conflicts with large unit-frontages demand more room. The other factor that governs width is how far can you reach across the surface - about 3 feet for those of us without simian builds - so not more than 6 feet wide.

My own table is 8' x 4' for a number of reasons: a) it's the standard size of a builders' sheet of chipboard, b) it fits the room, c) I can reach the centre without difficulty, and d) better to have too much room than too little. You can always restrict the playing area on a large table; adding to a small one is much more difficult.

[MooseDontBounce]

I built a 6 x 9 table.  I also, added industrial casters to the legs so I can move it out of the way.

[Orcs]

The bigger the better - Size matters!!!!

When DBM was all the rage we used Irregular Miniatures 6mm figures. These come in blocks and to save the mucin about and time cutting blocks we used a 30mm frontage.   This obviously made the army frontage 25% smaller tan a usual DBM army.  This gave you open flanks which was much more realistic as you had to try and find somewhere to anchor your flanks too - particuarly if the opponent had more units or more cavalry. THis gave much better and more realistic games

So with this in mind I wouold go for the widest you can depth is less of a problem wioth 10mm and you can get away with 3 foot.

[Genom]

I only have space for a 4x4 table in my spare room, which so far has proven adequate for all my 10mm stuff (BKC and warmaster 2000pts) as well as my 28mm skirmish games like Mordheim and others like Dystopian wars etc.

[petercooman]

I use the dining room table , wich is 180 x 95 (in centimeter that is  ), and it works for me. Little bit close from edge to edge, but wide enough for long fronts 

Also fun for 'corridor gaming'. Use the table from short edge to short edge to make long battlefields, perfect for battles on 'hell's highway' 

[sebigboss79]

Size does matter but it also depends on the gamer(s). For quick and dirty 28mm clashes i use my 80(?) cm round kitchen table.

I prefer covered tables with lots of terrain. The smaller the scale of the figures the more room for maneuvre you get.

[Steve J]

6' x 4' works perfectly well for me.

[Womble67]

Hi there
          I'm in the lucky position to have a 10' x 5' table.  But I think the average size is 6' x 4', but whatever size table you use the most important thing is to scale the forces down to the size of the table you're using.

Take care

Andy

[Orlygg]

Some very sound advice from forum members. I have decided on 6 by 4 as my initial set up. I want the table to double for two periods, dark age England (played with a modified Hail Caeser rule set) and Flodden field (though I haven't thought of a rule set for that yet, any suggestions?), considering that plenty of battles went on around that area. I plan to cut my teeth on the Saxons I ordered before getting my hands on at least 4 packs of Flodden Scots/English to complete a project in the conflict's 500th anniversary. I wa t scale and huge armies with thousands of models a side!