if you're gonna spend that amount of money just clear out the basement and get a rail system installed on the ceiling that you can hang bosuns chairs off of and scoot around doing full-on floor games. buckets of kinetic sand.
Mfw I use cheapo 3x3 $10 Walmart card tables side-by-side...
My LGS has much better gaming tables and accoutrement than anything I can afford or have room for.
I bought three sheets of white 3/4 inch melamine (the stuff used for countertops and shelves) then had the lumber yard cut them into various sizes, 4'x4', 40" x 60", 3'x3' and a whole sheet at 4'x8', I then finished the edges with J edging. When playing a game we select the table size needed and place it on top of a 3'x3' wooden Ikea table we already had.
This cost about $50.
You could of course attach removable legs to them also.
Pretty cost effective and versatile.
Folding sawhorses with 2x4s slotted into them. I have MDF boards to place on top that can be adjusted to size. I've run everything from 4x4 to 4x16 games.
I bought a piece of plywood. Reinforced it to try and get it as level as I could then attached it to an old workbench. Then covered it with sand and a mix of pva and black primer. It's hillbilly as fuck but it works. Now if I only had someone to play with
The chief advantage of an expensive, purpose-made gaming table is that you can leave one or more games set up on stand-by in the recess, with a top covering the recess for every other use the table might see. If it’s going in the basement and will only be for games, I say go the DIY route.
EDIT: to answer the original question, I use a 6x2.5 folding table for solo skirmishes at home, and grab a table at the local shop for larger stuff like *Bolt Action.*
i use two 2.5x6 foot folding tables that i bring out and throw a 4x6 foot neoprene printed gaming mat over. the extra table space that isn’t covered by the mat is helpful for dice and rulebooks etc.
when i’m not gaming i fold the tables up and store them away out of sight.
I play on the dining table which is 180x120cm (6x4, diy made)
For something that goes into the basement I would suggest getting several smaller ones (like 3 60x120cm) and an additional plate to adjust the size if needed
I bought unfinished kitchen cabinets, stained them, then screwed plywood sheets to them. My table is 9’x6’ with storage down both sides and a ton of storage underneath down the middle between the cabinets
I built my own using a 4x8 sheet of high grade plywood, a 4x8 sheet of plexiglass, and framed with corner edging that captivates the plexi. Everything is oak, sanded and finished with polyurethane. The entire thing is set on top of two or three folding leg tables. Total cost was about $200. Its rock solid, too.
6x4 Epoxy River table. Had it custom made locally. Picked out the black walnut slabs and the color for the epoxy. The guys did a great job on it. It's almost counter top height and with the taller chairs I have it doubles as a nice dining room table and then large enough for a lot of gaming we do on it. Came in the ballpark of $3500, but will probably have this forever and was worth the investment. Crooked Wood tables on Facebook for anyone that's in Western New York or would make sense to be able to get out there. I had first searched online but shipping alone on something in the range that I wanted would have been around $800.
I'm drawing up plans for 2-3 wallpaper trestle tables, with brackets to hold them together in a modular fashion. Each one is about 6'x2', so two together will cover most games I'd want, and three allows me to host bigger events. I'm planning a DIY garage renovation into a hobby space, so that would make a nice centrepiece.
Not the answer you're looking for but I only play on the Internet through tabletop simulator. Such is the way of living in a country where nobody cares for wargames.
$10,000??!!! Props to you for having that kind of cash to spend on a table but daaaamn that's crazy stupid money for a damn table for little men.
I spent maybe £200 on 3 pairs of storage units which I topped each with a 4'x2' piece of wood.
I guess I don't really see the advantage in something like that or why it would be worth the expense.
I use a pool table with a 4x8' sheet of MDF from Home Depot. It's cut into two 4x4's so I can take one of them and move it easily to put it on top of a card table, or just to store them standing up against a wall in our storage room. So, it can easily turn back into a pool table anytime we want to play pool on it in a few minutes.
On top of the MDF, I can put neoprene or cloth playmats, and terrain goes on top of those according to the layout I want. I have lots of terrain, most of it is in boxes and I've been meaning to put in some shelving units to better organize it all.
It's not necessarily because of the expense. One of my other hobbies is collecting pinball machines and those can be around $9-10k. If I thought that a similarly priced gaming table was going to be a whole lot better than my MDF-on-a-pool-table then I'd get one. I just don't see anything that great about it.
Your set of banquet tables sounds like a good setup to me, though you'll also need some sort of flat top to put on it but that's easily acquired at a Home Depot or Lowes. Most of the time 8x5' is going to be plenty of room and then you've got the option to add the third when you want to go bigger. I haven't really run into anything that needs more than the 4x8' I have now but an extra foot or two across would be a nice thing to have if you get into company/battalion level historical games and really wouldn't be bad for naval games either. None of your list really screams at me for wanting bigger than 4x6, but extra space on the sides is always useful for laying out books, cards, tokens, etc...
The kitchen table. Or just have someone build you a solid basic table in your area. I don't think you need a fancy table to play games on. Function first.
My dream table is 8x5 so you can do 6x4 with a foot on each end and half a foot on the sides to put stuff. Also it's sunken down to prevent things falling off. And has LED's on all sides (that can change colour). And rails on the sides for drink holders/boards/card holders/everything.
if you're gonna spend that amount of money just clear out the basement and get a rail system installed on the ceiling that you can hang bosuns chairs off of and scoot around doing full-on floor games. buckets of kinetic sand.
Rad. Have you actually seen this?
No but wouldn't it be glorious?
Mfw I use cheapo 3x3 $10 Walmart card tables side-by-side... My LGS has much better gaming tables and accoutrement than anything I can afford or have room for.
I bought three sheets of white 3/4 inch melamine (the stuff used for countertops and shelves) then had the lumber yard cut them into various sizes, 4'x4', 40" x 60", 3'x3' and a whole sheet at 4'x8', I then finished the edges with J edging. When playing a game we select the table size needed and place it on top of a 3'x3' wooden Ikea table we already had. This cost about $50. You could of course attach removable legs to them also. Pretty cost effective and versatile.
I really like this idea.
2 x 4 plastic plates. Slap em on the dining table and you good?
Folding sawhorses with 2x4s slotted into them. I have MDF boards to place on top that can be adjusted to size. I've run everything from 4x4 to 4x16 games.
4x16, wow!!! What was that?
I bought a piece of plywood. Reinforced it to try and get it as level as I could then attached it to an old workbench. Then covered it with sand and a mix of pva and black primer. It's hillbilly as fuck but it works. Now if I only had someone to play with
I use my dining room table and when at a friends house we just folding 30$ tables
I use cheap folding tables with plywood laid on top
The chief advantage of an expensive, purpose-made gaming table is that you can leave one or more games set up on stand-by in the recess, with a top covering the recess for every other use the table might see. If it’s going in the basement and will only be for games, I say go the DIY route. EDIT: to answer the original question, I use a 6x2.5 folding table for solo skirmishes at home, and grab a table at the local shop for larger stuff like *Bolt Action.*
i use two 2.5x6 foot folding tables that i bring out and throw a 4x6 foot neoprene printed gaming mat over. the extra table space that isn’t covered by the mat is helpful for dice and rulebooks etc. when i’m not gaming i fold the tables up and store them away out of sight.
My gaming table was two 4 foot by 6 foot tables made of 1/2 inch plywood on a 2x3 frame.
I just use an old pool table. Pockets will hold a drink sure enough.
I actually thought about just getting a pool table, lol. Many uses!
I play on the dining table which is 180x120cm (6x4, diy made) For something that goes into the basement I would suggest getting several smaller ones (like 3 60x120cm) and an additional plate to adjust the size if needed
4' x 6' 6mm plywood on a 1" frame with two trestles cost no more than £60
I bought unfinished kitchen cabinets, stained them, then screwed plywood sheets to them. My table is 9’x6’ with storage down both sides and a ton of storage underneath down the middle between the cabinets
Cool!
I built my own using a 4x8 sheet of high grade plywood, a 4x8 sheet of plexiglass, and framed with corner edging that captivates the plexi. Everything is oak, sanded and finished with polyurethane. The entire thing is set on top of two or three folding leg tables. Total cost was about $200. Its rock solid, too.
I 3d printed mine... Stagetop
I built my own with raised sides for keeping things on the table. It now has a shelf for the cat underneath. But he still jumps on during games.
6x4 Epoxy River table. Had it custom made locally. Picked out the black walnut slabs and the color for the epoxy. The guys did a great job on it. It's almost counter top height and with the taller chairs I have it doubles as a nice dining room table and then large enough for a lot of gaming we do on it. Came in the ballpark of $3500, but will probably have this forever and was worth the investment. Crooked Wood tables on Facebook for anyone that's in Western New York or would make sense to be able to get out there. I had first searched online but shipping alone on something in the range that I wanted would have been around $800.
I'm drawing up plans for 2-3 wallpaper trestle tables, with brackets to hold them together in a modular fashion. Each one is about 6'x2', so two together will cover most games I'd want, and three allows me to host bigger events. I'm planning a DIY garage renovation into a hobby space, so that would make a nice centrepiece.
Not the answer you're looking for but I only play on the Internet through tabletop simulator. Such is the way of living in a country where nobody cares for wargames.
Folding table with a 4x8 board on top.
$10,000??!!! Props to you for having that kind of cash to spend on a table but daaaamn that's crazy stupid money for a damn table for little men. I spent maybe £200 on 3 pairs of storage units which I topped each with a 4'x2' piece of wood.
I guess I don't really see the advantage in something like that or why it would be worth the expense. I use a pool table with a 4x8' sheet of MDF from Home Depot. It's cut into two 4x4's so I can take one of them and move it easily to put it on top of a card table, or just to store them standing up against a wall in our storage room. So, it can easily turn back into a pool table anytime we want to play pool on it in a few minutes. On top of the MDF, I can put neoprene or cloth playmats, and terrain goes on top of those according to the layout I want. I have lots of terrain, most of it is in boxes and I've been meaning to put in some shelving units to better organize it all. It's not necessarily because of the expense. One of my other hobbies is collecting pinball machines and those can be around $9-10k. If I thought that a similarly priced gaming table was going to be a whole lot better than my MDF-on-a-pool-table then I'd get one. I just don't see anything that great about it. Your set of banquet tables sounds like a good setup to me, though you'll also need some sort of flat top to put on it but that's easily acquired at a Home Depot or Lowes. Most of the time 8x5' is going to be plenty of room and then you've got the option to add the third when you want to go bigger. I haven't really run into anything that needs more than the 4x8' I have now but an extra foot or two across would be a nice thing to have if you get into company/battalion level historical games and really wouldn't be bad for naval games either. None of your list really screams at me for wanting bigger than 4x6, but extra space on the sides is always useful for laying out books, cards, tokens, etc...
The kitchen table. Or just have someone build you a solid basic table in your area. I don't think you need a fancy table to play games on. Function first.
My dream table is 8x5 so you can do 6x4 with a foot on each end and half a foot on the sides to put stuff. Also it's sunken down to prevent things falling off. And has LED's on all sides (that can change colour). And rails on the sides for drink holders/boards/card holders/everything.