Small table top games?

[Mark Pearce]

Hi,

Back in the early 90s at school I discovered warhammer through a friend, we spent all our pocket money on it and time playing and painting, setting up our own school gaming club eventually.

I stopped playing in my late teens, money and studies took over, then work and I lost the friends who enjoyed playing over time and sold off the miniatures I owned.

Here I am now, a thirty something, each time I play a board game I find myself missing the freedom and dramatic moments of those games, however, my girlfriend of two years is curious about it, and has shown interest!

I wouldn’t want(nor could afford) the 2000 point armies of old [side note-shocked to see the changes warhammer fantasy has gone through!] but I’d love some recommendations as to interesting table top games that are affordable, transportable and can be played by two people with a couple of hours to spare and a giant breakfast bar!

I know it’s vague, but any suggestions are great 🙂

 

Mark

 

 

 

[JozisTinMan]

I have a similar set of criteria, I need something that will fit on my 3′ x 5′ gaming table and something I can set up quickly and fight in a couple of hours.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Go Skirmish.  This seems to be a popular option, you can get a good game in using any scale you like with a couple dozen figures per side in a period that strikes your fancy, and it should all fit in a 3′ x 3′ space.  Think games like:
   1. 5 Core Skirmish or Squad Hammer
   2. Anything from Two Hour Wargames
   3. Song of Blades and Heroes
   4. Saga
   5. Any other skirmishy rules out there, we are truly in a golden age and you have a lot of choices.

Any or all of these can give a fun game if you like to skirmish either with or without guns

 

2. Go small: This is my current favorite option

Small scale figures are a great option to do battles on reasonable sized tables.  While i love going to Historicon and seeing 20 feet long tables crammed with figures, it is not something I can do on a regular basis.

Do yourself a favor and go read this essay by Peter Berry right now and then come back…

Ok, he can say it better than I ever can.  here are some great examples fo folks going small and playing great looking and fun games without breaking the bank or breaking their backs. And in many cases, I would argue more realistically because they have room to maneuver their troops.

Here is the home page for Baccus

Here is the home page for Picoarmor for 1/600 scale stuff

Just Jack’s great 6mm games

Wargaming in small spaces

One Hour Wargames, a must have for even just the scenarios, all rules for a 3 x 3 battlefield

My own humble blog where I either skirmish in 28mm or fight battles in 6mm and 3mm

Good luck and let us know which direction you go!

 

 

 

 

http://jozistinman.blogspot.com/

[Prince Rhys]

There is HOF fire team 15mm (could be 10mm I guess) skirmish complete with boards you can simply print out as well as the rules and game on:

HOF Fire Team Rulebook and Battleboards – Paid Digital Download

 

[shelldrake]

I am currently making a ‘tray battlefield’ for use with squad sized units in 15mm. The rules I am playing are Iron Ivan games “Disposable Heroes: Point Blank”, which are intended for early 1900’s through to modern games, but easily adaptable to anything from Ancients to Sci-fi.

You only need about 10 figures per side to play a game, and if you go with 15mm figures, it can be very cheap to get up and running.

You can see the first protoype in this thread: http://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/10mm-skirmish/

It has evolved a bit since my last post, and I should update the topic to reflect that, as it is now a smaller tray and with 15mm figures.

The great thing about using the tray is that I can carry it anywhere, move it around if need be and it doesn’t take up much space.

I also have a 60cm x 60 cm square foam board for bigger games.

[JozisTinMan]

Shelldrake, thank you for sharing that!  I have some 10mm Pendraken WW1 on order and was planning on individual bases with platoon sized actions.  Seeing yours have convinced me I am not crazy (for trying this project.)

Shelldrake has combined my options, gone Skirmish AND small.  For AWI skirmish, I am doing something similar in 6mm, copying this guy’s basing scheme.

One thing I love about the smaller scales is terrain storage is exponentially easier too.

 

http://jozistinman.blogspot.com/

[shelldrake]

No worries. I am glad I finally posted something useful to someone

I have updated my thread with the photos of the project on a smaller tray too, to give you an idea what it can look like.

[Phil Dutré]

“The Portable Wargame” by Bob Cordery is quite popular in some circles …

http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/portable_wargame/

[Mark Pearce]

Some interesting options by the sounds of it, it’s great that alternative games to just the big names are so much more accessible now.

Thank you all for the great advice 🙂

[Ivan Sorensen]

Most of the games I write are aimed at a 2×2 or 3×3 foot table and an hour or two of playtime.
I see FiveCore got suggested above and that’s definitely right within those criteria. Plus you get to play campaigns.

We always played Nuts on a 2.5×2.5 foot table and it did fine, ditto with Crossfire.

You can also get a lot of mileage of smaller figures and slightly smaller games.
A Crossfire game with a company per side runs fine, or set up a Bolt Action game in 15mm and use four half squads instead of four full squads, An under-strength battalion in Command Decision, that sort of thing.

[Cameronian]

DBA; designed for 15mm figures on a 2ft x 2ft surface played over an hour or less.  Ancient and Medieval, ready-made (unpainted) armies available from various sources so don’t need to bother with army lists.  As I don’t think you aspire to be a champion player, get a copy of the old V 2.0 rules and just use the content as you see fit.

So much heresy in such a short post 

'The time has come" The walrus said. "To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--Of cabbages--and kings--And why the sea is boiling hot--And whether pigs have wings."

[Mike]

Mark Pearce wrote:

Back in the early 90s at school I discovered warhammer through a friend, we spent all our pocket money on it and time playing and painting, setting up our own school gaming club eventually. I stopped playing in my late teens, money and studies took over, then work and I lost the friends who enjoyed playing over time and sold off the miniatures I owned. Here I am now, a thirty something, each time I play a board game I find myself missing the freedom and dramatic moments of those games, however, my girlfriend of two years is curious about it, and has shown interest!

Sounds like me, though you are younger!
(Quick ban him!!!)

What about something familiar and tropey but also cheap and easy, with the option to expand and get more detailed?
I am currently on a 15mm Conan style thing and you can see some of my game reports HERE which will show you how cheap and quick and easy it can be.

[Mark Pearce]

That sounds very interesting 🙂 I’ll check it out! Thank you, it’s amazing the range and creativity of games now

[Author]

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