Sired's Map project - Updated- 4/16 - files available see first post

I have been playing around with different configurations for a custom table and wanted to note some things I’ve landed on that I really like. A main one thing is having the map mounted so that it can slide around as needed on top of a bigger playing area. My table is 65” x 95” in total with a 5.5” arm rest around the outside and the middle is a recessed neoprene surface. I have the OOB Global map mounted on 1/2” rigid foam with a 1/2” aluminum frame around it. This allows the map to slide up close to whoever’s turn it is, but then be in the middle so both players can roll dice In front of them without disturbing the map and in easy view of the other player. (Plus we like lots of room to roll the bones). This ability to adjust the surface along with a standing height, makes it comfortable for long uses because you can move around more and don’t feel as tied down.
Things I’ve learned and changed from original design - I originally used too big of a frame for the map and mounted it on too high of a foam block (you can see these pictures at the bottom) - it made it hard to see the other player’s dice and the big frame took up too much real estate. My global map is mounted on much thinner foam (the framing is bad, you can see if you look closely) but I also used much thinner aluminum angle for the frame. This gives just enough grip when needing to move the map around (I use furniture slides on the bottom, which glide very nicely on the neoprene) but doesn’t make the whole thing too bulky. Having it an inch or so off the surface keeps the dice off, but isn’t so heigh that you can’t see the other player’s dice rolls. When playing other versions (such as Zombies) the board is much smaller, but it can easily swap in and out on the same table since it can move around where ever it is needed or be pushed aside.
I originally made it normal table height, but found long reaches while sitting were harder and it just felt cramped. Standing height with a bar stool is a great way to have the best of both worlds.
The 5.5” rim around the table itself gives you a nice arm rest that doesn’t interfere with the gaming surface. I’m playing with how to best add some cushion to this part - open to suggestions. Sometimes I just lay a piece of leftover neoprene on it.
Dice bounce nice on the neoprene and stay off the floor. It also feels nice and has enough give to allow things to slide but be picked up easily. Wouldn’t definitely go with neoprene again as a surface covering.
I made the drawers open to the inside of the table so you can stay hunched over the action while accessing and stowing stuff away. 50/50 on whether I would keep this if I were to do it again. If I were doing it again, I might try to build customer drawers form scratch using actual drawer glides, but that was beyond my ability when I first did this, so I just used clear plexiglass boxes with aluminum pulls mounted on them. It’s nice having them clear, and I was happy with how the pulls came out, but without glides they can be a little fussy sliding in and out of their slots.
I originally designed the table so that I could put a cover surface back on top when not in use, but find I don’t really ever do that, so if I were to do it again, I might not mess with that part (I never even finished staining those as you can see in the pictures).
CF362D52-269F-4480-8CBB-08139099138F.jpeg A9E12EA1-66EB-4671-86AC-68C62FD30AD5.jpeg 858DE1F2-030A-4D5A-93E4-70A7D1180ADB.jpeg 8F513EE0-DA37-4BA9-880E-4D5EF7BF431F.jpeg F0188165-757B-4CC1-BF67-5045832283C9.jpeg 2E3CD627-0D31-4121-ACF8-682F9F58A40B.jpeg

Are the arrows small enough to fit on the rudder?
60327_p1_large.jpg

@Young:

I’m deep into trying to get my custom card decks released right now, but I will certainly look into it.

Yeah I use your first card deck without the house roules for my games.  :-D

In the Amerika board game, there are a few rules when attacking city territories. The first is that artillery fires first in the opening round of combat and casualties are removed before continuing. The second is each city has it’s own Anti-aircraft guns which fire before combat begins and casualties are removed. This is not like the AA guns on factories, these are for ground assault. Lastly, the attacker can only use one round of combat to simulate the difficulty and length of time it takes to capture a city. I don’t know if this would transfer well to A&A though because there is also a stacking limit in Amerka. You would never be able to capture a capital in A&A if you stacked 20-30 units on it. You could make a limit of 2 or 3 rounds or something like that though.

This sticky thread has been replaced by… http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=39633.0

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I’ve updated the approximates sizes/scales for some basic and alternate units.  Keep in mind that many classes of ship and aircraft, though in the same class, varied in size so my sizes will be off on some units.  If your like me I want to be able to visually distinguish between units quickly so keeping classes similar in size I find works the best. Below is my guide/attempt to standardize my pieces where they are relatively the same size for their respective class.  I’ve added some alternative classes that I use in my games and ties in some of the alternate pieces that HBG is putting out.  If you need something scaled and not sure how to do it let me know and I’ll do my best to help.

Carrier 6.5 cm 1/3700
Light/Escort Carrier 5cm 1/3100
Battleship 6 cm 1/4000
Cruiser 5.5 cm 1/3700
Light Cruiser 5 cm 1/3400
Destroyer 4.8 cm 1/2400

(cm is for the wingspan)
Heavy Bomber 4.7 cm 1/700
Medium Bomber 3.5 cm 1/600
Light Bomber 1.7 cm 1/600
Heavy Fighter (Twin engine) 2.8 cm 1/600
Fighter 2.2 cm 1/500
Light Fighter 1.7 cm 1/600
Dive/Torpedo Bomber 3 cm 1/500

@LHoffman:

Personally, I like the idea of having that area all around the board for all players to use. The good thing about not having made a table yet is that you can steal the best ideas from everyone else and incorporate them into your own.

Yes, that’s the nice thing about having a discussion forum where people share the result of their customization projects: it not only motivates people to try projects of their own, it also provides lots of ideas on which to drawn (sometimes including hard-won knowledge derived from failed experiments).

I have some pictures of my table in this thread:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=32700.0

The photos which best show the side wings are titled 1 Left Table.jpg and 4 Right Table.jpg.