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I originally made it normal table height, but found long reaches while sitting were harder and it just felt cramped.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).
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Sired's Map project - Updated- 4/16 - files available see first post
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I was thinking the same, very transparent for the ocean names
Ill be painting/tinkering the next few hours with the water still,but I wanted to show a pic of the overall map, you can see everything was pretty much adjusted with the exception of the Americas. The islands in the pacific were made slightly larger, England grew, obviously the main reason for the project, a bigger Europe, smaller Africa. Spain I shrunk, I would rather more room in the French territories, and ya, I know spain looks weird, but I was the necessary evil to keep reasonable sea zones and keep the game lines in tact. Some of the other small islands were also enlarged, Crete for one, cant recall the others right now :)
I also removed a few little island specs I thought were more or less in the way, I don’t think we needed 2 little islands in Norway taking up the sea zone, just did a few of those to make better use of the sea zones.
I haven’t 100% decided the hue of the water yet, will be adjusted to the mainland colors after I paint (starting tomorrow)
Hope to have more pic up over the weekend. The hard part is over, After I paint its pretty much done, then its just tinker/adjust. This file has over 400 layers, will be over 500 after I add the IPC values, whoowe!
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Great stuff. Looking forward to seeing it progress.
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I like the added room in the Baltic Sea. Staring at the flashing map freaks me out after a few seconds though, lol.
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Thanks for the comments guys! In addition to the Baltic area, I also increased the distance from UK to Normandy, was pretty tight before.
I finished the water last night as planned, again, im not sure on the HUE/Saturation/Etc yet, ill tone in once the land is done, The water has been merged down to 4 layers, but I can still all sorts of tweeking when the time comes. I took this pic, not only to show the water, but the convoy and kamikaze silhouette.
The convoy/kamikaze still may get tweeked, but that’s them as of now, the black will more then likely be hued to match the BG once I decide on a shade.
Im in the process of pasting on satellite pics of the countries to give me painting references.
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I really like the kamikaze symbols!
The color not so much, but they may change a little bit as you’ve written.
Also you have rightfully concentrated on europe with your resizing work. But while you are at it, maybe we can think about some places in asia that are a bit too small in contrast to the amount of units there in a standard game.
Right on top of my head I was thinking about Hawaii and Malaya. For the latter maybe snitch a small chunk of Shan state?
And while not really practical at all, for some time now I would love a tiny corner of antartica hinted deep down in the south. Impassable of course.
Doesn’t add something to the game, but I kind of like the idea for unknown reasons :)
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I made Hawaii a tad bigger, probably not enough though, I was already thinking of adding a blowup box in the bottom corner where the unit chart was (as I removed those)
Malaya, ya, we can fudge some borders :)
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I love the colours you used for the water… really like the subtle tones from light to dark around the shore lines to open sea… my only concern is how dark it is overall, I like the 1940 water because it’s light enough, however, I don’t like looking at the 1942 2ndE board because the water colour is so dark.
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This would be the best map so far. The water nuances are perfect. Try not to make it like the oob map. Even adding some islands ( Maldives, Azores) would make it nicer.
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I too like your convoy and kamikaze markers a lot. Way better than those on the OOB map. They flow nicely without the box around them.
Have you thought about making the kamikaze diving or at some angle relative to the x axis of the board? It looks good as-is, and you don’t want it to be obtrusive; however that could make it a little more dynamic. Could require a different image though.
And is that a Val with the wheels chopped off?.. It kinda looks like a Dauntless silhouette. People may not notice, but it would be fundamentally wrong if it were an image of an American plane. … meaning I would find it a near sacrilege. :lol:
Maybe something like so, in silhouette? Or showing the discs on the wings? I really don’t know how detailed you want to be when that small:
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Or
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Thanks guys for the comments, im happy to know the progress approval is up more so then down :)
I actually wanted the plane in a dive, but it took up more space then I wanted, and ya, I cut the wheels so it would fit better with the writing, but I guess I should put them back to distinguish it better. Ill also toy with maybe a slight pivot.
And ya, I can see adding Azores, give that huge void a little pizazz.
Tomorrow ill be gone all day, so I wont be able to get new progress pics till Monday/Tuesday. Going to spend the rest of the night finishing up my card deck.
Thanks again for the comments, they are all very helpful!
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I actually wanted the plane in a dive, but it took up more space then I wanted, and ya, I cut the wheels so it would fit better with the writing, but I guess I should put them back to distinguish it better. Ill also toy with maybe a slight pivot.
Gotcha. I figured as much. Good to know.
Vals had fixed gear, so that’s why I wasn’t sure.
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I can honestly say I never paid attention to it being fixed, when I looked at your pic you posted, I noticed and knew ok, gotta put’em back lol.
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I can honestly say I never paid attention to it being fixed, when I looked at your pic you posted, I noticed and knew ok, gotta put’em back lol.
Haha, no prob man. Keep up the good work.
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Great work, Sired! Can’t wait to see the land painted! :-)
I agree with IL and YG; the water looks great! Like you said, though, you might need to adjust it a little when you paint the land, depending on how it looks. Love the wave/ripple effect you’ve got going on.
With regards to your blow-up boxes where the mobilization zones used to be; I’d personally prefer to have a clean map, without any game aids. I know that those sea zones are largely unused, but I just like the clean look. I would use your map as is, and add some “mobile” game aids to it. Let me explain; for example, you could print out a couple (maybe three or four) generic numbered blow-up boxes on card stock and add some sort of numbered marker/flag to that. You could then place that marker on the zone you need enlarged and put that territory’s units on the corresponding blow-up box card.
Other than that I like the idea of adding the azores and/or canaries, as well as the transparent ocean names (as long as they’re subtle), and as YG said, maybe a nautical compass, if it works. :wink:
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I agree, a clean map is better, why I removed all the default stuff in the first place.
Its funny you should mention about making boxes, last night I was messing with the blowup box on the map, and thought to myself, why not make some out of wood, this way every/any place can be blownup. So today I went to the shop to bore the lid for the Italy battle box, then I cut some blowup boxes out… just need to detail them a tad to match all my other crap, then paint.
Also, I messed with the kamikaze some more, ill post a pic here soon of some options.
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My card deck accessory will be available soon, it will have blow up box cards and mobilization zone cards for each nation. This deck will also have reference card information like order of play, starting income, cost of units, R&D charts as well as turn sequence steps… these cards will reference info for both the 1940 and 1942 scenarios.
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@Young:
these cards will reference info for both the 1940 and 1942 scenarios.
What scenarios are those? Are they for play on a G40 board?
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@Young:
these cards will reference info for both the 1940 and 1942 scenarios.
What scenarios are those? Are they for play on a G40 board?
Yes, there is the 1940 scenario which we all know, and there is a 1942 scenario that Larry created for Gen Con tourney games… all setup charts for both scenarios will also be included in my deck.
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@Young:
Yes, there is the 1940 scenario which we all know, and there is a 1942 scenario that Larry created for Gen Con tourney games… all setup charts for both scenarios will also be included in my deck.
Oh cool. I had no idea.
Is the setup listed somewhere?
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