VLOG: Creating An Age of Sigmar Gaming Table – The Planning Phase
July 2, 2015 by warzan
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Interesting Idea!
The idea instantly reminded me of the Carnevale/Venice Combo 😉
I get the feeling that Warren either hasn’t read the rules or is trying to pander to GW.
Sigh
Ah the good old fanboy group think….
Well it wouldn’t be Warhammer without a troll.
I like GW’s old trolls… well, at least the ones you can paint. 😉
I feel like @wesadie1969 ‘s comment did not get the thumbs it deserved, well played sir 🙂
@toxicvex
Look either I haven’t read the rules or I’m pandering right?
1) I’ve read the rules – I see potential – I’m waiting for the war scrolls and getting a few games in.
So I must be pandering then to GW? Well consider
1) the video is backstage so unless the GW top brass are backstagers (and there not) it’s a bit of a waste of a pander eh?
2) I’m sitting in the video showing off another companies terrain product, pants there goes another opportunity to pander!
(As you can see, pandering is not exactly my strong point in this instance)
So let me try and decipher what might actually be happening here (Sherlock style 😉 )
1) I know your not particularly anti GW as you are a fan of 40K
2) So perhaps you are lamenting the loss of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and see this as an inferior product…
3) therefore the fact that I’m quite interested in the possibilities of this game clashes with your world view
4) because our opinions don’t match mine is therefore invalid
5) and to have an invalid opinion I must have either got something wrong (not read rules) or have some hidden corporate agenda
Well …
Perhaps for the moment I just have a different opinion from you 🙂
First of let me say that “Pandering” was probably a bit strong.
You’re right I’m not anti-GW and you’re right I do see AoS as inferior, not because it’s a replacement for WHFB but because the rules are pretty terrible.
If GW had replaced the rules with a 40k clone or just copy pasted LOTR/Hobbit rules then I’d be pretty pumped for AoS (40k and lotr had pretty solid rules for the most part).
But considering there is no sense of balance or even a structure to army building, it’s basically “Person A fields w/e they want, person B fields w/e they want, no limits”. There’s no point values (a common thing from GW for since I’ve been collecting) so that raised a few eyebrows. Then people said “wait until the Warscrolls come out, they will make the game balanced and fair”. Except they don’t, for units like the new Khorne warrior guys the warscroll for them says you can field as many as you like within the unit (so there are no limits).
There’s really nothing stopping someone from fielding 20 Bloodthirsters against 20 Goblins.
Well you could agree with your opponent before the game on numbers of miniatures/warscrolls. That way would not end up with 20 Bloodthirsters vs. 20 Goblins.
But AoS is no tournament game, and that’s for sure. And I don’t think GW ever intended it to be that type of game.
@toxicvex
Wheaton’s Law?
@lasse
Sure you could avoid the 20 bloodthirsters and 20 goblins scenario. But the warscrolls say that units can be any size you like.
So 2 players with 2 WS each. One has a hero and 40 skinks, the other has a hero and 100 chaos warriors.
AoS doesn’t have to be a tournament game to be fair and balanced.
@toxicvex See? You used your words and people had civil discourse with you instead of just “thumbs downing” you.
Yay for civil discourse and well spoken opinions!!
When did “I cant see how this might work – so they must be complete idiots” become so common???
@warzan
Forgot to say also. I don’t consider your opinion invalid because mine differs, (after all you snubbed the idea of a jawa army which I love the sound of since you mentioned it). It’s because I’m left wondering how anyone can be excited about rules that have even left the 40k players scratching their heads.
Speaking personally, i generally find most wargame rules to have too much information, statistics and rules to memorise and learn and I have a learning disability which makes all that very difficult, so for me I am actually kind of optimistic as it might be one I can finally join in with and not end up feeling like an idiot. Normally i keep to the modelling, painting (and sculpting side) but have always wanted to join in on the gaming side – this one might just be for people like me.
Nicely put.
There is an uncertainty about this new Warhammer it’s an emotional cocktail of feeling excitement vs disheartening. I know many people who were really hooked into the system and universe. AND THEY BLEW IT UP!
Maniacs. 😉
However you feel about this, as a wargaming site you can’t really ignore it.
*points a stern finger* Hey! There’s only one type of pandering allowed ’round ‘ere boy!
And that’s the type that come with the Nomad Tunguska Interventors. They’re so cute!
How could anyone be mad when you look into the sad robotic eyes of little pandas?
@warzan The table sounds awesome
*looks back at the panda* Oh yes you are, best unit in the game, yes you are…
I don’t like pandas….
lol!!!
Look forward to seeing more.
Sigmarines 😛 haha .. well hopefully the game can live up to the excellent table this will be 🙂
Well sounds good may I make a small observation please it may be an idea on your walkways, certainly not all but just say roughly a third to have one side of piles longer than the other side again and for real detail make some eyelets to thread in effect a rope through, say an expensive home of a merchant, a fishing fleet owner a tax collector etc but especially a pub where it is a legal requirement by district by law that any pub have to provide a rope for those slightly worse for wear and in the same public drinking den of thieves perhaps a trap door for depositing those who have been removed of their purse and other valuables. To be honest the scratch built Titan just took a heave from the building and painting table to be replaced by a similar structured city. Mine though shall become a static piece that will fit into a coffee table. So it simply lifts out from under and fits upon the coffee table to be used and goes under it and lit by those battery candle tee light things minus the rubbish its fitted in (£ shop). Like you I shall send some pictures as it goes, unlike you it possibly will not be anything like yours its going to be a smaller base but more stacked for hight. Initial sketch work will be done tonight with any luck and my Bi-Polar behaves. Looking forwards to this may even write some by laws for my water town all written around the rich being rich of course how can you not.
Victoria and Chris Goddard.
Nice to see someone showing a bit of enthusiasm for the game. Looking forward to this run of vlogs. If the game turns out to be a stinker then the vlog will still be handy for other game systems.
Too true what about Frostgrave I think it is or even playing SAGA on it a lot of games spring to mind including of course LoR and the Hobbit.
Interesting project, is’t going to be fun to follow the progress.
I do believe that the Mordenburg buildings are going to be a bit too small for new AoS miniatures, they seem to be pretty big for 28mm scale.
Actually if they are a little small that will actually be a bonus as from our experience having the minis a little bigger makes the game feel more vibrant.
(We do this on Flames of War)
Well it’s going to be interesting to see how many of Sigmar’s golden boys to you can fit inside a Mordenburg building.
By the way, a Lake Town table is a fantastic idea, I’m sure this table is going to look amazing.
A little bigger maybe, but those sigmarines are huge. They’re on 40mm bases, and in side by side shots, a space marine is about chest high on them.
I’d get hold of the free one with white dwarf, and see if it’d actually be possible to fit a unit of five of them inside some of those foreground buildings, so you can do the whole playing through rather than around buildings thing (which I like the idea of).
most old houses were small with the ceilings being around 5 foot 6 inch tall
Excellent, I have just bought a handful of Mordenburg buildings so will pay close attention how you guys get the games inside
Cool vlog idea, will watch this whilst away on holiday, as this is one of the few websites not blocked by the Great Firewall lol….
Warren, mate; I’m stealing this idea from you!
This is going to be great. Looking forward to seeing how it comes together.
Looking forward to seeing how you do with this. I’ve been trying to make a Venice table for Carnivale, with little success. It’s also nice to see someone else enthused by this new edition of warhammer.
I’d love to be able to make a table that traverses a town or city into woodland. But I suppose that would be easier with the smaller scale stuff.
Perhaps model it in SketchUP and post it to the forum for us to view?
(Ps happy to do this for you if needs be 🙂
Always loved the idea to crecreate lake town, only problem i have 90 % of my building the ground floor is made of stone, instead of wood, maybe a small part in a lake is nice one for me.
Log the building blog and hope to see must more of this.
This vlog is classic Beasts of War and the reason why I’m happy to be a Backstager.
It starts off with seeing the headline and “Hmm, this looks interesting…”
Then a little “You want to do what? Why am I watching this?” might happen which soon progresses to “Oh, I see. That’s actually a pretty slick idea! How would you actually do that….”
And then my mind is racing along just as fast as Warren’s but obviously off on its own direction because how can anybody possibly anticipate the direction Warren will go. 😉
For approach to the lake town table I would use dowels as pilings and pieces of thin plywood as the deck surface with the coffee stirrers layered over the top to give the appearance of deck boards. The plywood gives the strength and structure needed to survive the handling and packing process that all terrain must endure.
I think the rest of my process would be very much the same as already stated in the vlog.
If only I had access to a large supply of blue pleather, adequate storage space and the time to build a lake town board of my own. 🙂
Looking good. I might use the wolsung mat for some games
That looks like a great idea, we’ve toyed with a similar idea a while ago for a club table, but we were going to end up supporting all the blocks on chain over a big pit. With some lasercutting experience now I’m tempted to give it another go a lasercut the square tops with engraved plans and the odd knot hole built in.
planks of course not plans!
Splendid idea for a board for any system. I look forward to seeing this progress.
so hyped about AoS right now.
hehe well, I know that Warren doesn’t like the idea of using this for “Actual Lake Town…” but my son and I sure will 😉
Can’t wait to crib some of your ideas and techniques from this, and looking forward to maybe seeing some AoS videos on it too.
Nice planning. Have you considered using (if available) some wooden flooring sheets from doll houses? They are essentially your coffee stirrers already mounted on heavy paper, easily cut and stainable.
what about using just the roofs between the walkways to play games like legolas verses the Orks.
don’t play warhammer but sound like its gone back to the (shadow of the horned rat) with a small armed unit patrolling the borders of the empire/kingdom.
This comes just as I have decided to pull my finger out and build my own gaming table. I will always paint new units for my armies to a good standard but will happily play (make do) with a grass mat with terrain made from old junk (and I don’t mean repurposed, I mean a cereal box placed as is!). No more, I will now build a gaming table fit for my forces. Although not looking to build an AoS table I hope to use the ideas, general approach and methodology for my gaming table. Thanks.
I’d also be interesting in seeing a more ‘plane of eternal war’ style board too for AoS. There will be these realms where its a lot more normal but I think the options for creating floating worlds, huge rock formations, pools of vibrant ichor and gore, stone glyphs and temples could be epic.
Ooh! You could use transparent rod set in a little bit from the edges of the module platform to give the appearance of floating terrain.
Flying Bases for Buildings!!
Yup haha. I like the idea of somehow cannibalising the idea we had for the asteroids and stuff to create floating constructs that were once anchored down onto the ground and are now held aloft by the winds of magic 😉
OK I might have a go at this 🙂
Let me think about how for a bit …
Haha – good stuff 😉
Think Outland from World of Warcraft with it’s floating rock formations and such and you’d be along the right track. Although I think it could be a bit creepier than Outland since it’s Warhammer.
I have to make all of my terrain to be in sections and easily packed away. Love the idea of your modular effort. Keen to see how this works out.
The Sigmarines will look cool with some alternative paint jobs, but for me the gold looks awful.
Hope you make room for some Griffins on all these narrow walk ways. 🙂
I like the idea of this table lots of levels with walkways, choke points, missile troops being able to close in on their targets and being out of reach of reprisal of their targets, other areas where ranged weapons would be of no use at all.
You could get a very large playing area into a very small space.
how about building a set of stone foundation/plastform for your buildings, a simple cut piece of foam, carved and decorated in the right way. you could do a simple mould and cast a bunch of them up, them your wooden pillars and walkways link them together. …..
@warzan, have you planned something to between the 60 mm and the 120 mm? You’ll need stairs or an in-between section to make the steps between these two hights more realistic…
@warzan Might want to check this out.
http://www.ziterdes.de/ziterdes/en/produkte/suche.php?search=true&suchbegriff=laketown
Great call and link there, cheers
Likewise, here’s the link to the Lake Town the gentleman whose making the 11ft. Star Destroyer has built as well, for inspiration:
http://www.wrightwargameterrain.com/fishing-town-.html
DCHL has a photo and video walkthrough of it in action:
http://www.dchobbitleague.com/laketown.html
Going to be watching these closely, got a few ideas for a project or two myself now 🙂
That big tower would look great as a centre piece. Warren your as mad as a box of frogs and that’s what makes being a ‘backstager’ so much better we all get to be mad frogs as well 🙂
Creating a rodent warren like city over a lake, a.k.a. Lake Town, will definitely force skirmish battles. There are lots of ideas that come to mind: fires, collapsing walkways and hidden weapons. It does seem like a table that would work for many games, too. I am looking forward to seeing the process and result. You’ve set a huge challenge for yourself. Glad I am just watching.
@warzan taking full inspiration I rushed out after work and shopped for supplies. Question for you, I had a look and 10mm square dowel seems a bit thick, – the 5 mm stuff seems more scale, do you think it’s too flimsy?
I had exactly the same feeling when I popped into b&q to pick up some square dowel lol
But I have stuck to my guns and got the 10mm stuff anyway as I want not only real bulk to this (as they will be supporting buildings and have to be stored and reused) but also a narrative bulk in that this is Age of Sigmar baby and some bad ass creatures are going to have to fight their way through ‘lough death’ to get to my next location 😉
So for the moment I think heavy will work just fine 🙂
You should cut the piles 20, 50 & 110. Then rest the beams on top of them. Otherwise you’ll have all these dinky pieces to fit in between the pilings.
As @enginseer said, classic Bow! An excellent vlog.
I’m just wondering @warzan, if you go 4×8 for AoS what size of board would you do for Warpath? 6×12? 8×24?
Good luck with the project! Bow enthusiasm about AoS might actually get me to pick up the game.
Very cool idea! Some idea’s I had when watching this:
– Add a lot of additional planking with balsa wood strips to give it a bit more of a rag tag, been through the ages kind of feel. You can also use the extra planks to cover up mistakes.
– Add in some small details like lanterns, flowerpots, rats running around, … Just to give some more narrative to the town.
– Paint everything in the same colour palette, including the 4G buildings to really tie everything together.
Anyway, I’m just thinking out loud 😀
Looking forward to seeing how this comes together.
A Lake Town Board obviously needs some Fishmen to fight on it… I’ll get my coat!
Well that thread escelatted quickly.
A comment was made a while back about those who just simply wouldnt have got into Fantasy as it was, I was one of those people, the requirements for the size before you could have a game was too high and too rediculous for me to be interesting. AoS has gotten me interested, Im still undecided on the box set.
As for the table I love the idea and look forward to seeing it develop
Apparently its not a very popular opinion to say you have any interest in AoS. Sad to see that some will give you a negative rating simply for being at all positive about it.
I will join you in saying that I am also very interested to see where AoS goes and think its exciting to see GW pushing the boundaries, whether t turns out to be good for Warhammer or not.
Also, to add, I very much like the idea of this board. It is similar to something I am planning myself for Necromunda (except it’ll be Sumptown, not Laketown).
While i may not be a big fan of this new game from GW, i am very interested in seeing this gaming table take shape as it sounds like it will be awesome. And who knows after i watch a game or 2 on this new table i might be converted to this new game. So keep up the great idea and work Warren i am looking forward to seeing the journey and end result. 🙂
Not sure if this has been posted i’ve been working pretty intensely last two weeks. But if you pick up White Dwarf tomorrow aside from the rules for Sigmar you also get a free mini. So it’s a good week to get down to a Warhammer/Games Workshop store if one is near you, or order one online.
@warzan That table sounds great!
How about having a crazy winch that can hoist a unit up and down to different levels, or a rope bridge like the Bridge of Death in Monty Python and the Holy Grail , and you have to answer three questions to pass it? 😀