The saddest table

[MagpieJono]

If they'd just painted the white polystyrene grey or brown it would look much better.

If they spent a few minutes using a hotwire to take the harsh edges off first it'd look better again.

This wouldn't have cost much time or money.

[JamesValentine]

Paying to go to THAT!?...40k players have no self respect

[Cubs]

[grant]

I’d say you took a pretty good stab at it.

That picture of the table doesn’t even shock me anymore; I was in West Edmonton Mall yesterday and the yogurt stand next door was bigger than what was a flagship GW store.

Unpainted, unsquared, loose foam and paying a high price to play? All sounds right to me. 

[Mr.J]

Well I spent £5 and had an afternoon looking at some absolutely brilliant tables and chatting with loads of interesting people at Partizan on Sunday. Bargain!

[katie]

I think the best part of Partizan was the palpable sense of being overwhelmed that Grubby Tanks had over their coming to realise what they'd taken on with acquiring Redoubt...


I've made huge quantities of terrain out of polystyrene in a hurry and on a budget in the past, but I bothered to at least paint the stuff....

[Wookington]

Although the tables look naff I think people are missing the point.  This is a 40k tournament, I doubt whether the attendees would actually want more complexity of terrain, the layouts are all near perfectly symmetrical and mirrored to have absolutely the minimum complaint about any table being 'imbalanced'.  The blocking terrain has to be tall enough that there is no getting down to eye level to have a 10 minute argument about whether being able to see exactly one mm of a figure counts for Line of Sight. 

I imagine for organisers and competitors matters are too 'serious' for aesthetic concerns like pretty terrain or a natural looking table, it is a matter of mathematics (and also of preventing some of the more abysmally over-competitive from having the judges over for every single line call). 

[Rich H]

Although the tables look naff I think people are missing the point.  This is a 40k tournament, I doubt whether the attendees would actually want more complexity of terrain, the layouts are all near perfectly symmetrical and mirrored to have absolutely the minimum complaint about any table being 'imbalanced'.  The blocking terrain has to be tall enough that there is no getting down to eye level to have a 10 minute argument about whether being able to see exactly one mm of a figure counts for Line of Sight. 

I imagine for organisers and competitors matters are too 'serious' for aesthetic concerns like pretty terrain or a natural looking table, it is a matter of mathematics (and also of preventing some of the more abysmally over-competitive from having the judges over for every single line call).

I think the title of this thread sums it up: it's not wrong from a rules point of view, it's just very sad
It's sad that it's been boiled down to such a clinical system.  May as well use cardboard cut outs (Standard sized of course) and a hex grid. 

[Doug ex-em4]

Each table is symmetrical with 5 identical pieces per side in mirror positions.
Each table is identical to the first one
and there are a lot of tables.

So perhaps this thread is being overly harsh (I don't know).

I have no idea whether there is a 'historical' significance to the set-up, but clearly there has been a need to produce the terrain on a sort of industrial scale, ensuring measurements and look etc for each table are exactly the same. If one divides effort by time, then even what we see will have taken an age to build, room to store and an effort transport (both ways?).

I think the end result here alone must have been an exacting job, making a more detailed or exciting or aesthetic lay-out would clearly have had build implications.

I would think that once people get set up and get into the game and those of a competitive streak having other concerns to think about, the terrain probably becomes a less of an issue.

I know nothing of tournaments or of this game system or of the administrative burdens to get something like this up and running, to be able to know whether to call these bad tables, but am left wondering whether this thread is unduly harsh, not that I care, my own tables are not works of art.

I think that’s about right. It may not suit us but - different strokes for different folks, eh? Let’s have a cliché-fest and throw in “live and let live” as well.

Doug

[Cubs]

Well, they've made their bed and they've got to lie in it.

[Rich H]

Well, they've made their bed and they've got to lie in it.

Not really made a bed, more of a blanket on the floor.

[tin shed gamer]

It's twaddle ,

This is nothing more than lack of foresight and imagination.

An event for people  that have bought into the whole GW model.

And nobody thought hang on this company does a shed load of terrain to go with their games. What a great promotional opportunity.

May be just may be you could have identical table set ups using mass produced identical pieces of terrain . The company gives away free school starter sets to promote  the hobby After all.

If it was just purely about the game why all the different game mats ? Why not just paper table cloths they cost next to nothing and most venues keep them in stock.

[Cubs]

Another day, another dollar.

[Norm]

I think the title of this thread sums it up: it's not wrong from a rules point of view, it's just very sad
It's sad that it's been boiled down to such a clinical system.  May as well use cardboard cut outs (Standard sized of course) and a hex grid.

Are we having a go at hexed tables now? perhaps we need some kind of guide so we know which is 'the right way' to wargame.

[Rich H]

Are we having a go at hexed tables now? perhaps we need some kind of guide so we know which is 'the right way' to wargame.

Not at all, nothing wrong with hexes, we play Check your six regularly 

I meant if you have removed the need to make a judgement about the terrain in pursuit of clarity then hexes would mean there is no need for pesky range measurement and remove another potential route for disagreement (ie it was a joke)