Table Minimum Sizes

[Valerian]

Although these are new minimum sizes, and nobody is being forced to change their 4'x6' tables, it looks like all/most of the major events are indeed going to transition to the smaller sized tables. If you're a tournament player, you may want to read up about it here.

 

My initial reaction was, meh, nobody is going to change how they've been playing, but apparently I was very wrong about the big Organized Events.

 

 

 

Val

[Corvus Fortis]

It is so annoying. Especially these 4" decrease for short sides. It is easy to measure 6" for each long side (or even only one) but these 2"... I guess, in friendly games we will just ignore that.

[Valerian]

They only did it to base off of the 22”x30” Kill Team mats.

[Shagah]

These are only minimum sizes.  Running the full width of the table at 48" should be no big deal, that way you can just divide off on the long side for how big your game is. 

 

In saying that adding the extra 18" minimum in the Onslaught size may be more trickier for some.

[Valerian]

These are only minimum sizes. Running the full width of the table at 48" should be no big deal, that way you can just divide off on the long side for how big your game is.

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Yeah, none of it is a big deal for friendly games; the point of the post was to highlight the fact that all of the major Organized Events have already declared that they’re making the change directly to 44x60 inch boards.

 

 

 

Taped off my mat to the new dimensions; looks crazy weird, and really small. But, on a positive note, I have room now at the end of the table for my dice tray and army binders.

 

 

The playing area seems weirdly small.

[Valerian]

It is also well worth pointing out that the reduction of a standard 4'x6' playing surface down to 44"x60" is almost a full 25% reduction!  

[Captain Coolpants]

Now you've shown it visually.. Its indeed much bigger of a different that I thought! Is this their way of helping combat armies a bit? Almost no help in hammer and anvil type games, but huge difference in others.

 

Surely they have to be altering the minimum distance deepstrike restrictions too? Because it can be hard enough getting 9" away from all units with full sized boards as it is.

Edited June 7, 2020 by Captain Coolpants

[Valerian]

Now you've shown it visually.. Its indeed much bigger of a different that I thought! Is this their way of helping combat armies a bit? Almost no help in hammer and anvil type games, but huge difference in others.

Yeah, with only 76% of the table to work within, this has to help melee-focused armies. That, along with the new terrain rules, with more LOS blocking on the way.

 

Surely they have to be altering the minimum distance deepstrike restrictions too? Because it can be hard enough getting 9" away from all units with full sized boards as it is.

I've thought about that as well. Definitely possible.

[Skywrath]

It is also well worth pointing out that the reduction of a standard 4'x6' playing surface down to 44"x60" is almost a full 25% reduction!  

 

May we see the maths behind this? 

 

If so, then colour me shocked, I honestly thought these changes were more for legalese, as we were already subconsciously following said game size. At my LGWS, we have a 2x2 tile grid, which after eyeing it looked to be the same size as the one in the image, but clearly not. Perhaps, they are doing this with the intention of shorter games in mind? 

[Valerian]

 

It is also well worth pointing out that the reduction of a standard 4'x6' playing surface down to 44"x60" is almost a full 25% reduction!  

 

May we see the maths behind this? 

 

 

Yeah, it's pretty simple stuff.  An old school 4'x6' board was 48 by 72 inches, which is 3,456 inches square.  The new board at 44 by 60 is 2,640 inches square.  The new surface area divided by the old surface area is .7638, which means it is 76.38% of the old size.  So, a reduction of almost 25%.  

[Shagah]

 

 

 

It is also well worth pointing out that the reduction of a standard 4'x6' playing surface down to 44"x60" is almost a full 25% reduction!  

 

May we see the maths behind this? 

 

 

Yeah, it's pretty simple stuff.  An old school 4'x6' board was 48 by 72 inches, which is 3,456 inches square.  The new board at 44 by 60 is 2,640 inches square.  The new surface area divided by the old surface area is .7638, which means it is 76.38% of the old size.  So, a reduction of almost 25%.  

 

 

This is quite significant, especially for tournament players as that is where it will be enforced and therefore require practice of this size game.  More admin but no worse than some of the other stuff we have to do to play.  On the plus size, and as you pointed out more space for books/dice/cards etc without interfering with the playing surface if you continue to use your old board.

For my group we will just reduce by 6" at each end and operate at 48" wide when playing below 3000pts.  This is still a 17% reduction in table size but more manageable for us.

 

 

 

 At my LGWS, we have a 2x2 tile grid, which after eyeing it looked to be the same size as the one in the image, but clearly not.  

 

 

This is an interesting case. If official stores want to host over 2000pt games then they will have to increase the size of their tables as 44"x60" is about 15% bigger than 4'x4'.  Then again it has been my limited experience that unless they run an event, it is normally smaller games at the stores anyway.

 

Surely they have to be altering the minimum distance deepstrike restrictions too? Because it can be hard enough getting 9" away from all units with full sized boards as it is.

 

Was thinking about this as well.  A 1" decrease to minimum deepstrike distance from an enemy increases your first off charge chances by 50%!  That would be a huge boost for all armies using that dynamic.  Essentially from 28% to 42%, maybe too big?

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

It's not a huge deal from a cost perspective, though it's pretty huge for in-game tactics. I have a 6x4 mat from when they first came out years and years ago. I'm not going to cut it or anything, I'm just going to remind my opponent that if they're going to deploy like a coward and hug the board edges to not go further back than 2" of the long edge or 6" of the short edges. I was also considering buying four of the Kill Team boards which costs close to the same amount as the pricier mats ($100 USD) as they fold up very nicely and I can use them for Kill Team and smaller point games, or buy one of the cheaper mats in the new size once Gamemat.eu makes them. Don't really want to cut my original mat or pay full price for a second FLG mat in the new size.

Edited June 7, 2020 by Tyberos the Red Wake

[Noserenda]

Eh, i doubt WHW is going to bin all their ROB boards and thats the main place id play anything other than house games, gotta say im surprised other places are changing.

[mughi3]

i have a dozen game mats, some 4X4 (for infinity and warmachine mostly) but most are 6X4. my game size table isn't going to change one bit, GW can suggest all they want. 

[ValourousHeart]

Well there are a lot of benefits for tournaments to make this change.

 

First if the new terrain recommendations are for more densely packed terrain, then a smaller board will help offset the amount of new terrain they will need to produce.

 

Second smaller tables means that you can fit more tables in the same area. More tables equals more players equals more profit for the event.

 

Third all of the missions we’ve seen have all of the measurements from the center of the table. So most of the lost space is from the deployment zones. So this won’t impact the game as much as it will impact deployment. I believe that this will encourage players to make use of the reserve rules more than they currently do.

 

All of these changes will probably have the biggest impact on armies that don’t move all game. But there are lots of interesting gunline armies that move around a lot.

[MegaVolt87]

Is the intent to amas a board using multiple kill team boxes for 40K? I am not familiar with the kill team mats size as I just get the traditional terrain boxes. I worry when the model count increases again via points cuts/ chapter approved, the smaller tables will be a disaster. I would also hope deep strike changes to 6 inches or less to compensate. 

[Valerian]

Is the intent to amas a board using multiple kill team boxes for 40K? I am not familiar with the kill team mats size as I just get the traditional terrain boxes.

 

Yes, they’re 22” by 30”, so all of the new table minimum sizes are multiples of this.

[MegaVolt87]

 

Is the intent to amas a board using multiple kill team boxes for 40K? I am not familiar with the kill team mats size as I just get the traditional terrain boxes.

Yes, they’re 22” by 30”, so all of the new table minimum sizes are multiples of this.

 

 

Hopefully they stay in stock or are re-branded as 40k etc as they appear to be limited runs at the moment. 

[casb1965]

I think what we have to remember with the table size changes is that there is going to be a change to the points costs (again) of all the models.

 

What they state as a 2000pts battle on a 44 x 60 table could well be the equivalent of a 1500/1750 game on a 48 x 72 table now.

 

The tables are changing in size and so will the armies, we may have fewer troops on this smaller table.

[Volt]

Honestly a smaller table is probably a mistake considering how shooting dominated 40k already is. If you want some actual depth to a game you should increase size, not decrease it. If you ever play a normal game of 40k on two gaming tables back to back and the turn limit doubled, you'll find the experience changes a lot as it actually takes a bit to get units into shooting range.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I have a 6x4 mat from when they first came out years and years ago. I'm not going to cut it or anything,

The sizes GW published are the minimum table size for a game of that points size, so you can just play on the entirety of your existing mat, and be 100% within the rules.  (obviously, if all the tournament organisers want to interpret "minimum size" as "the size to be used", then that's their call)

Edited June 8, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova

[Rik Lightstar]

As a side note, for people thinking about getting boards the Infinity Scenery Packs include some terrain and a 24x34 mat that's thin enough to be easily trimmed to size before mounting on card a little thicker and they cost £8-£10.

 

Rik

[Dark Shepherd]

Are we looking at the law of unintended consequences in action here or how tournament play will distort matched play in 9th?

Events all switch to MINIMUM table size and that skews the data they base points and rules changes on?

[MegaVolt87]

Are we looking at the law of unintended consequences in action here or how tournament play will distort matched play in 9th?

Events all switch to MINIMUM table size and that skews the data they base points and rules changes on?

 

I think its highly likely. When you have a smaller table, technicaly you would use less terrain. Tourny boards as far as I have seen, struggle to put enough terrain on a 6x4 as it is. So the minimum size may just be the new standard for matched play in general. At least there will be more room on the side of the table for dice, books, dead mini's etc at least.