Very Large Boards {VLBs}

[Spicer]

Very Large Boards {VLBs} introduce a nice aspect for a game- real maneuver for position. Squads move and shift -- and who knows where they will meet up! And the opportunities for a lot of great terrain….But how to do this? We can’t reach over much more than 4 or 5 feet; the huge board at Games Day really isn’t any good for a big game- one is simply playing the fellow opposite, quite traditional. What have you seen for VLBs that really works? Something bigger than say 8’ x 5’?

[mstingray]

I remember the board in the WD article for the final four gamers article being a T shape (althoug this wasn't that big) so I guess you could have like cut off bits of the big board so people can reach the models they want to move, although at my local store once they had arranged the boards in a square, and you had to crawl under to get to the middle, needless to say it wasn't the best idea with fragile metal models on top.

you could just get the long sticks to move models

[gensu11]

My old gaming group and I specifically wanted the maneuver aspect put back in. We built a table that was 9' x 7'. As you said, you can't reach much more than 4 feet, so we settled on three and a half and mad that the middle of the table. There was not a place on the table that we could not reach. We played an apocalypse game with about 12000 per side that involved one army having to maneuver up to a city wall, breach it, then assault through to capture the city center. The other side was broken up between a force defending the city and a force moving in on the first couple of turns as reinforcements. The maneuver aspect was great, as every significant piece of terrain had to be moved to in order to be secured, and several of these were hills or towers, which meant once you were there you had a view of the whole battlefield, giving you a distinct advantage in your subsequent shooting phases. On the downside, the maneuver aspect forced us to add 3 extra turns to the game, it takes some time to go across a table that size 6 or even 12 inches at a time. All in all, a great experience, our next Apoc game is being planned for a 12' x 7' table.

[Lerra]

For big games, we usually put two or more 6' by 4' tables together, so you've got a 6' x 8' or a 6' x 12'. For a huge game, it seems like long, "skinny" (no more than 6 feet wide) tables are the easiest way to go. For one huge apocalypse game (about 60,000 pts and 30 people), we had multiple 6' x 12' tables, and objectives that were held on certain tables affected the other tables. For example, a communications relay gave a +1 to reserve rolls for all allies on all tables as long as you held that objective. On another table, holding an objective gave all allies +1 Ld. Units that were in reserve could choose to come into play on any table.

[Mycroft Holmes]

We run our Apoc games on 12x6 cause we also found that anything deeper than that was unreachable.

[SotonShades]

I've had a few games on VLBs; everything from 'figure of eight' boards, to long skinny tables, L's and crosses and even floor wars!

As you've said, you start having problems if you are reaching over 3' so you don't want any section of the board, whatever configuration, to be more than 7' wide realisticly speaking. Having holes in the table for people to pop up from can work, but there is such potential for injury to the people crawling under the tables or for damaging the models themselves when said crawllers bang thier heads on the undersiude that it isn't really that practical. Unless you have one or two people in the middle doing a last stand and completely surrounded.

I actually like floor wars. They can be a bit awkward and you do have to plan for places for people to sit and be able to walk around the models. I tend to find the best way to do this is to have areas that are both impassible terrain and large enough for people to walk along. conveiniently, these also tend to be big enough that skimmers or jump troops cant get across them in a single turn, so you don't have to invent new rules as to why they can't go there. Flyers can be fun to negotiate though, but so long as you dont have too many and have people with a half sensible attitude it usually still works. I've played on battlefields as big as 16' square this way, which is useful when you have a Warlord to manoeuvre and as many flyers as I do

[erwos]

For VLBs, you need to either increase how far units can move, or get ready for a long game. The extra space is nice, but the game is designed for a certain size board.

Also, certain armies can exploit the living hell out of VLBs. Some IG guns have extremely long maximum ranges that wouldn't come into play on a normal table, but could really be useful on a large table.

[Tynskel]

Horseshoe shaped boards work well for VLB (24" inbetween). You build a large bridge to cross the in between the boards. This allows you to have people hang in the middle and able to reach areas that cannot be reached. This also allows fast skimmers to cross, and lines of fire. The Bridge usually makes a great objective to fight over, as well. Make sure that the bridge is wide enough for ~2 Baneblades. This way it is still functional too.

[DarkLink]

Yeah, we just set up rock climbing equipment and hang over our 8x12' board...

Nah, the only drawback to large boards is not being able to reach stuff, and the 5-7 turn limit. It's great to be able to maneuver around (I'd like to be able to do so a lot more in normal games), but unless you're eldar or something then you might not have time to do much fighting on a really big board.

But, yeah, I think a big board with extra turns would be a lot of fun. If you have really long arms, anyways.

[SotonShades]

the only drawback to large boards is not being able to reach stuff, and the 5-7 turn limit. It's great to be able to maneuver around (I'd like to be able to do so a lot more in normal games), but unless you're eldar or something then you might not have time to do much fighting on a really big board.

Generally I only use VLBs for apocolypse games, and then it's more of a time limit than a turn limit. It's not uncommon for us to only play four, or even three turns, but that is still usually enough for us to get models to all corners of the board. There aren't many armies that don't have some sort of deep-strike or fast movement that allows for manoeuvres. Not to mention Flank March and other unusual methods of bringing on reserves