The T.W.A.T. gaming table.
A potted history of our triumphs, disasters and mega disasters.
Written by…undecided.
Day 1.
Ok, bad start. We have had a row.
Jubilex wants to write this, as he thinks that because I didn’t exist at the time most of this took place, it can only be fair.
However, I have pointed out that technically, jubilex doesn’t exist on AOS. So this can only be done by me. So, spack, if he tries to sign up, don’t let him into the lovely site, he will only muck it up.
If the other three were still around, we could have beaten him up, but jubilex is a chapter master plague marine and I’m only a noob.
Tinkly piano music, visual fade in to years ago…
The various members (tee hee) of TWAT have “tried to do war gaming” for years. But, a crappy layout and unpainted figures left us pretty bored with the whole thing.
I had played wfb once (when I was still at school), didn’t like it.
Years later, played rogue trader once too, thought it was ok.
But, shortly after, our role-playing group broke up.
Cue one grand reopening of the local
GW (I didn’t even know we had one!) and a desire to “do something different” we laid down the manifesto.
Ye shall try out this
40k thing.
Thou shalt not have a crappy board and get bored with the board.
Thou shalt not put any unpainted model upon said board lest we become bored with the models upon the board.
And written in the blood of baby birds, so it was.
Boarding school.
Ok, so the tables we had before were somewhat ramshackle affairs, from what was really a sandbox, to the ill-fated D-Day landings table (with real water…but not for long).
The best one we had was made by an old (ex)mate of mine’s dad. It was good but not quite sturdy enough.
We were playing Napoleonic’s at the time, about 500+ models on each side. Of course, they were all lined up neatly, so when someone bumped the table…we had the “domino effect.”
“You ******* *****, ****** ****** twat.” This is where the TWAT moniker came from.
So, at the time (about 10 years ago) I knew a pro carpenter and he put it together for us for £65.
We got some stools from a refitting betting shop, which considering the amount of dice that are thrown around up there, seems quite appropriate.
Right so, onto the board itself.
As I mentioned before, we had gotten bored of the board before so what to do?
We decided that the mantra would be “We want as many different options as possible.”
So, with that in mind, we opted for the modular approach.
So, the 8x4 table divided into 8 2x2 squares.
At this point it occurred to me that I could make canals by sinking them into the modular boards, lining up the entrance/exits of them to fit.
Then another brain wave hit home.
Why not paint the board to look like water, so when the canals go over the top it will look quite realistic.
Also, we could put a few hills dotted about directly on the table to create islands!
Water colours.
How do you paint water? Not only was gw water effects years away, but it would burst the budget.
I had always liked the look of war films set in winter snows, they are kind of evocative of Napoleon and Hitler in Russia and create a bleak atmosphere of pointless destruction. This seemed to fit the
40k style pretty well.
So, dark murky water alongside the stark white of the snow then, nice contrast.
I started with black emulsion, watered down slightly and gave the whole board a generous coat.
Before it dried, I added a dark green (olive green*) emulsion to the mix and “wet brushed” swirly lines in.
Approx 10 coats went on, a little more green added to each, never letting the previous coat dry to blend it.
On top of that, went 10 coats of watered down pva (letting each coat dry this time).
The depth effect built up quite nicely.
*From hive fleet brawns house. I often tease his misses about having a “swamp green kitchen!”
What would I do differently?
It may be because my table is in the loft, but the pva never quite dried out (it was left for weeks). Time came round for a game and when the poly boards went over the top, little bits of paint stuck to the pva and have left some white marks.
I should really have sealed it with something more heavy duty. Floor varnish maybe?
Up next base boards, canals and the road to ruin.