Best size for a tabletop, based on BOV maps.

[Kroc]

Hey all:

Unlike some of you (grrr) I do not have a lot of room to store maps, and since setting up and breaking down maps is the hardest part of playing I've decided recently to store several maps. My idea is to get pieces of foam in the right size for "most" maps and then store the maps stacked up on pieces of foam (with spacing between them, of course).

This, of course, led to the question of how big of a tabletop I would need to store the maps on. I realized many of you--especially tournament organizers--may have the same question so I thought it worthwhile to share my results.


So how to decide? Well one standard source for maps is the Battlefields of Valhalla (BOV) and they have a large selection of maps to base this decision on. You could use the official maps, but those have many different purposes. (They are not designed for the standard two player match.) And I mostly use the BOV or BOV style anyway.

I used virtualscape to estimate how large a hex was (and I was careful to use different calculations for vertical versus horizontal) and then based the size of the map on the size of it's virtualscape footprint--as the map is displayed in it's PDF. I should mention that for some maps (Like Marr Highway) that you can get a skinner Short Side by actually considering the true map orientation, but you then would get a longer Large Side and since I'm looking for the smallest rectangle this won't help.

Obviously you won't necessarily be able to get a tabletop that is large enough for all maps. So what I did was first consider how large the tabletop would have to be for all maps, and then started dropping the biggest ones to see how much it would change. I decided to give the entire list, because who knows how limited your space is. There are 30 maps currently in the BOV.

How Many Dropped , Large Side , Small Side , New Maps Dropped
None Dropped , 53 , 37
Drop Largest , 44 , 32 , Marr Highway
Drop 2 Largest , 41 , 32 , Mole Hills
Drop 5 Largest , 39 , 32 , Embattled Fen, Highways & Dieways, Invasion

Drop 6 Largest , 38 , 32 , Road Rampage
Drop 7 Largest , 37 , 32 , Turret Rocks
Drop 10 Largest , 36 , 32 , Broken Skyline, Burial Marsh, Hot Heights

Drop 15 Largest , 34 , 32 , Can't See the Jungle, Elswin Plateau, If You Can't Take the Heat..., Quasatch Playground, Stygian Rift

Drop 20 Largest , 32 , 28 , Arctic Divide, Blackroot, Ice Blossom, Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh, Swamp Thing

Drop 22 Largest , 30 , 28 , Ember Canyon Road, Sirocco

Drop 24 Largest , 29 , 27 , Badru Valley, Fire Isles
Drop 27 Largest , 28 , 26 , Bad Moon Rising, Sidewinder, Ticalla Sunrise

Drop 28 Largest , 27 , 26 , Fossil
Drop 29 Largest , 26 , 25 , Flash Fire (Only Fulcrum is left.)

Just to be clear, the first column is how many maps are dropped. The second column is the length of the tabletop needed, the third column is the width. After this is the list of maps that have to be dropped if you are going to get the tabletop size down to this. All sizes are in inches.

Personally I think you'd have to be crazy to drop any more than the largest 2 or 3. Honestly I expect I'm going to have a tabletop that is large enough for all of them except Marr Highway. The reason being that if you drop that one then the width of the tabletop only needs to be 32 inches, and the difference between 44 and 39 inches for the long side doesn't seem that much.

Hope you find this helpful.

[ibechief]

I can see how this would be helpful for new players trying to buy their first heroscape tables. Well done.

[Shedim Kabal]

This calls for a spreadsheet!

[Typhon2222]

SK, you're a crack up. A very very helpful one.

[mac122]

Nice work Kroc and SK. As you consider these dimensions, don't forget to allow extra room for army cards and rolling dice during the game.

[itsbuzzi]

I find the best size is a 54" hex (bumper pool table poker conversion) The texture is very nice, and the pieces can slide if need be. Enough room for big maps and card room as well. No die room however, but this is usually done on a table nearby.

[ibechief]

Originally Posted by mac122

Nice work Kroc and SK. As you consider these dimensions, don't forget to allow extra room for army cards and rolling dice during the game.

We often play with our cards on our own separate tables so that they are not bothered by game play. And rolling dice tends to take place on the map in our bigger games. Much to the frustration of players with skulls and shields rerolled due to being cocked.

[kolakoski]

Originally Posted by ibechief

We often play with our cards on our own separate tables so that they are not bothered by game play. And rolling dice tends to take place on the map in our bigger games. Much to the frustration of players with skulls and shields rerolled due to being cocked.

Well met!

We generally allow room for cards and, for some of us, hexagonally shaped wooden [trays?] with green felt bottoms for rolling dice in. At chas' Game Palace - no problem, mon. At my place, we often use side tables, especially with more than two players. Wherever the cards and/or dice are placed, they need to be visible, especially for noting the placement of OMs.

[Kroc]

Originally Posted by kolakoski

Well met!

We generally allow room for cards and, for some of us, hexagonally shaped wooden [trays?] with green felt bottoms for rolling dice in. At chas' Game Palace - no problem, mon. At my place, we often use side tables, especially with more than two players. Wherever the cards and/or dice are placed, they need to be visible, especially for noting the placement of OMs.

A big thank you to Shedim Kabal for the spreadsheet. My HTML skills weren't up to the task. Unfortuhnately I can't +rep you right now--stop making so many helpful posts.

And about the "additions" comments many of you have made. You guys are absolutely right, and also don't forget to leave some room for the tray you are going to slot them into. To get 32" width you probably need at least 34" width to have room for the holder. I usually put them on some other table for actual play, so I'm not going to worry about room for cards and dice. Notice that most maps don't actually take up the whole space, so you probably will have room for many of those other things.

Personally I'm big on designated dice rolling areas, I play with kids a lot and... you should see the artistic things they do to get a re-roll on the bad dice.

[Kroc]

In the BOV discussion thread someone asked me about the "horizontal spaces." I realized this might matter to those of you who like to print hexes onto your tabletop so I thought it was worth mentioning that for all but the smallest maps the Large Side determines the number of horizontal spaces.

To explain what I mean a little more clearly. In virtualscape the horizontal edge of a map is the one without any jagged points. In the other direction the edge of the map looks like a zig-zag.

This means that if you want to print hexes on your map you should have the smooth edge orientated towards the large side. It's amazing how neatly it works out. If you stick with 32" inch width this will only cause a problem for Ice Blossom, Stygian Rift, Elswin Plateau, Burial Marsh, and Hot Heights.

To accomodate all of these maps you should up the width to 37".