Planning a Malifaux table

[Arachas]

Hi guys,

 

I haven't even gotten my crew yet, but already the scatchbuilding juices are flowing. I'm going to be building a custom Malifaux board (and maybe I won't even stop at one... lol - I love being able to play different setups and environments).

 

Malifaux, as I understand it, plays on a 3' by 3' feet table. I've done one of those before for the Batman Miniature Game:

 

 

While it looks cool, this table has one problem: the center area is rather tucked in between the two upper flat areas and the docks area. Meaning there isn't room to place any cool scenery as a center piece and/or objective.

 

Considering I have no experience whatsoever playing Malifaux, I thought I'd ask you guys first: if you could do a custom Malifaux table, what elements would you make sure were in there?

 

To illustrate my question, I came across these boards:

 

 

 

While these look absolutely amazing, they have a couple of big problems going for them:

 

1. There's not a lot of room for scenery elements.

2. Because of point 1 your board will look quite the same every game you play. Which, in my experience, leads to stale games.

 

I don't necessarily want or need modularity (I played around with a 16-tile 4' by 4' board which I never finished) in terms of the surface. But I do want to be able to play as many types of games on there (within the Malifaux spectrum of missions and whatnot).

 

My idea is to create an industrial location on the edge of a swamp. Sort of a "mad scientist lair" in an abandoned part of a former industrial zone. I have got in mind to make a shack housing the lab, some power coils, stacks of crates and trash and finally some irregular trashy areas as difficult terrain.

 

For the playing surface I was thinking to cover about 2/3rds of the table with regular DIY isolation foam (nice texture for stone) and then 1/3rd with mud and pools, wooden bridges/planks and dead trees.

 

So, as I mentioned: any particular tips in terms of layout? Thanks!

 

[Sholto]

Any fixed terrain table needs to take into account the different deployment types in Malifaux, and how those impact the Strategies.

 

For Turf War you need to be able to place a Turf Marker and get models within 6" of it. For Squatter's Rights you need to be able to place Squat Markers at set locations along the centre line, which can be either along the horizontal or along the diagonal depending on deployment.

 

For Schemes, you need to be able to get within 6" of all four table corners (for Reconnoitre). If you've taken care of Squatter's Rights in your table design, you will also have taken care of Outflank as well.

 

You need to ensure that all deployment options are open, and that no option leaves a crew potentially unable to move out effectively across the rest of the board. If you can somehow work the deployment zones into your ground texture design, so much the better.

 

Beyond that you need the usual mix of terrain, and there is a terrain post around here somewhere which goes into plenty of detail on that. In brief, you need a good mix of LOS-blocking and Severe terrain.

 

A fixed table can get a bit predictable after a while, and if you are not going modular then varied and interesting scatter terrain is the best way to keep it fresh.

[(Sarcasm)]

Ha! Those second two were made by a couple of guys called Scott and Viv at a game store (Battlebunker - not GW) in Melbourne I used to go to! They're closed now but Viv has a youtube channel called Rubbishinrubbishout that's great for scenery and the like.

[Arachas]

I don't have the rulebook yet: how big are the deployment zones and those squatter marker zones supposed to be?

 

And to sum it up for deployment, I need: corner DZ, DZ along the table edges and either a horizontal or a diagonal line across the table? And maybe a larger central area?

[Jimbobovalsocks]

I've often played around with custom table concepts and always come back to the same realisation - that whilst custom boards look great for a demo stand or store window, they are too 'fixed' to have much shelf life to play with at home or down your club. My recomendation is to have a plain, neutral board and to create diffferent stand alone components to go on top of it. So if you like the idea of a swamp and mad scientist's lair (which sounds really cool to me) paint up a brown or green board, and then make a swamp piece on its own base, make a hut, make some pieces of industrial scrap and place them on the board. That way you can move them about as necessary from game to game and add new stuff as you come up with new ideas/get bored with old ideas!!

[Wessex]

I think the best solution is a custom 3x3 base, that has no fixed terrain (maybe rivers or something but that'd be it). That way you won't skew any deployment zones or make some strategies unplayable. So taking your third picture as an example (the swamp/bayou board), that could work as long as the big houses and the tree can be taken off and moved around.

Even modular bridges would be cool, because then the footpaths can be moved every game.

[Sholto]

If you don't have the rulebook, get The Breach app for Android, which contains measurements for all the deployment types (as well as images so you don't mess up!). It also describes the Strategies and Schemes so you can see how eg. squat markers are to be placed. For Turf War note that all markers are 30mm, so you are measuring the 6" from the edge of a 30mm marker in the middle of the table, not 6" from the middle of the table itself.

[Arachas]

If you don't have the rulebook, get The Breach app for Android, which contains measurements for all the deployment types (as well as images so you don't mess up!). It also describes the Strategies and Schemes so you can see how eg. squat markers are to be placed. For Turf War note that all markers are 30mm, so you are measuring the 6" from the edge of a 30mm marker in the middle of the table, not 6" from the middle of the table itself.

 

I've got the app for Windows Phone. Are those things in there as well?

[Molja]

As others have said, problem with fixed table is thinking about deployment zones and strategies. My friend and I had nicely placed a building with inner yard in the center of the table playing Turf War. Problem was you could hug the outer walls and still be within 6" of the center.

If advertisement of ideas is allowed I'd like to shove this:

 

 

Plain canvas with sewn flank and corner deployment zones. The circle in the middle has 6 inches radius. Helps a little bit when placing terrain and you don't have to measure your or opponents deployment zones.

[Adran]

That looks pretty hand, but its slightly wrong. The Turf war area is not a 6" circle for the middle, its 6" from a 30 mm base.

 

Its also missing standard deployment isn't it?

[Molja]

Friend of mine also noted that it should have two circles in the middle. Bigger should have 15mm bigger radius which luckily isn't much. But needs reminder that one doesn't have to move within the circle.

Its missing standard and close deployment marks for clarity. Those are easy to measure and mark before/during the game. Marked only these two tricky ones. At the moment I'm planning to do another one.

[Arachas]

That's very helpful, Molja, thanks!

 

It's becoming harder and harder to wrap my head around this though, haha.

[Mason]

The Bayou Board that we made down at our store just has the river fixed in place.  All of the terrain can be moved around, which really helps for changing things up a bit when you get bored of a certain configuration.  I highly suggest such a tactic.