G40 Table

I have been constructing my Axis and Allies G40 custom table since Christmas.  I was inspired by a lot of impressive tables I have seen on here, and of course to have a superiour and user-friendly gaming experience.  I took into account a lot of features I had seen and also useful features for play.  At the moment it is just a table-top that is sitting atop another table.  Once it is complete I will probably get a couple of trestle’s to fix it to (with screws so it can be de-assemblied for logistical reasons) as I do not wish for someone after too many beers and in abject misery to lean on the edge and tip it.  That being said this hasn’t happened during any of the games on it which all involved a fair few beers over the course of the game.

I have designed it so that a cover can be placed over the top of the board while it is set-up as where we play under my house is not fully enclosed.  Without something protecting the board and set-up the wind and sun could wreak havoc on a game that needs to be put on hold for a few days.  It can be debated (and I was also a bit worried) that it may be too deep however it is not an issue when playing and no-one else that has played has even noticed any issue in that regard.

These first two attachments are the board in its early construction, the bases and outer sides put together and then the inner sides defining the board area.

Next photos are the board set up after the first stage of construction, and the second construction phase where I am doing the combat area on the ends and the trays and holders for all the pieces.

Next couple contain a closeup of the end dice/token trays.  There are 4 in total of these on every corner of the board.

Another photo of the dice rolling region with the (removable) combat resolution area.  I have actually printed up a top for the 2 combat resolution areas on each end of the board, but at the moment in this photo it was just the cardboard inserts that come with the game.  I will be laminating these onto the top of these removable sections.

Whats next?

• Complete the nation trays

• laminate the combat resolution tops

• Sand and stain(paint) the table so it has a rich dark mahogany

• Attach trestle legs

• Add felt to the dice rolling areas

• obtain more 2nd edition pieces

• conquer the world (optional)

@CWO:

This project looks like it’s coming along very nicely. 
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I’ve added a link to this thread in the “Global Gaming Table Threads and Pictures” compilation thread.

Thanks CWO!

@Young:

Nice Work Elzario,

Can’t wait to see the finished product, but it’s looking great so far. Have you thought about lining the bottom of the unit compartments with laminated tile, cardboard, or thin carpet?
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Thanks YG :)

I think thats a good idea, lining all the “flooring” with felt or something like that. I am not entirely sure which direction I am going with the nation compartments though.  I am not sure if I should put together some removable boxes with partitions, make fixed partitions in each compartment or just get tuck inserts for the existing boxes that came with the game.  At the moment the nation compartments aren’t fixed in place, they are just screwed together so the normal game boxes fit on top.  I like to play test things to get practical ideas and to know where I can streamline areas before committing to permantly attaching anything.

I do need to stain the whole thing before laying any of the felt down so I better work out what I want to do so I can do things in the right order!

Am doing some more work on it this week so next round of pics shouldn’t be too far away.

I ended up just doing plain paper tuck inserts for now.  I bought one plastic tray but was $5 and it doesn’t really have the right size/amount of containers - I might use it for universal tokens/pieces.  I am not really up for paying $50 just for trays and the tuck inserts work well enough.

Has anyone ever added padding to a table?  I am thinking of adding padding to the outer table edges as it was a fairly common theme in last game that the edges are too rough.  My immediate response was ‘stop being a pussy’, but I think there is merit in at least sanding the pine edge of the table.  I just had the thought of having some nice poker style padding on the edges.

I am also building a clock (that can be used as a turn and game timer) into the table.  The turn timer won’t necessarily be strictly enforced more just so we can see which player/nation turns are slowing down the game (last game we had 6 players (3 new) and after 12 hours and we only got to turn 7 I think).  While looking into this I had another idea that I haven’t seen much of is rigging up some little dual colour LED lights to sit in the board where the capitals are, so it is easy to see the VC’s and how many Axis/Allies have.  I thought of this as in our games sometimes people forget the overall goals and get sidetracked by attacking foreign armies.  Con’s for this would be needing to drill into the original board to make a small hole, but I don’t have a huge issue with that if I don’t stuff it up.  These LED’s would be controllable via a simple switch interface on one end of the table.

Will post some pics later in the week once I vinish sanding and staining the board, with it all set up and some of the features I have built into it.

@Young:

If there were perfectly divided plastic trays available, would you buy them?

Maybe… if the price was right and they didn’t look too “plastic” if you know what I mean.  I like the tuck inserts because it leaves pieces in the original boxes that fit nicely back in the game box for storage.  And the black cardboard boxes they come in won’t look too out of place against stained wood as opposed to the clear/white plastic that most containers are.

If you are planning to pad the side rails of your table, do it right and hire an upholster.

Thats a good point.  I think I am just going to sand and stain the table, If I sand down to curved edges it should be comfortable enough.  I can always upholster over the top of it in the future.  Cheaper that way too as my wife wouldn’t think its a worthwhile investment to hire an upholster  :roll:  I had to pull in a few favours to get the budget for the table up to this point!

We tried timed turns, it doesn’t work. Every round during Germany’s turn, Russia should move their eastern forces to allow Japan and Germany to go at the same time. This will help shorten games.

I agree with not being able to play timed turns, there is no even way to do it and it will naturally speed up once everyone is more familiar with the game.  A few of the new guys just get bored and I understand the concern like when you play Anzac and you wait an hour before having your first turn (we usually have enough so Italy & Anzac are individual players).  I agreed to put a clock on the board cause I figure its still a nice way to time the game out of interest, see how long a full round takes etc.

@dedo:

Great work, you put your heart and soul in it! Just one small point you could improve: in the pictures table5 and table6 there are dividers with visible cut edges (dividers between coins and dices). If you paint them, you will have another surface coverage as for the other parts of the table and with the utmost probability this will annoy you. My suggestion is to saw them in a way, that the grain is visible on top of the divider.

I think I know what you mean, have the dividers be cut in a way so the “against the grain” cut isn’t showing on the top?  I did realise this AFTER I had scrwed in and gap sealed all the token containers  :x  I don’t know if it is worth redoing them, although those edges are going to be extra thirsty come staining time, it’s probably not enough of an eye-sore to go through the whole effort of redoing the divider….  in my opinion anyway as I won’t ever be selling the board, so people can just deal with it.  Maybe just a lesson learned for all those building their own tables!

Just thought I would post a shot of a set-up game a couple of games ago.