Wings Of War Custom Mat

One game I don't talk about much but really enjoy is Wings Of War, a card based World War I dogfight game distributed by Fantasy Flight Games. You have a plane printed on a playing card. Each turn you pick three maneuver cards as does your opponent(s), then reveal, move and then fire.  A fast paced war game with no dice involved at all.

But what really kicks the game up a notch is using the Wings of War plane minis.  The dogfights become quite amazing as the planes buzz around each other on the playing surface.

After spending some money collecting the planes, many of which are not in production any more (the game has since been picked up as Wings of Glory and new models are on their way), I felt that the battle mat was the next item.  However, looking to purchase or print one on my own would cost quite a bit more than I was intending to spend.

So what do we do here at the Warlock's Home Brew?  We makes our own!

Some research on-line brought me to this example and tutorial by Wombat

I loved his final product of the hand painted battle mat.  It looked easy enough so for only a few dollars ($9) and just a couple hours of my time I'd have myself a pretty classy Wings of War battle mat.

 

Instead of the thicker plastic based faux-grass material Wombat went with, I purchased some nicely colored wool for only $9.  This was very nice material and had some tooth to it which I felt would help with applying the acrylic paint.  I wanted a 40 inch by 50 inch piece of fabric but the widest this particular material came was 36 inches.  I ended up with 36" X 50" which ended up working just fine.

 

Based on the tutorial linked above I quickly drew in black the field patterns, roads and rivers.

 

Following Wombat's directions, I used a sponge and painted in some of the fields trying to stay as close to the outlines as possible. I used a brush for the roads.

 

I added No-Man's Land across the center of the fabric using layers of black, browns and reds.  At this stage I still have to add the craters and trenches but...

  

...as you can see it was quite usable as it.

So this holiday weekend we played a couple of games on the mat. It worked out great, and the game was fun (thought I got shot down all three games).  My wife, who had played the card version of the game and wasn't all that impressed enjoyed playing with the minis and actually requested to play the game again the next day - which we did and she proceeded to shoot me out of the sky again!

Looking forward to getting the group into playing some Wings of War in the near future.

Gaming Table: Phase 1

I love many of the custom gaming table that folks have made: +3 Gaming Table

Recently, our gaming group went from a standard sitting around a large table with pencil and paper to a more casual lounging around a coffee table with pencil and paper. I needed to rework the space in the guest house (currently my man-cave) so we ended up with the coffee table. I don't think it's a favorite accommodation but we've made due.

My long-term plan is to eventually get back to the standard table which I have been planning to customize as a gaming table.

So this past weekend, for the first phase of this project, I've reworked the coffee table into what would eventually be the stepped top to the main game table.

I started with a pretty nice garbage-picked coffee table (a major score!) and painted the tabletop black.

I created some 11 X 17 white on dark gray hex sheets and purchased some decoupage glue.

I next began gluing down the hex sheets. It was a little tricky lining the hexes up properly but after some careful patience things were starting to come along nicely. The trickiest part was that the printer had slight variations in the gray. I think if I were to do this again I may just buy a roll of hex paper from somewhere (but I'm such a cheap-ass).


I've got six sheets glued down and only three more to go!


Next, I trimmed the edges to give it a clean border.

A few coats of glue and some shellac later, I was ready to role.


Of course I tested the table out with some minis and Jenga block walls, and idea that I got from Jim over at Carjacked Seraphim.

When character sheets, beer and snacks and minis are all scattered about the same playing surface it gets quite cluttered. I want to separate the playing area from the 'snack' area of the game table. When I eventually move the above top to the actual game table, it will be raised up (see illustration below). The Hex table platform will not be permanently attached to the main table so it can be removed for other gaming purposes.
I'll keep you posted when I get to Phase 2!