Monday, March 3, 2014

MERCS Board MK2

A while back I made a MERCS specific board, and recently I found some time create a new one, with the aim of correcting some of the original design flaws.

MERCS Board MK2

My first MERCS board

There were a few issues with my first board that I aimed to correct or improve on with my second board:
  • The roads really limited the versatility of the table, as they restrict where buildings and other terrain pieces can be placed, creating almost permanent lines of fire of the table. The roads also limit the possible themes of the table, so a more flexible 'theme' for the board would be ideal
  • The felt in each of the players area is awesome - so awesome that there should be more
  • The deployment zone markers are great for gameplay, but do take away from the realism of the table

Here's a look at my MERCS Board MK2 without any terrain, models or game items:


Without the roads, the table was much easier to construct - simply gluing a 600mm x 900mm MDF board into a 600mm x 1200mm MDF board. With the roads gone, I'm no longer restricted in my terrain placement, and I now have complete freedom with my terrain.
It did a take a little research into spray paint techniques to add texture to the table but I think it worked out quite well, and the table has a bit of texture and depth to it, while being completely flat!
I also removed the deployment zone markers - while very functional, I thought that they took away from the naturalism of the terrain elements.

I also put more felt in each of the players areas! In my previous board, they only had enough room for the cards, but for this iteration of my MERCS board there's a bit of extra room on the edges for other game items. I left a 1 inch margin around the edge of the felt to prevent the felt from fraying at the edges.

MERCS Board MK2 - now with more felt!

My first MERCS board

Well, that's all for now - I'm finishing up some sci-fi terrain pieces for the table, which I'll post up soon.

Sync out.

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