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The list that doesn't fit on your table
Tiago Nunes
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You know that game you love to play... but somehow it makes you feel bad...
Why?

Because, you have... a tiny table.

Or maybe it's a big table but the game board is still bigger than your huge table!

I present to you the list of games that make you go out and buy a new table.
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Posted Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:16 am
Edited Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:58 pm
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1. Board Game: Descent: Journeys in the Dark [Average Rating:7.57 Overall Rank:64]
Tiago Nunes
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I was happy that the first dungeon fit on my gaming table, then I got to quest 2 :(
3
Darren Copple
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0406070809
We usually end up tearing up the earlier tunnels to make room. Im Usually the OL so I dont mind missing a spawn spot to keep the table less cluttered.
2. Board Game: Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition [Average Rating:7.85 Overall Rank:31]
Tiago Nunes
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Space is infinite, space on your table is not.
28
Michael Debije
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That's one thing I dislike about this game. The board is actually not so big, in that there are not many hexes. Using all those silly plastic pieces just makes the game look bigger and grander. There is no reason for this game to take so much space.
lol
Marcel van der pol
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08
I played a game with 8 players once. We built a galaxy with two main 4-player galaxies connected by wormholes and 2 smaller galaxies with some juicy planets. It was a blast!!!!!!!
Sven Hendrickx
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The tables at the gaming club I play are big enough, that's not the problem. My problem is transport. A friendly police agent informed me that it is illegal to transport this game by bicycle (sticks to far out).
Scott Lewis
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svenius wrote:
The tables at the gaming club I play are big enough, that's not the problem. My problem is transport. A friendly police agent informed me that it is illegal to transport this game by bicycle (sticks to far out).

Interesting. I wonder if we have similar bicycle transportation laws here?

However, with TI3, though, if you get a decent tackle box, you can fit the pieces in a much smaller volume than the big box would indicate; you'd need a separate place for the rules and the race cards, but those could probably fit in a backpack.
3. Board Game: StarCraft: The Board Game [Average Rating:7.53 Overall Rank:95]
Tiago Nunes
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When your gamer friend puts a planet off the table either you get a new friend or a new table.
5
Hector Flores
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0607
I vote friend.
Scott Lewis
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When I play with my brothers, they sometimes try to do this just because they know it irritates me, not because it's more tactically relevant to do so.
4. Board Game: Arkham Horror [Average Rating:7.62 Overall Rank:49]
Tiago Nunes
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When an expansion comes out it's usually a good thing, when it means you have to rent a football field to hold your game table maybe it isn't so...
16
Matt Thrower
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This is a bad photo to illustrate your point since it features all the decks of cards neatly sorted into a vertical rack.

Imagine the same set up with all those card decks arranged higgledy-piggledy around the edge of the board ...
Tiago Nunes
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True, the game board is most of the times half of the problem.
Vaughn Sandor
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06070809
We meet up in the dining area of Wegman's and the long board is perfect for their tables.
We take 5 tables and put them in a + pattern. Each investigator gets their own space and there is plenty of room for everything.
That is as long as we keep it to a 4-player game.
The Seal of Approval
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08
Oh, the horror of realizing your table is too small...
Mike West
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0508
This was the one i was thinking of. This 'just' gets width-wise onto my dining room table, but has no rooms for elbows... Any my table is quite large!
Jonathan Heitler
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08
This, and Twilight Imperium are the main reasons why we are looking for a new dining room table. My wife really enjoys Arkham Horror so she didn't take too much pursuasion.
Edited Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:06 am
5. Board Game: One Against the Dead [Average Rating:5.82 Unranked]
Jeremiah Lee
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070809
Sometimes the cards (which are city blocks in this fun game) just come out in a way that you have to keep going in one direction to get away from the teeming horde of zombies. And sometimes, you go right off the table.
1
Tiago Nunes
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Seems like fun though and a good way to play a "real" game with just a deck of cards (and coins and the other stuff :P)
Mark Brown
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I've created a variant which arranges 25 cards into a 'city center' map. It not only fits nicely on most tables, but also adds an enhanced element of strategy in card placement, since you run into some cards more often than others.

Plus I replaced the coins with dice. A huge fistful of dice. Sweet.

Hopefully, I'll get around to posting it here someday.
6. Board Game: Railroad Tycoon [Average Rating:7.83 Overall Rank:24]
Steve Wagner
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05
Don't forget this game! I hadn't had a table that fits it yet.
9
Tiago Nunes
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Yeah, I've heard the haunting stories :P
Lindsay Thomas
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Why did the have to make the hexes so big?

And why didn't they make the board double sided, like Powergrid?

This is a potentially great game ruined by the map. All the juiciest cities are tucked in the North East corner.
Jordan Harris
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All of these games fit on our dining table :D
Jesse Warbee
It fits on my table just fine, but all the cash and bits end up in people's laps.
Christopher Seguin
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070809
rockhpi wrote:
It fits on my table, but's tough to have room for money, shares, and the bag o'cubes.


The game that I immediately thought of when I read the title of this list.

This is the problem in my house with respect to this game too. My wife wanted a new dining room table, and before we went shopping, I pulled out the board to RRT and measured the width. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her that I wanted to make sure that any new table that we buy has to be wide enough to hold this game. Of course, she called me a geek, but what can I say.

The table we got was the widest one they had available, and there is still very little room on each side to hold money, stock certs, trains, and other such hazzerai.

I don't even take it to game night at our church, because they don't have tables big enough.
7. Board Game: Conquest of the Empire [Average Rating:7.07 Overall Rank:271]
Charles Hasegawa
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0506070809
This picture doesn't adequately "describe" the needed space for this beast.
4
Neil Cook
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06070809
The game I thought of first off....
Tiago Nunes
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This is a reason why gamers should be careful shoppers :p
Dylan Kirk 郭迪伦
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ghosthack wrote:
This is a reason why gamers should be careful shoppers :p

For tables, anyway!!
Tiago Nunes
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dnjkirk wrote:
ghosthack wrote:
This is a reason why gamers should be careful shoppers :p

For tables, anyway!!


I'm guessing game publishers have a secret agreement with Ikea or something.
jack raten
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and i'm playin this one today. On my MONSTROUS BEASTLY TABLE.
Philip
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08
I have a 6'x4' table for Warhammer. It's the only thing that will fit this and Railroad Tycoon - especially since CoE requires additional space for all the armies, cards and so on that are going on during the game.
8. Board Game: Freight Train [Average Rating:6.49 Overall Rank:1042]
Charles Hasegawa
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0506070809
Sure, here's one that you'd have missed - this is just a little card game. And the cards are little. Better get the extra leaf to the table.
1
Ask Me About the Global Geek Photo Album Project (Erik Warnes)
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06070809
I was going to add this. I can't for the life of me figure out how a game with such small cards uses so much real estate.
9. Board Game: Case Blue [Average Rating:8.40 Overall Rank:548]
Tom Hancock
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06070809
You guys are amateurs.





That doesn't even include the fact that it connects with Guderian's Blitzkrieg II, which adds about 75% to what you see.
26
Tiago Nunes
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I was hoping to see war games popping up along the way. :p
I am Jajax!!!
:wow:And yet it's the favorite wargame...:wow:
David Harmon
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How do you even play this?
thesedarkdice wrote:
How do you even play this?

While we could play War in Europe (see below) on one set of tables setting this up is was too big to reach the center.

Fortunately the maps have a half sheet of overlap (the row just above his head in the photo) so our players split it into two table groups (northern and southern) with a little isle between the two. By far most of the action is in the north so its not really that bad moving across the isle.
10. Board Game: Zombies!!! [Average Rating:5.73 Overall Rank:3562] [Average Rating:5.73 Overall Rank:3562]
Max Jamelli
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With the Mall and School expansions, we have to play on the floor if we want to use all tiles. :soblue:
2
11. Board Game: PitchCar Special Long Straights [Average Rating:7.41 Unranked] [Average Rating:7.41 Unranked]
1 picture, 1000 words...
7
Tiago Nunes
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Are there rules for cars falling out of bridges?
Same rules than getting off the track, but you run more to get your car.
12. Board Game: War in Europe Second Edition [Average Rating:6.98 Unranked]
or sometimes you have to buy 3 or 4 new tables...
10
Tiago Nunes
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I wouldn't even have space on the floor anywhere in my house for this :blush:
Steve Herron
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0708
I thought of this one and the Europa series.
13. Board Game: Sjoelen [Average Rating:6.59 Overall Rank:2058]
Jonathan Morton
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070809
Not many tables fit a standard 2,000 mm / 6'7" sjoelbak... but in this case it's not a problem to have it hanging off the sides.
2
Tiago Nunes
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If you imagine someone pushing it in one of the corners and the table flipping and killing that person then it's a problem :p
14. Board Game: The War Game: World War II [Average Rating:6.80 Overall Rank:2782]
John Di Ponio
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Um....this is a monster!!!!! You need a ping pong table to set this sucker up and better make sure you have room for all the pieces, charts and reinforcement/battle tables!
3
Tiago Nunes
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Set on that table it doesn't seem that big.

Maybe I should've bought a ping pong table for my room :cool:
Andrew Swan
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0506070809
Plus this game seems to have big players too! :p
Wendell A
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070809
Even by grognard standards, that is a rather large map...
15. Board Game: Battle Masters [Average Rating:5.92 Overall Rank:2162]
Ping Pong table required, but not included
7
4 comments [Hide]
Edited Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:03 pm
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Tiago Nunes
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Yeah, on the warnings on the side of the game boxes besides number of players and playing time it should also bring game table size. :D
:D I was going to add this one, if someone else hadn't. I haven't played it in years and would like to but can't. Our table certainly isn't big enough, and I can't use the floor because we have several cats and dogs, all indoor, and we'd spend more time shooshing them away than we would playing if we set up down there. *sigh*
Phil Harding
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0708
I had this as a kid and never even considered playing on a table. It was made for the floor man!
2
Edited Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:21 pm
Scott Lewis
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Phil81 wrote:
I had this as a kid and never even considered playing on a table. It was made for the floor man!

When my brother got this for Christmas one year, my parents had at the time two rectangular tables that went together nicely for a big enough square to put the mat on.

Unfortunately, it took up too much space to do this more than once or twice, and the tables weren't exactly the same hight for some reason. So we did end up playing this on the floor far more than we ever did with a table.

(It's interesting, because when I got married and moved back to Colorado after college, my parents gave me one of the tables, which they'd had out in a shed for awhile. I'm not sure what happened to the other one, though I doubt my wife would have permitted it anyway :p)
1
Edited Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:17 pm
16. Board Game: Chess [Average Rating:7.05 Overall Rank:218]
I don't have such a huge table, that's why I don't play chess
16
Tiago Nunes
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worse than that I can't distinguish between the king and the pawns!
Dylan Kirk 郭迪伦
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ghosthack wrote:
worse than that I can't distinguish between the king and the pawns!

The king's the one what hasn't got s**t all over 'im.
Edited Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:13 pm
Tiago Nunes
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dnjkirk wrote:
ghosthack wrote:
worse than that I can't distinguish between the king and the pawns!

The king's the one what hasn't got s**t all over 'im.


Silly me.
Christopher Seguin
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070809
King jumps Queen...

Knight jumps Queen...

Bishop jumps Queen...

Pawns jump Queen...

arnaud rouchon
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yep don't know the rules of this variant but love played 'em
Thanks Mel Brooks!
17. Board Game: 1960: The Making of the President [Average Rating:7.86 Overall Rank:28]
Jordan Lessard
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While this game isn't as big as some others on the list, I still cant seem to fit it on my shrinky-dink table :(.
1
nicola taruffi
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This game deserves a bigger table! Cmon, I know you can do it, it's not soooooooo big!
If actions speak louder than words, then actions x2 speak louder than actions.
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08
A table made from Shrinky-Dinks? You're going to warp your board, mate.
18. Board Game: War of the Ring [Average Rating:7.96 Overall Rank:15]
Ralf Christian
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06070809
Probably the biggest game board I have in my collection...
5
Tiago Nunes
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This is on my want list, but the table to hold it is on top of it on that list.
Joe Baptist
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This is one that would actually be improved by having a larger board.
Dan Freedman
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07
joedogboy wrote:
This is one that would actually be improved by having a larger board.


Heh...true. And supposedly the collector's edition coming out will include a bigger board.

Big board, but also requires a lot of extra space to put the reinforcement units, "dead" units, character cards, cards-in-play, cards-in-hand, a cup for hunt tile draws, and a place to roll all those dice!

Awesome game though.
brian
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060708
joedogboy wrote:
This is one that would actually be improved by having a larger board.

Much like the 2nd edition of Axis and Allies or any Eagle Games' title, what is needed is not so much a bigger board but better space management of the board you have. Hard to claim you need a bigger board when only 35% of the board is effectively used. :D
Dan Freedman
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07
ColtsFan76 wrote:
joedogboy wrote:
This is one that would actually be improved by having a larger board.

Much like the 2nd edition of Axis and Allies or any Eagle Games' title, what is needed is not so much a bigger board but better space management of the board you have. Hard to claim you need a bigger board when only 35% of the board is effectively used. :D


What do you mean? The entire board is used. The ocean is used for dice-rolling. :)
19. Board Game: Carcassonne [Average Rating:7.52 Overall Rank:58]
Jeroen van der Valk
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0406070809
No matter the size or shape of the table, somehow someone always manages to lay tiles to and preferably over the edge of the table.

"Guys, can we move the whole 'board' a bit the other way?"

:shake:
5
Tiago Nunes
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It's what happens on starcraft, except here you're on the middle of the game when you have to move all the pieces... It's not pretty :p
Breno Kümmel
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Tile-laying games like Carc (and Tongiaki), in which you don't know the direction the world will grow, I try to find a table cloth to put over the table before the match starts, so if we need to move the whole world so it won't go over the edge of the table, you just pull the cloth in the right direction. Works really well :)
R.T. Sloan
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I thought that the rules say if there isn't room for the tile on the table, then you can't play the tile there.

So in reality Carcassonne fits on every table.
Jeroen van der Valk
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0406070809
Obviously that's the case. It's interesting to note, and that's why I entered this item, that that rule is almost always necessary, in my experience, because the board almost always tends to develop towards one specific edge.
20. Board Game: The Longest Day [Average Rating:7.27 Overall Rank:819]
nicola taruffi
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The big beast!
4
Tiago Nunes
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Bigger games make me want to have a bigger job just so I can buy a house and a table where all these beasts fit.
Arcadian Del Sol
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A shame on everyone for waiting until #20 for this to appear.

This game is the POSTER CHILD for 'too big for one table' games.
Gregory Wong
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Plus it's got that bit that sticks out which makes it even more of a table hog.
Steve Herron
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0708
SPI's Atlantic Wall too



oops! someone put this one in as # 34