Table Talk

   Hello again from the new headquarters for S.M.H.I.T., high atop the towering Ancaster mountain!

 

   This last week I had a chance to break out my paintbrushes, after a long move-induced painting drought. It felt good to wield the brush again.

 

   My first project at the new home was to paint up a gaming board and scenery for some upcoming games. I wanted something fancier than the traditional green matt, so I purchased two sets of Ex Illis gaming tables.

 

   For those of you who don't know, Ex Illis was a short-lived fantasy miniature game produced by Canadian company Bastion. The game had excellent plastic figures, a fully modelled sectional board, and used computer software to drive the rules. It was a clever and ambitious game.

 

   I particularly liked the modular playing surface they made. This gaming board is composed of twenty 9" by 9" interlocking tiles. Each tile is uniquely detailed with ruins, campfires, discarded banners and shields and plenty of other battlefield wreckage. The tiles lock snugly together with plastic clips. In fact the clips even come with rubber 'feet' to keep the surface from sliding around during play.

A painted Ex Illis gaming tile.

   All in all a very impressive set.

   I bought two.

   As you can see the two sets nicely cover the new table I bought for the War-nasium. I painted all these at the same time so as to avoid any variation in colour scheme. I wanted to minimize the possibility that the tiles would look like a patchwork quilt when all clipped together.

   I think it worked well. The patchwork effect is a trade-off for having smaller tiles than, say 2' by 2', but the smaller tiles are much more versatile. It especially works when you add additional scenery items like hills or craters.

   So there we are! I'm excited about this new table, and I'll be playing my first game on it this week -- the twisted Lovecraftian horror that is Strange Aeons!

 

Thanks again for stopping by!

-Andrew

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