Table Top Battles - Making the Table Top

Now that I am committed to trying out these rules (with a few modifications because I can never leave anything alone!), I have begun to look around for something to make my gridded 'Table Top' from.

At first I thought of using a cloth, but I have found from bitter experience that trying to draw a grid on a cloth is not the easiest of things to do. I then looked around for some suitable wood, but a trip to my local DIY store soon showed me that:

1. This was an expensive option
2. It would produce a heavy playing board
3. The resultant playing board would be difficult to store in what my wife calls my 'toy room' (i.e. my wargames room)

In the end I remembered that some years ago I bought some of the last remaining stock of Jigwar terrain boards from Essex Miniatures. These are 30cm x 30cm squares of 5mm thick plastic that were cut so that they clipped together (like a jigsaw puzzle). I still have a enough unpainted squares to make both a land and sea 'Table Top'.

The plastic is thick enough to be rigid, and light enough (and thin enough) to store easily. It will also 'take' acrylic paint very well. All I need to do is remove the protective film covering from the squares, clean them, give them a couple of coats of paint, make out the grid and ... voila ... I can try the rules in earnest.