Setting Up An Ambush Table

Hey, Jonny again and today we take a look at how best to set up your gaming table for games of ambush! 

Ambush is best played over a 3 foot by 3 foot area. You can create your own custom table or board from sheet wood or if space is an issue, you can simply use one of a plethora of widely available neoprene gaming mats (a selection of which will be available from Mantic later this year!).

Using an abundance of diverse terrain becomes more important in smaller games of Ambush, where a small imbalance in lists can have a big impact on gameplay. It is recommended that Ambush! games are played on a table that is more terrain dense than  would be the case in traditional games. You can even create themes and stories before playing by building a small hamlet of houses or a farm with outbuildings. Players should make sure there are few, if any, clear lanes where Line of Sight can be drawn across the entire table. This is to help keep spells and other ranged attacks from dominating the game and making it slightly less fun. Furthermore, blocking terrain and obstacles should be utilized to keep units with the Pathfinder special rule from dominating the playing area.

As with larger games, players set up each of their forces at the beginning of the game more than 12” from the centre line. On a 3’ x 3’ playing surface the deployment zone is of course shallower than in larger games. We suggest that players abstain from placing blocking terrain within the deployment zones, as doing so makes it difficult to set up an entire army.

1. Low walls or fences act as Obstacles, allowing units to move over them but not “At the double”, they also hinder units if they have to move through them to make a charge.
2. Large buildings act as cover, blocking lines of sight and also causing units to have to move around them, this is important in Ambush to avoid “gun lines” at the back of the battlefield or two solid masses of armies immediately smashing head on in one big boring charge.
3. Obstacles like barrels, carts and all other manners of debris not only play a role in breaking up the battlefield, but they also add a great thematic and visual appeal to your gaming table.
4. Forces are set up more than 12” from the centre line of the table, so it is a good idea to avoid having terrain in these deployment areas.
5. These standing stones play the same sort of role as a forest does, it blocks the line of sight (depending on the height of the units) unless you are in the terrain itself, then other units may draw a line of sight to that unit.

Ambush offers not only a great way to play King Of War, but can also be a fun way of creating cool and unusual gaming tables that you may not have considered for a larger scale game.

We are making some brand new Ambush size gaming tables at Mantic HQ very soon and we would love to hear your ideas for what you would like to see!

A creepy, trippy Nightstalker Void theme?

A quaint ‘shire’ village?

A dark and ghoulish graveyard?

Let us know your thoughts on our Socials and we will get the glitter and sticky back plastic at the ready!

Don’t forget to check out our TerrainCrate range, with the exception of the MDF buildings, everything you see in the image above is available to purchase directly from our website or your super friendly local gaming store!