MERCS Table

So over the weekend I got to clear out a lot of stuff from the hobby room that it's been storing for a few years. After marveling at how much more space I had I got the urge to put together a quick MERCS table for no reason!

The boards themselves are from Dust Tactics, a game I bought relatively recently from a bazaar for a steal. It turns out that six of these boards are very close to the measurements for MERCS, with only a few inches on each side short - nothing that is really a difference. The industrial side works very well for the game, and that's one less thing I need to paint!

There are a few items still needing paint to be tabletop ready, notably the containers, barriers and dumpsters. It's not something on my priority list right now, but once I get a chance to paint them they shouldn't take too long.

I have it pretty densely packed when compared to the average MERCS player's tables, at least from what I've seen online. I think that people use way too few terrain pieces and make incredibly open boards. When you only have a few huge lanes of fire it doesn't encourage a lot of flanking maneuvers and I would imagine it just turns into a long range shootout. Not many people would weather the storm and risk running out in the open - I tend to be one, mostly because the position advantage is usually worth the risk, but also it's boring to sit back and just outroll someone.

With this amount of terrain aggressive maneuvers are encouraged, while verticality is also emphasized. You can climb on the containers to gain elevation and coverage, however all it takes is for the enemy to climb as well and suddenly you have no cover! I made the building in the middle taller to block cross lanes to keep elevation from becoming one sided - without it really it's whoever can get their men up first can hold the whole field. There are plenty of pieces to snap to but with the angular nature of the field being flanked is a dangerous possibility. There are probably only two long lanes from the opening break but they cover a limited amount of field, so it still leaves the possibility of suppression and overwatch but doesn't make it break the game - something that open terrain definitely favors.

But for the most part, a lot of terrain just looks awesome.