Which Gaming Table Suits You?

By Ciarán Laverty

As board and tabletop gamers, we like to ensure we’re getting the most out of our gaming experiences. Sometimes, the best way to do this is to maintain a dedicated gaming space within our homes that we furnish with specialty furniture to both store and play our games. If you’re in the process of kitting out a dedicated gaming space, then you’re in the right place. You can check out our article on the best modular shelving here, but if it’s a gaming table you’re in the market for then read on. The neat thing about these wooden tables is that they can transform from an inconspicuous dining table into a ready-to-use gaming table in no time at all. Aside from BoxKing’s Kingswood table, we’ll be looking at the Wyrmwood table (from Wyrmwood) and the Denis from Geeknson. If a metal table would be more to your liking, check out the Ironside Project! Let’s get into it…

1. Sustainability

It’s always worth considering the environmental impact of just about anything you buy, especially if it’s something that you plan to use a lot or that you want to get a lot of use out of. Wood is one of the most sustainable materials used in just about any field of production. It also helps that a wooden modular table can seamlessly blend into your dining area, making it ideal for those of us who cannot dedicate an entire room to our love of gaming. As such, how do some of the top modular wooden tables stack up on the sustainability front?

• The Wyrmwood Table For Six is available in four separate styles of wood: Rustic Cherry, Cherry, Rustic Walnut, and Black Walnut, with each having its own properties to allow for a more stylised approach to the table’s crafting process without compromising its longevity. Nevertheless, these are fine crafting materials that come from longstanding woodworking traditions. Many of its additional modular elements require magnets for connection, however.

• The Kingswood is made of 100% Rubberwood, which is quick to grow and easily replaceable, while also maintaining a sturdy finish in the end result. The Rubberwood is durable enough to allow for the modular elements to slip and slide together with ease, no magnets or other fixtures necessary. The approach to its design is so comprehensive as to avoid unnecessary holes or slots, ensuring as little waste as possible and as much space for your games as there needs to be.

• The Denis is comprised of 100% Ash wood which is locally sourced in its creator’s native land of Great Britain and ensures a certain degree of water-resistance for when game nights get a little out of hand. Like the Wyrmwood table, the Ash wood of the Denis hearkens back to a more traditional style of crafting, and like the Kingswood, it utilises elements of its design to offer a degree of modularity for accessories.

2. Versatility

We all have our individual quirks and qualms when it comes to our gaming appetites, and those can be reflected in how we choose to play our games. A good gaming table makes it easy for you to suit yourself and accommodate your players with as little hassle as possible so that all anybody ever needs to worry about is the next dice roll. So, how do these tables stack up when it comes to mixing and matching the play styles of us gamer-folk?

• The Wyrmwood Table for Six’s use of magnets allows for its various official attachments to be connected with ease, although I do worry about the sturdiness of something attached to something else via magnet. One wrong move and a glass of cola ends up all over the floor. The worry of that can be offset somewhat by the spill resistant coating on the toppers though. There are any number of attachments to choose from as well, like cup holders, dice trays, and trays for cards.

• The Kingswood has many of the features of the Wyrmwood, without the magnets. Instead, the attachments slot into the lining of the wood itself, making for secure holding without compromising on ease of removal or placement. Among the available attachments are dice trays, cup holders, card trays, and a choice of colours for the interior material beneath the toppers. Customisation options like cup holders can even have utility outside of the gaming arena, and so their inclusion with the NobleBundle is great for those of us on a budget.

• The Denis Table employs the same attachment methods for its extra features as the Kingswood, though the variety of attachments is more abundant. In the same manner that you might attach a dice tray or a cup holder to the side of your table, you can attach a whole desk with a bookshelf, or even tablet holder. For those of us with a completionist’s mind, I can see the appeal of a wider array of available attachments, but if this is to be your dining room table then I dunno how much storage space I’m gonna have for all those slabs of wood.

3. Affordability

Let’s face it, this is the barrier to entry to just about any hobby project these days. We’re not exactly living through the best of economic epochs right now, and anywhere we can save a few pennies is always going to go a long way to making our minds up for us. Furniture ain’t cheap, but just on the versatility of these gaming tables and their sustainable production value, they’re worth every penny you end up spending.

• Depending on your choice of wood, the Wyrmwood Table For Six can go for anything between $2,699 or $4,399 plus shipping. That’s without the inclusion of any additional features like dice trays, cup holders, etc. It’s understandable, these are expensive materials being worked with and the product is crafted with great care an attention to detail. For those of us with the money, and perhaps the ability to write it off as a business expense, then it’s a great option.

• The Kingswood table brings the prices back down a way to a more manageable range. The NobleBundle gets you the Kingswood table, six dice trays, six card trays, six cup holders, and a play mat of your choice for $1,149.26 plus shipping. On its own, the table’s only marginally more than that, clocking in at $1,276.96 plus shipping. The additional features are also more affordable than they are with the Wyrmwood, and if you get the bundle then you’re getting all the essentials for a fraction of the cost of a Table For Six.

• The Denis Table has a similar price range to the Table For Six, again dependent on the type of wood you go for. You’re looking at between £1,943.95 – £4,989.50, plus the shipping, which might be a bit too steep if you’re outside of the UK. Those closer might have an easier time lashing out the cash on a Denis, but once again there is the drawback of that low price only including the table itself, with features like an inset television or LED lights adding a great deal to the final spend.

While there are merits in all vectors regardless of which gaming table you choose to buy, the Kingswood table from BoxKing Gaming accomplishes a sustainable production, a versatile array of attachments and other amenities, and the lowest price for the most product. Ultimately, you’re going to get the best bang for your buck out of a Kingswood table from BoxKing Gaming.