Hey, me and my dad are going to build a game table and we were wondering what is a good material to use. we were thinking an small villiage with trees and 2 big hills. please tell me some of materials you use.

the best general material is insulation foam, though i've used masonite and even plywood to keep things from warping. the foam makes all sorts of effects easy: hills, rivers, craters, rocks, etc. for grass effects, i've seen flocking used to good effect on display boards, though gameplay is better on thick, dark green felt. for artificial structures, i tend to use card, platicard, foamcore, and plaster. balsa and other thin woods are useful as well. water effects can either be achieved with plaster or store-bought effects resin. both effects can be cool, it just depends on how you like it.
trees are often difficult if you want to use the board for gaming, as a realistic forest obstructs the placement of figures. usually, two or three trees on a darker ground surface conveys the effect quite well. there are dozens of ways to build trees, though i've not yet found one i like. the paper or cloth foliage techniques tend to be more durable, but the flocked trees are better looking. i would not suggest using real twigs unless you want dead trees or are willing to put in enough effort to make it one of the centerpices of your board

when building a board, I usually divide it into 12"x12" sections so that i can replace sections from time to time, but thats just because i get bored easily, and i enjoy building urban settings, which lend themselves to modularity.

Over the years I have tried many different tables and scenery types. The thing is with gaming, you usually want to change your table from battle to battle. I now use a ping-pong table 5 by 8, good size but a piece of plywood 4 by 8 works well for FOW also. Cover it with a green or brown blanket or felt material. Quick beginner hills are books underneath the felt. Trees are cheap in packs from White elephant or Michaels Craft Store. Don't buy alot of trees, buy green felt , cut out a design of differnet shaped woods and put a few trees out on the cut outs. In FOW the edge of the woods is important so a real edge needs to be established. Alot of trees just get in the way of the troops. Rivers, roads, same thing. cut them out of blue and brown felt. You can be gaming on a good looking board fairly cheaply. Good Luck. Come by merlyns when we are gaming and you will see what I mean Good Gaming

Thank you i will defenentily start out with what you said to do. it seemes the easiest and cheapest to start out with. thank you