tabletop size for 1/72 or 1/100 miniatures?

[Swanningabout]

I'm thinking of getting back into miniatures wargaming (WWII, probably North Africa or Soviet Front) using my big army of 1/72 vehicles and figures or maybe starting a new one with 1/100 Zvezda equipment. Is a table top of 2 x 3 feet workable for either scale? I may simply make up some fairly crude rules of my own, just for fun. I've been under the impression one really needs a table of 4 or 5 feet square, but what do you all think?

 

[Quaralane]

May want to get closer to 4x4.
2x3 may seem big, but once you get those figures on it, it fills up quick

 

[the Baron]

When I was in my teens, I had a Waterloo wargame, using Airfix' figures, and I used a full 4x8 sheet of plywood. I was fortunate that my parents let me have space in the basement to set this up.

I agree with Quaralane--once you start adding figures, you'll eat up room pretty quick. Unless you use figures as counters, that is, a single tank represents a company, five figures on a base represent a platoon, and so on.

 

[EdE6688]

I played a lot of wargames and we always used 4*8 feet tables and they were big enough for some larger scale battle with the flames of war stuff which is 1/100 scale but if you are thinking in 1/72 with lots of tanks and figures you will need an even bigger table like two of the 4*8 boards so you can play smaller battles and by adding the other table you can play in bigger battles.Belive me 4*8 is the minimum if you want to play confortable.With a smaller table you will be frustrated cos it can become overcrowded quickly if you want to use more than 2 or 3 tanks with more than 20 figures.