Cigar Box Battle Mats?

[Mr. White]

I think I'm interested in some of their mats, but would like to hear some feedback first.

I'm reading that hills are made by putting stuff under the mat. So, are these thin, like sheets and not the thick neoprene style?
Do they show a lot of wrinkles or creases during play?
How good is the print quality?

There's a lot in the 4x6 range I like a lot, but that's too big for my needs. Too bad they don't do more 3x3 or 4x4.

[Poiter50]

Thoroughly recommend them, they are fleece. I have 4 or 5, a couple are double sided. They are slightly larger than the stated size to allow for such items as hills (foam under the mat).

[Cat]

Topnotch quality, no wrinkling at all, I have a bunch of them.

For smaller game set-ups, the 6x4 easily fold under to make a 4x4 or 3x4, or just hang over the edge of the table; I find them very versatile.

[bluewillow]

I use them as quick transportable mats.

I use hills under, mostly just cut polystyrene to shape and place it under the mat, but to help It hug the contours. I also have a another removals mat I Place underneath it to help with weight and shaping the contours.

I then add trees hedges etc to the top

Cheers
Matt

[The Great Mahoo]

I bought 2 of them in 3x3 last September or so. I haven't used them extensively, but am impressed with them.  I like putting the hills under it and get a nice flowing landscape.  Print quality is impressive and really makes for more interesting games than playing on my bare tabletop.

I looked around a good bit trying to decide on a mat. I settled on Cigarbox since they are made in the US and I was concerned with shipping during Covid lockdowns.  I'll be looking to buy from them again! But I do wish they had more of their mats available in smaller sizers, though as others mentioned you could fold bigger ones or let them drape.

[joe5mc]

They are the best mats I have ever used.

[armchairgeneral]

I have three of them and rate them very highly.

[Dentatus]

I've owned one for a while. Very nice, held up well, but it only gets occasional use as it's larger than we usually need.

[Just a few orcs]

I bought a couple of the double sided ones as part of a kick starter. Was disappointed as they double sided ones are a different material to the single sided ones  to stop ink running. This makes them quite shiny , which I did not like. They sorted it out very promptly though

The single sided ones are great

[Mr. White]

I bought a couple of the double sided ones as part of a kick starter. Was disappointed as they double sided ones are a different material to the single sided ones  to stop ink running. This makes them quite shiny , which I did not like. They sorted it out very promptly though

The single sided ones are great

I was leaning toward single sided mats, but that's good information to have. Thanks for sharing!

[Nordic1980s]

I think I'm interested in some of their mats, but would like to hear some feedback first.

Our gaming group has purchased about 10 of the one sided smooth fleece Cigar Box battle mats, so we're quite familiar with them. Cigar Box mats are shown here. The fleece cloths are made in China, with the patterns designed and printed in the US.

The good:
- overwhelmingly the best pattern designs available
- care free with no permanent wrinkles, folds easily into closet storage or into gamer's backpack
- extra size means easy to lay over the 3D hills, will cover it all around
- they seem to update at least some of their designs based on customer feedback, like the updated Classic Desert

Take note:
- pricey, so no soft drink cans or tea cups to be placed on them during the games
- may have slight colour distortions: not all mats have the same exact green grass colour or some palest greys and browns look just white (our copy of Moon Battle)
- some individual patterns seem to have somewhat repeative patterning - look at the dots here
- Streets of Pompeii has somewhat large stone sheets for 20-28mm figure use, could be also used for ogre, troll or giant city
- in the digital camera photos the mat tones always record as a bit pale and faded, the mat colours usually do look much better to the naked eye and closer to typical figure bases in colour
- the various Europe maps link up with their roads, but do not align perfectly if put next to each other so perhaps there is space between the areas depicted by the mats
- photorealistic New Europe mats do look gorgeous.

* * * * *The best with full five stars * * * * *:
- Grassland 2 is the best green landscape mat out there, can be used for anything and ideally would come with every boxed historical or fantasy wargame
- Roaring Twenties - not the 1920s but the Cyperpunk 2020s where Grenadier's Kill Zone street gangs battle in the Night City
- 28mm versions of Europe and New Europe give a good countryside mat, available in both a drawn and photorealistic styles - see also here and here.

How to lay out the battlefield:
- underneath is the usual normal daily use table or an enough wide bed
- on top of it is placed a thick (2-5 cm) neoprene sheet, bought from shops that sell beds or plastic items (sheets, not rolls!)
- the neoprene sheet is ideally a bit smaller that the underlying platform
- this allows for dice and such to be kept on the edges, away from the gaming surface; any falling figures will not fall to floor
- any hills are placed on top of this sheet and the extra large fleece cloth wrapped over all of them, the edges neatly tugged beneath the underside
- neoprene and cloth together will dull the sound of the dice and act as padding to any tumbling figures yet is rigid enough
- neoprene will not break up and will rebound back (unlike insulation/EPS/XPS/styrofoam/styrox sheets)
- neoprene is easily cut, so one can have valleys or smooth hill sides
- this all allows for true negative shapes, like rivers below rest of the surface - it looks like a "skin" on a 3D polygon model
- when not in use the cloth is folded over and put into a closet; neoprene sheet doubles as bed sheet and can be put away into garage/loft
- I recommend making hills of the same stuff, instead of the insulation sheets that tend to break after some use
- since insulation sheets and styrofoam are much cheaper than thick neoprene sheets, one can model in 3D exactly the right dimension with them before cutting a neoprene hill.

[amichaell]

I recently started using some of these. They do a better job for hills when laying foam underneath than neoprene mats. The fabric gives better contours.