Textured rubber/vinyl battle mats?

[Hammers]

Ever since I was severely disappointed with Zuzzy miniatures I have been on the lookout for textured vinyl (rubber) gaming mats. Does anyone have experience with this Czech company: https://www.gamemat.eu/

[Daeothar]

I have had one of their mousemat gaming mats for years; a 3x3 starfield one for X-wing and I absolutely love it!

The material has stood up to weekly sessions for several years now, without even any visible wear. I've lugged it around in a plastic carrying tube to away-games and it always comes home in a perfect state.

I even use it upside down sometimes when we play board games, as the rubber backing keeps the tiles in place perfectly.

I've asked them if they will be doing a 6x4 starfield one soonish for Epic games, but so far, they've been too busy with other products to be able to squeeze it into their cue. That would be my only quible with them, but I suppose that's the price of succes. they do respond to every email though.

Highly recommended!

[Hammers]

I have had one of their mousemat gaming mats for years; a 3x3 starfield one for X-wing and I absolutely love it!

The material has stood up to weekly sessions for several years now, without even any visible wear. I've lugged it around in a plastic carrying tube to away-games and it always comes home in a perfect state.

I even use it upside down sometimes when we play board games, as the rubber backing keeps the tiles in place perfectly.

I've asked them if they will be doing a 6x4 starfield one soonish for Epic games, but so far, they've been too busy with other products to be able to squeeze it into their cue. That would be my only quible with them, but I suppose that's the price of succes. they do respond to every email though.

Highly recommended!

But their mousemat gaming mats are not *textured* are they? They are printed on a smooth surface? It looked to me as if the mats I link to are textures, but I may be wrong...

[Daeothar]

No, you're right; my bad. Mine is obviously not textured. And neither are any of their mats, as far as I know.

I've often looked at the Zuzzy offerings and wondered, as they seemed to be a very nice idea. What were you disappointed in exactly?

[Major_Gilbear]

Whether vinyl or mousemat, they are all still printed, and therefore all 2D/flat.

Of course, it can be hard to tell from 2D photos, especially as the printed details are designed to look like 3D effects.  

[Hammers]

No, you're right; my bad. Mine is obviously not textured. And neither are any of their mats, as far as I know.

I've often looked at the Zuzzy offerings and wondered, as they seemed to be a very nice idea. What were you disappointed in exactly?

I paid for a product which never arrived wherefore I had to reclaim my money through PayPal. Simple as that.

[Hammers]

I paid for a product which never arrived wherefore I had to reclaim my money through PayPal. Simple as that.

It's too bad since I think think it's a great design idea. I am not keen on flat prints.

[YPU]

I ordered a couple of the small example pieces from Zuzzy ages ago and they were quite nice. I'm surprised nobody else is moving in on that territory, especially with Zuzzy being so unreliable these days.

[Major_Gilbear]

I've seen the Zuzzy mats in person (a friend has one), and I am really not a big fan at all.

Quite aside from the extraordinarily long lead-in times that they have, and the poor communication that Zuzzy is notorious for, this is what put me off:

1) They smell pretty strongly of rubber. Obvious perhaps, but it's very off-putting if you don't happen to like the smell. Washing them is annoying and doesn't seem to help much.

2) They are very thin and very floppy, like a tablecloth. You therefore need a bigger rigid surface surface to lay them onto, and which point you probably could have just gone with boards rather than the mat (unless you happen to have a huge dining table or such to play on, of course! )

3) The details aren't really all that obvious or 3D. My friend's was supposed to be swampland of some sort, but I couldn't really tell what was supposed to be rock/fallen trees/etc clearly.

4) It's often suggested that you lightly paint a few details, and maybe give the mats some thin washes to help bring out the detail better. I can definitely see this helping, but I think you'd need to do the whole mat for this to look even half-way reasonable. A lot of work, and if you use the wrong paints they flake off too.

5) Even though the details are not very 3D, they are still knobbly enough that terrain pieces with a flat bottom doesn't sit on the mats properly unless they are pretty heavy.

6) The edges are rough, like you find on artsy hand-made paper. If measuring from a playing edge is important at all, keep this in mind. I suppose you can trim them straight, but I don't know if that would make them too small.

7) The hollow and knobbly texture, and the rubber material, prevent light (often plastic) troop models from sitting flat. Dice rolled on the mat bounce around a *lot*, and will often knock models over or disappear off the edge of the table. If the game you're playing requires any precision of measurement or model placement, this ruins that completely.


Needless to say, I wasn't impressed at all, and after trying a few games on the Zuzzy mat we all reverted to using boards.

On the other hand, the modern mousemat and vinyl boards are lovely surfaces to play on. How much the printed details matter to (and how well they blend in to your terrain/models) if up to you to decide, but the quality is far superior in almost every way (although some do smell -not as badly- and all still require a table/board underneath too).

If you're still keen on a proper 3D mat, I've seen some amazing examples of DIY efforts here on LAF. For whatever drawbacks they may have, most issues have a solution, and the results are all better and more playable that Zuzzy's offering IMO.

[Hammers]

I've seen the Zuzzy mats in person (a friend has one), and I am really not a big fan at all.

Quite aside from the extraordinarily long lead-in times that they have, and the poor communication that Zuzzy is notorious for, this is what put me off:

1) They smell pretty strongly of rubber. Obvious perhaps, but it's very off-putting if you don't happen to like the smell. Washing them is annoying and doesn't seem to help much.

2) They are very thin and very floppy, like a tablecloth. You therefore need a bigger rigid surface surface to lay them onto, and which point you probably could have just gone with boards rather than the mat (unless you happen to have a huge dining table or such to play on, of course! )

3) The details aren't really all that obvious or 3D. My friend's was supposed to be swampland of some sort, but I couldn't really tell what was supposed to be rock/fallen trees/etc clearly.

4) It's often suggested that you lightly paint a few details, and maybe give the mats some thin washes to help bring out the detail better. I can definitely see this helping, but I think you'd need to do the whole mat for this to look even half-way reasonable. A lot of work, and if you use the wrong paints they flake off too.

5) Even though the details are not very 3D, they are still knobbly enough that terrain pieces with a flat bottom doesn't sit on the mats properly unless they are pretty heavy.

6) The edges are rough, like you find on artsy hand-made paper. If measuring from a playing edge is important at all, keep this in mind. I suppose you can trim them straight, but I don't know if that would make them too small.

7) The hollow and knobbly texture, and the rubber material, prevent light (often plastic) troop models from sitting flat. Dice rolled on the mat bounce around a *lot*, and will often knock models over or disappear off the edge of the table. If the game you're playing requires any precision of measurement or model placement, this ruins that completely.


Needless to say, I wasn't impressed at all, and after trying a few games on the Zuzzy mat we all reverted to using boards.

On the other hand, the modern mousemat and vinyl boards are lovely surfaces to play on. How much the printed details matter to (and how well they blend in to your terrain/models) if up to you to decide, but the quality is far superior in almost every way (although some do smell -not as badly- and all still require a table/board underneath too).

If you're still keen on a proper 3D mat, I've seen some amazing examples of DIY efforts here on LAF. For whatever drawbacks they may have, most issues have a solution, and the results are all better and more playable that Zuzzy's offering IMO.

Thanks. Food for thought.