Need Recommendations for New Battle Mats

[Amonglions]

Hey there people,

I've had the same two mats for years now. Green and sandy beige. They are honestly looking more than a little sad now, the old rolled up fleece of yesteryear needs retiring.

I'm in Canada, but can also have anything shipped to the UK, for my mother to bring out with her the next visit. So that gives me access to both European and North American manufacturers.

I will probably look for something to replace the obligatory green battle mat and my sandy beige. I also want to one day reach the dizzying heights of an urban gray and maybe even a deep space black.

Something that works with multiple scales would be my ideal. I have seen some examples with detailing that looked wrong against smaller scale troops.

These will also need to be pretty durable as I will be loaning them out for club events.

Cheers.

[fastolfrus]

What size are you looking for?

[Amonglions]

That Sir, is a good question!

Most likely 4 x 6 at this stage.

Cheers.

[Elbows]

If you're looking for robust and long-lasting I'd suggest going the neoprene route, which is popular from several companies.  Places like Deep Cut Studios or the upcoming Kraken wargaming, Fat Mats (a bit overpriced by comparison to the others) etc.

Heavy, non-skid, lovely for dice rolling, etc.  I don't know how to help you with the scaling issues.  A lot of printed mats will have something that blows the scale out of proportion.  Perhaps just study all the designs and see what you can get away with.

My personal suggestion (since I loves it) is the Steppe pattern from Deep Cut Studios...but it may be out of scale for 15mil stuff.

[HerbyF]

I just go to my local fabric store. I buy 3 yards of 60" cammo fleece. It makes a 9'X5' mat. If you just want 4'X6' then just buy 2 yards. I have one in sandy tan with shades of brown, one in shades of green, & one in blue for navel games.

[LeadAsbestos]

Cigar Box battle Mars are excellent and very nicely priced. Nice variety, different sizes. I've got a Sandy one for Troy and and looking into another one or two for my next project,.one cobblestone, one grassy.
cigarboxbattlestore.com. is the site I believe

[LeadAsbestos]

So nice in fact, I just bought another one!

[Amonglions]

Thank you for the words of advice chaps!

I think if the $CAD$ - to everything else exchange rate were better, I'd be less concerned about buying site unseen.

I have seen the lovely stuff by FatMats and Deep Cut, but as suggested, they don't seem to scale particularly well as soon as you go below 25mm. As most of my stuff is 15mm and smaller, that presents a bit of a problem. At our last club night, the guys playing Saga were using FatMats and I couldnt see my 15mm stuff working with a lot of the detail.

I really do like the look of the Cigar Box Battle Mats. There's some great videos on youtube with 15mm figures looking pretty good, so that might be the route I end up going down.

I will be getting a new blue fleece from the fabric store and a new desert fleece for now and use the cash saved to offset the wretched Canadian exchange rate.

I think I'll sit down with my son tonight and we'll look at the various mats that Cigar Box have and just dive in.

Thanks again guys.

Cheers.

[Dilettante Gamer]

Have you looked at http://www.terrainmat.com/.

Mats are textured with roads and rivers to match available. Best I've seen on the web. 

My buddy who is a high standards wargamer rates them highly.  http://jayswargamingmadness.blogspot.com/

I'm told that the website calculator is broken and over estimates the postage from the UK to North America. Email him for a quote.

[Elbows]

Terrain Mat does good stuff, I tried to order one a while back but they weren't taking orders...they are rated highly by a lot of folks.

[Math Mathonwy]

Pwork is also a a definite contender when it comes to battle mats:
http://www.pworkwargames.com/en/29-wargame-mats