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Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting a battle mat and/or some boards for a ruined (What else...) city. I'd be really loathe to pay for the GW Realms of battle board, - why so many skulls??

I've looked here; http://www.zuzzy.com/rl-tf-001_terra_flex_gaming_mat.html and here; http://www.hotzmats.com/felt_purchase_mat.html, whilst they have some merit, nothing takes my fancy at the moment. So any other alternatives?

Any help appreciated!

<3 that Hellsing gif used it as an avatar on many a forum...

On topic, I just used styrofoam sealed with pva as the ground then painted it. You can make terrain pretty easily, as long as you don't glue it it's all modular.

Zuzzy has an urban mat coming soon. We have one zuzzy already, and it is a great playing surface - you may want to wait to see their urban mat.

While in my opinion the RoBG is worth every dollar the Citadel Battlemat is also a very good buy.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440158a&prodId=prod2060001

I regularly use the Hotz Western Mat without grid and streets: http://www.hotzmats.com/mat_1-wild_west.html for most 40k games including city fights. My favorite, but heavy use leads to pilling.

Another Sand mat is Sabol's currenty OOP Sand mat ( http://www.thewarstore.com/SabolDesignsCombatMat.html ), but be aware that they have an annoying white "www.sabol.com" add on one side.

Zuzzy's upcoming city mat ( http://zuzzy-wargame-miniatures.blogspot.com/2010/09/broken-blacktop-sneak-peek.html ) looks fine, but postage is very high.

You can also pray for a rerelease of Citadel's citymat poster

oni wrote:While in my opinion the RoBG is worth every dollar the Citadel Battlemat is also a very good buy.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440158a&prodId=prod2060001

The one thing that drives me crazy about that board is how dice roll on it. The sound drives me crazy, and for some reason (and I'm sure it's just me) they seem to roll weird. It's because they're hollow.

I have the OOP Sabol mat, and it works just fine.

So I don't start a new topic on this, my club is in desparate need of scenery so I thought I would go out any buy a battlemat.

The GW one i know is good quality, but also on the expensive side. I was looking at:
Woodland Scenics ReadyGrass
Heki Grass Mats
JAVIS static grass mat

Has anyone had experience with these alternative mats, and if so, are they any good? If they are paper-backed I would definitely glue them down to MDF board, but if cloth-backed I would probably keep them rolled up. I'm mostly interested in the amount of shedding, and the length of the grass in each case. Anyone know?

The Heki one is the same as the old GW battlemat. Static grass on a paper backing. It's intended to be permanently mounted on a flat surface. If you treat it like the current GW one it will just shed like a persian cat in summer.

The WS one is at least vinyl backed.

Rinkydink wrote:Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting a battle mat and/or some boards for a ruined (What else...) city. I'd be really loathe to pay for the GW Realms of battle board, - why so many skulls??

I've looked here; http://www.zuzzy.com/rl-tf-001_terra_flex_gaming_mat.html and here; http://www.hotzmats.com/felt_purchase_mat.html, whilst they have some merit, nothing takes my fancy at the moment. So any other alternatives?

Any help appreciated!

http://www.terrainmat.com/

Those terrainmat ones - they look just painted/flocked but not static grass, can you confirm?

Trasvi wrote:
The GW one i know is good quality, but also on the expensive side. I was looking at:
Woodland Scenics ReadyGrass

I used this one. I have three 4'x2' MDF boards, 1/2" thick for my playing surface. So that makes a 6'x4' table. I cut the woodland scenics mats to fit these boards. I've used them about 6 times, and have had no problems with them.

They are vinyl backed, I believe. I used standard PVA glue mixed with a little water in order to spread it over the board well. I had to add extra glue around the corners to keep them down. Otherwise, I've been happy with them.

Trasvi wrote:Those terrainmat ones - they look just painted/flocked but not static grass, can you confirm?

They are painted and textured, with no grass.

I don't know if you can get grass added as an option.

http://www.thewarstore.com/mondayknightgamemats.html

I have the Sabol mats and they are really nice apart from the awful brad that runs down one side in big white letters. Terrible decision to do that on their part. But, the mats are very nice otherwise.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you look in my gallery images you can see pictures of the sabol mats.

Heres the difference between the Realm Of Battle and the Terra-Flex

Realm of Battle: Plastic, you have to paint it and flock it yourself, but its a fun board to play on (i played on it last saturday)

Terra-Flex: Looks nice and flat so more room for terrain, it says it's flexable and probaly rolls up like the GW one.

I have a 4'x6' tabletop I got here:

http://www.war-zone.com/

I put it on top of 2 folding tables, 30"x6' that I got at Walmart. Tables cost me $30 each on sale and tuck away nice in the closet.

skrulnik wrote:I have a 4'x6' tabletop I got here:

http://www.war-zone.com/

I put it on top of 2 folding tables, 30"x6' that I got at Walmart. Tables cost me $30 each on sale and tuck away nice in the closet.

Those are just painted/flocked "Blue Board". You can get an 8'x4' sheet of that stuff at your local Home Despot for like $10. They'll cut it into 2'x2' squares for you for free and painting and flocking it takes maybe an hour and an overnight drying time.

Get the thinner sheets and spend a few hours with a wire cutter and you have your own modular contoured table.

Hey mark

To be honest, I'd steet clear of a printed ruined city surface, as it limits your gaming options. It's probably better to get a grey textured battlemat and then a selection of 'road' pieces, then build up your city terrain from there.

ModelZone are pretty good for flocked/textured roll-up mats, and you can get road pieces made of vinyl and rubber that store away easily, so you can rearrange them each game. Panic has some nifty ones made from vinyl floor tiling - ask him where he got them.

City ruins can be made quite easily, but Amera also do vac-formed stuff AND a selection of raised, vac-formed roads, at the bottom of this page - http://www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=z

EDIT

Oh, actually, just looked at the links and they're quite nice - not nearly as 'set' as I imagined.

Athera wrote:

skrulnik wrote:I have a 4'x6' tabletop I got here:

http://www.war-zone.com/

I put it on top of 2 folding tables, 30"x6' that I got at Walmart. Tables cost me $30 each on sale and tuck away nice in the closet.

Those are just painted/flocked "Blue Board". You can get an 8'x4' sheet of that stuff at your local Home Despot for like $10. They'll cut it into 2'x2' squares for you for free and painting and flocking it takes maybe an hour and an overnight drying time.

Get the thinner sheets and spend a few hours with a wire cutter and you have your own modular contoured table.

I know exactly what they are. It is worth what they charged me.
If I do the work, that is about 3 hours to do what I got. Plus delay time and cleanup. Flocking a 4'x6' surface creates a hell of a mess and I don't have a garage.
My three hours is worth more to me than what they charge.

When I lived in an appartment, I would have agreed 100% with skrulnik. Much easier, and cheaper in the long run, if you can find a good deal on terrain.

However, now I'm looking forward to making my own hills and other terrain in my garage over the next week or two for my home table.

Making terrain is fun, and easier than people often think.

Even so, these days I prefer to concentrate my efforts on items that can't be bought off the shelf, just because of limited time and space to make things.

So I bought a Terrain Mats mat and hills, to go with the Tau buildings I made myself.