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Picked up the Deadzone starter set and am looking forward to getting some games in soon. The box contents intrigue me, especially the mat which I am most impressed with. I am assuming that Deadzone is always played on the same 8x8 grid and never gets larger? The mat is of excellent quality and I would like to get hold of a similar but large sized one for Necormunda and games played on a 4x4 or 6x4 area. Anyone know who makes them or a similar product - ie a rubber backed mouse mat type thing?

I guess failing that I could buy 3 extra mats from Mantic and butt them up together to make a 4x4 mat but that would cost £45.

Off the top of my head, Frontline Gaming do things like what you're after, but it's not going to be any cheaper than buying 4 Mantic mats, I don't think.

Yeah that's what I figured. Shame the Frontline Gaming mats aren't readily available over here.

I saw this place mentioned on a blog this weekend. Someone (I've forgotten who, dammit!) linked these guys, who he'd gotten a custom mat printed from.

http://www.bagsoflove.co.uk/neoprene.aspx

We have played multiple mat/multiple players (8 mats and players) but the individual mats were all the standard size.

The Enforcer players were convinced that's how the game's supposed to be played as they mowed down Plague. Plague players were less convinced. I think whatever playtesting the game saw was done with a single mat. Going beyond that starts to quickly break down balance toward the shooty side having big advantage.

 Azazelx wrote:
I saw this place mentioned on a blog this weekend. Someone (I've forgotten who, dammit!) linked these guys, who he'd gotten a custom mat printed from.

http://www.bagsoflove.co.uk/neoprene.aspx

It is an excellent idea but it seems they can't manage a 4x4 - max size is something like 3x4 but it is food for thought - I will keep looking. I guess the other side of the coin is that for custom printed stuff like that you have to source a decent jpg/png of high enough resolution to look good when printed on a mat.

privateer4hire wrote:
We have played multiple mat/multiple players (8 mats and players) but the individual mats were all the standard size.

The Enforcer players were convinced that's how the game's supposed to be played as they mowed down Plague. Plague players were less convinced. I think whatever playtesting the game saw was done with a single mat. Going beyond that starts to quickly break down balance toward the shooty side having big advantage.

It sounds obvious, but you need just as much terrain per mat as you would use in a normalngame. Otherwise, there's is a huge bias towards shooters. At least 1 battlezone+ some extra scatter terrain if you can manage it.

 Paradigm wrote:

privateer4hire wrote:
We have played multiple mat/multiple players (8 mats and players) but the individual mats were all the standard size.

The Enforcer players were convinced that's how the game's supposed to be played as they mowed down Plague. Plague players were less convinced. I think whatever playtesting the game saw was done with a single mat. Going beyond that starts to quickly break down balance toward the shooty side having big advantage.

It sounds obvious, but you need just as much terrain per mat as you would use in a normalngame. Otherwise, there's is a huge bias towards shooters. At least 1 battlezone+ some extra scatter terrain if you can manage it.

Personally I find 2 Battlezones per mat to be the sweet spot, and making sure that a fair bit of it blocks line of sight. Larger games are also where indirect weapons like Mortars start to become a necessity to keep the opposing models pinned.

Any addition of mats shifts favor towards shooters. Cover helps but each mat adds 8 more spaces that have to be traversed. Each of those can be blazed away at and/or sniped.

Hence lots of los blocking terrain. It may be the case that you need *more* terrain per mat as you increase the number. The plague mortar can help you pin the enemy while you close and everyone else can play the ranged game.

LOS blocking and more terrain doesn't stop shooting (via Blaze Away) from impacting. It makes it less likely a sniper can get a super awesome headshot but you canlose the game from being pinned/suppressed just the same. More space to cross by the melee guys will favor shooty forces, regardless.

There's also http://www.gamemat.eu/ and they have a city themed mat in both 4x4 and 6x4

NTRabbit wrote:
There's also http://www.gamemat.eu/ and they have a city themed mat in both 4x4 and 6x4

Definitely a valid option assuming the postage is not too high

They're in the Czech Republic, so I'm assuming that means reasonable postage and tax free to the UK

Edit: Shipment cost: € 21,00 for 1 mat to the UK

Do they have gridded ones?

Around 3 battlezones per mat is generally for the best, I find, especially on larger mats where the extra shooting range will really tear up melee if there isn't much cover.

 Azazelx wrote:
Do they have gridded ones?

There's this one, but it looks a bit 40K-ish for DZ