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I want to make playing 40k at home a better experience. I've been putting some time into building and painting terrain, and the next step is to get a nice 6' by 4' mat that can be rolled up afterwards.

I was looking for some recommendations as to what the best mat to buy in the UK.

What mats do you use?
Preferably urban themed in a way that fits with the 40k aesthetic.

- Quality wise I'd always go with neoprene / mousepad material. While more expensive they're just plain better than the other options

- manufacturers - my mats are all made by Deep Cut Studio, mostly because they have a large range of mats and also provide mats for Dropfleet Commander - but others at my gaming club went with e.g. gamemat.eu and we're just as happy with their mats.

Design wise I'd suggest taking a scroll through their inventory, and finding something that'll work with the way you painted and built your terrain.

Something like this https://www.deepcutstudio.com/product/wargames-terrain-mat-urban-ruins/ should work with most urban ruin themed terrain, for example - but there's lots of designs like that.

Absolutely go Neoprene - no point not to. Cutting a few bucks to get an inferior option...don't bother.

Deep Cut Studios
Urbanmatz
Gamemat.eu

All make excellent mats.

What armies do you have? what their basing is like? I highly suggest gamemat.eu; their fallout wasteland design fits great for urban, desert.

Another vote for Deepcut. They have a great selection, and their print quality is high.

I would also like to recommend Deep Cut studios. Bought a gaming mat from them a few years back & its fantastic.

played on Deepcut at my FLGS - solid mat, love the design (sadly it's no longer available)

I have bought three from Gamemat.eu ... same neoprene surface .. awesome designs and shipping from Europe is often fast and reliable (they come with a storage bag too, dunno about the others)

and there are carriers of Fatmat in Europe too .. not frontline direct, might be another distributor.

 Elbows wrote:
Absolutely go Neoprene - no point not to. Cutting a few bucks to get an inferior option...don't bother.

Deep Cut Studios
Urbanmatz
Gamemat.eu

All make excellent mats.

A second for Urbanmatz here too. Got the package deal with the folding table for my stuff and they're great.

Gamemat EU is nice, I wish shipping wasn't a killer. I love their designs but went with Fat Mats because they're US based.

I think the main thing you run into with the Neoprene options is simple: how good is the neoprene, and how good is the art?

In the US, for instance, FAT MATs etc. are all the craze, but the quality of the material on the ones I've seen has been "meh", and the art is very poor compared to the companies listed above. I always splurge the extra $20 it costs for additional shipping from Europe rather than go with a US based company. Some companies purchase art from artists. A handful of the Deep Cut mats for instance are patterns you can buy, but they're very good. Urbanmatz has the best art of the ones I've purchased. I think that's his main gig - he's a designer. Deep Cut and Gamemat are very good, though I'd give the nod to Urbanmatz from sheer design standpoint.

The materials are occasionally slightly different. Urbanmatz for instance has a minor sheen to it when you're folding it (though not visible when gaming) so the material is slightly different than Deep Cut which is super matte finish. Some companies put large company logos in the corner, some don't. Urbanmatz doesn't that I can think of, and Deep Cut has a small simple logo in the corner - nothing obnoxious. I've seen a few companies online put a friggin 3"x3" logo stamp in the corner which is crap.

You can't go wrong with any of the three main ones discussed above. There are other manufacturers - one that I'd like to try is PWorks, but their art is suppperrrr hit or miss and I don't have any personal experience with them. Kraken Wargames(?) did a Kickstarter for some pretty nice, albeit comic/shade cell looking mats. I think Kraken is from Germany - never seen any of their stuff in the flesh.

PS: Deep Cut is also willing to customize mats for an added cost - they'll even take a design you provide and print it (but that gets super pricey). They're the only ones I know who will print hexes, squares, patterns, grids, etc. They even removed from graphic elements from one of their normal mats when my friend ordered one (she didn't like the lettering on the space ship one and they removed that layer). It cost her an additional $15 or something because it was custom.

I have a mat coming from DeepCut arriving Friday hopefully.

I went for the Urban Wasteland, as it was nice and generic.But honestly out of the deepcut/gamemat/pwork I just based my choice mainly on what design I preferred over anything else, and the Urban Wasteland design that DeepCut do, to me was my favourite.