I recently bought a gaming mat from Deep Cut Studios, which has a printed grass pattern on it. I tried one of these out in a game some time ago and felt that they were quite practical and decided to get one of my own. I bought a carrying bag to go with the mat, but when I received them I realized that the mat actually comes in a plastic bag of its own, which is quite good for transport in itself. The transport bag does have carrying handles and is black, while the plastic bag the mat is delivered in is transparent. The mat is somewhat expensive at just over €100. However, it has many advantages, especially for improvised games or when one just wants to quickly photograph some figures. The mat lies very flat on a table and has very little “memory” after having been rolled up. It is very easy to handle and light-weight when carried around.
A difficult thing about these mats, just like anything else ordered online really, is that it is not easy to know exactly what you are going to get. In this case, it was the color and pattern of the print I was worried about. So I took out a Russian brigade to see how the bases matched the mat. This was of course also a good excuse to take some nice photos of figures, even though I havent painted much lately!
It does look good, although it is a little bit darker than the bases of my figures. As you can probably tell from the photos, the mat reflects the light in a different way than the figures, so that it will look darker from some angles and less so from others. If you look very closely, you can see the print “pixels”, as it were.
However, on the whole the mat is great and a good deal more practical than flocked boards (assuming you have an appropriate table for it). The mat measures 120×180 cms (4×6 feet). DCS offer several versions in various materials; mine is made out of neoprene (“mousepad” material, although quite thin). I also chose stitched edges, which may have been a mistake (the stitching makes for a clear black edging and may be a problem if you ever want to combine two mats for a larger gaming surface…).
Looks great!
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