Saturday, February 27, 2021

More Gaming Mats

After I got the naval gaming mats from TABLEWAR, I kept looking at their other mats to see which others I would want to add to my collection. I really like the mouse pad material mats and TABLEWAR has a 10% discount for returning customers, in addition to discounts for other occasional sales, making it a little easier to keep going back. Last year I picked up a couple Grassy Plain mats that we used in the Philippines game and over the past few months I've rounded out my collection with a couple Desert Planet mats and a Space mat. 

I tried to take some overview photos of the desert mats, but they didn't turn out very well due to lighting, so check the link above for a larger view. But I did get a few close up photos with some World War II North Africa tanks.

A couple early war 15mm British tanks

A work in progress 15mm Panzer III

The mat color is a more rocky desert color than sandy desert (a little more orange than sand), but they should look fine for any game. I've been thinking about doing some What a Tanker North Africa games and these mats will be perfect for that. 

I like the look of the space mat too. I only got one of these, since I don't really expect to be doing large space battles. The overview photo for this mat turned out okay, but the nebula colors are more vivid in person. My Galactic Knights ships look good against the background.

Full space mat

A few ships traveling past the nebula

When I ordered the space mat I also picked up a GEO mat with a 1.5 inch hex grid. I went the the white grid line since I expect I will primarily use it with the space mat, but it does work with the other mats too. The GEO mat is a transparent mat with the hexes printed on it. Here is how it looks with the space mat.

Medium size view of the hex grid

A closer view with a couple ships

The GEO mat is plastic, so it does cause a little glare. But nothing too bad. Here is how it looks with the desert mat. 

Desert hexes
And with the ocean mat.
You can see the glare a little more in this photo

Another shot with some 1/6000 scale ships

The GEM mat provides a little more flexibility for gaming, allowing me to play rules that have hexes without too much extra effort. 

One drawback is that the GEO mat didn't flatten out as much as the other mats, which causes a few 'waves' on the surface. So I may need to get some clamps to hold it flat. I also rolled it up with the space mat to see if that would help flatten it. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my mat collection. I can do sea, land (desert and green), air (using any of the ocean or land mats), and space games. 

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