So, FFG released a presser about the three skirmish maps being available as pre-printed mats, but they aren't even in development. Was this just an early April Fool's joke, or did they pull the trigger way early? Usually when they make announcements, those products at least show up on the upcoming page....

This came up in the In-Flight Q&A. Apparently they got ahead of themselves and were too busy producing stuff for GenCon. They are still coming.

They're on pre-order at Miniature Market, although I can't speak about why the FFG store page doesn't have them.

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults?q=imperial+assault+maps

Can they sell them on their site? I would think that everything related to Imperial Assault would be off limits for them to sell.

-ryanjamal

My FLGS just said they got my reserved ones in stock last night. I'm planning on picking them up at a summer tourney event I'm attending there on Monday.

It's times like this that having FFG be your FLGS comes in super handy. I had a set a week after the announcement. The guys from MN at GenCon were all expecting everyone to have them. We were surprised.

Yeah, my FLGS just got them in yesterday, I'm picking them up tonight.

Looks like some stores have this available in the UK

Yeah, my FLGS just got them in yesterday, I'm picking them up tonight.

Any pics or impressions?

They are super nice.

The War Store is currently selling them online.

This baffles me. I have store credit at Coolstuffinc, but they list them as " Expected Release: To be announced. Date subject to change." gggrrrrrr

I was at MY FLGS in Portland, OR, yesterday and they had them all on stock. They look pretty cool.

Picked mine up and played on someone else's tonight. They're very nice! I'll need to do a side by side with the FFG X-Wing mat I have, but they feel like they're of comparable quality.

Having gotten mine in the mail last week from The War Store, I can confirm that they do indeed exist.

I haven't handled the X-Wing mats, so I can't compare directly, but here are some highlights;

-Mats are roughly 26" square

-Made of thin mouse pad material

-Terrain features are bold and obvious, individual squares are a little harder to see

-Each break in a map tile is clearly bolded with a white line; no jigsaw pieces

-Each mat contains a small setup guide

-The included mission cards look to be made from the same quality as FFG's Print on Demand cards

-You can almost roll all 3 up together tightly and fit them in one of the tubes they come with

-You can now go to a premiere event and not have to worry about losing your tiles

If anyone is interested I did a brief review of them for the channel while I was waiting for the others to arrive Friday:

I finally got my set yesterday, just in time for the local tournament next week. Haven't played on them yet, but they look good. Same material as the X-wing mats.

I finally got my set yesterday, just in time for the local tournament next week. Haven't played on them yet, but they look good. Same material as the X-wing mats.

I too finally got mine and the end of last week.

I finally got to play on the one map I bought to try them out. It was a blast. Really nice to play on, and helped keep stuff clean on the table. It was the Nelvaarian Warzone (or whatever it is called) and my only gripes were: It was occasionally a little hard to spot the water tiles from the normal (ice) tiles. The white lines between the puzzle pieces were a little thick, considering how rarely they are used, they didn't have to be that visible. Overall a 9-10/10 experience.

I won one at NOVA Open but we still can't get them in Canada, I expect Lion Rampant messed up again as that is just my go to state for them now...

Kris

Question - Are the skirmish cards included with these play mats exclusive to the play mat or are they found elsewhere?

AFAIK they are the same two skirmish mission cards you use with the corresponding map. What would be the point to include them otherwise? (You need to have the mission cards.)

AFAIK they are the same two skirmish mission cards you use with the corresponding map. What would be the point to include them otherwise? (You need to have the mission cards.)

Can confirm this is the case

AFAIK they are the same two skirmish mission cards you use with the corresponding map. What would be the point to include them otherwise? (You need to have the mission cards.)

Correct, they are duplicates -- though the print and material seem a little strange.

Correct, they are duplicates -- though the print and material seem a little strange.

The mission cards are more than likely done through FFG's Print on Demand process, which is used for some small card expansions to their games, as well as many of their promo alt-art cards they give out at tournaments.

The print quality is different than what would normally make it into a "boxed" game.