Playmat Ideas?

By Hida77, in Warhammer: Diskwars

Hey all, was wondering what ideas you all had about what would make good playmats/playspaces for this game. Obviously you will likely want a 3'x3' square at the minimum so that you dont have to measure it out every time.

My ideas:

1. Custom Vinyl mat w/custom image. A lot of people use these for X-Wing and they look very nice and are very durable. They tend to be a bite more expensive than other options, but you can usually get whatever image you want, so Im sure theres a bunch of 'field'/'warzone'-type images to use. My only concern with this is that the disks will likely slide a bit on these, which is not as much of a problem with X-Wing (since the models are on stands in that game).

2. Green/Brown/whatever felt cut to size. This is obviously the cheapest option, since you can pretty easily get this for <$5 /yard ( a bit more expensive for nicer felt) and you likely wont need more than 2 yards if that. If you want to get fancy you can further add a non-slip coating to the bottom pretty easily. I expect flipping the disks would be easiest on this since most felt will 'grab' the cardboard a little bit, which should make flipping easier/less error-prone Not as durable, but as said, much cheaper so it may not matter. Unless you find something with an image (pretty unlikely) or have it printed yourself (expensive) will likely just be plain-jane color of your choice and nothing more.

3. Painted Wood/other semi-hard material. Also cheap, but generally a bit more expensive than the felt idea. The image on the wood is whatever you can paint, so is as good/bad as you are at painting. Can be cut to the correct size and is pretty durable, especially once painted, but can be a hassle to transport since its is heavy even if you cut it into sections and awkwardly large AND heavy if you don't. Also, I expect you would have slippage of the disks here as well, since most paint doesnt grip very well.

Any one have other ideas/example pics?

I am leaning towards the felt option myself since my wife is good at sewing and would gladly stitch the edges of it for strength and could attach the non-slip stuff to the bottom for me. I think this would work for now, but am spoiled by the nice vinyl mats I have to x-wing, was wondering if I could get nice/looking AND functional somehow.

FWIW, and it may be more than you're looking to spend, but I'm currently considering picking up a GripMat from the kickstarter that ends this week (I like the green fields one for this game):

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bfrgames/gripmat-get-a-grip-on-your-game

They are currently consulting with their printer to see if they can do double-sided and/or single piece 36"x36" mats. If they can, I'm definitely picking one up--green hills for Warhammer on one side, space image for X-wing/Eclipse/etc on the other side will make it a great value.

FWIW, and it may be more than you're looking to spend, but I'm currently considering picking up a GripMat from the kickstarter that ends this week (I like the green fields one for this game):

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bfrgames/gripmat-get-a-grip-on-your-game

They are currently consulting with their printer to see if they can do double-sided and/or single piece 36"x36" mats. If they can, I'm definitely picking one up--green hills for Warhammer on one side, space image for X-wing/Eclipse/etc on the other side will make it a great value.

Yea, a friend of mine sent me that link shortly after I posted. I also like the green fields, especially because I could see using it for other games as well. It is a little pricey, but probably worth it.

Might order one and go cheap felt for now until it arrives.

I agree it would make sense to have it be hills/stars if it could be reversable. Not as worried about the single piece. That would be nice, but I would live if it were double-sided and two halves.

Another idea I saw on the web was 36" wide Yoga mats. That seems like a good balance potentially. is grippy, color is right if you get a decent shade of green/tan, functional/lightweight. No artwork though.

The Terra-Flex gaming mats from Zuzzy would probably be great to play on:

http://www.zuzzy.com/

I decided to go with felt for now, and Kickstart the gripmats (Green field). I decided that for now felt will work and that I could use the gripmat for a few other games once I got it so it would be worth it. Also, when you factor in shipping the gripmat is not much more expensive than the GF9 mats I have for X-Wing.

Well I ultimately caved and participated in the Kickstarter for an eventual Green field mat--already have a nice space mat for X-wing anyway, and figure that the back of the Gripmat can be used for other games as well despite being blank.

FWIW I was able to find a 3 foot by 3 foot piece of black felt from Michaels for a little over 3 bucks.

Yep, that's what I did, felt from Hobby Lobby for the win! Looks great on the table too. :-)

The Kickstarter thing looked great but I couldn't justify the extra $20 for EU shipping. Hope they do well and go with an EU distributor or licence the patent out to someone over here......... Soooooon! ;)

Green felt, or unflocked green....stuff. For aquatic battles go blue, and kill two birds with one stone for preparing for Sails of Glory!

I'm just going to use my GW green battlefield mat. I haven't been able to use that since I stopped playing miniature games. I'm excited to be able to use it again.

I'm currently using my Galeforce Nine X-wing vinyl mat :D

It's the right side and I'm turning it over so all my battle are eh.... in the snow!

I'm hoping that GF9 brings out green mats though..

I had a piec of blue carpet in the basement that i have cut to size.

i would have liked a green one, but blue actually makes a real nice contrast to the disks.

Works extremely well.

I know that one of the draw backs to using a Grip mat before is that it would come in two pieces. I am happy to say that Break From Reality Games has resolved this issue and they now have a 36" x 36" (3' x 3') option for mat size.

They will be bringing their pledge manager online later this month and in their newest update they gave an email address to contact if you would like to be added to their pledge manager in order to buy their products. The link to their newest update containing the information I referenced is below:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bfrgames/gripmat-get-a-grip-on-your-game/posts/774816?at=BAh7CDoMcG9zdF9pZGkDoNILSSIIdWlkBjoGRVRpA9FHZUkiC2V4cGlyeQY7BlRJIhgyMDE0LTA0LTEzIDA3OjU3OjUxBjsGVA%3D%3D--be70a1cf6b70b2bfd0ab87bd154f2d2791ba498d&ref=backer_project_update

I plan on ordering one or two. Hope this helps!

I might order a mat or two from the Grip-Mat when able to. I have heard bad things about Zuzzy, their absolute lack of contact information and not responding to emails as well as long ship times with no tracking numbers or anything of the sort makes me wary of wanting to do business with them. That said, I do need to find people to play in my area, granted, upside is that I haven't run into any extremely 'competitive' dual blood thirster/sun dragon lists or anything like that. Though the prospect has made me consider getting a second core box, will probably wait until after I get the two expansions and see what they introduce before I decide to get a second of each box.