Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[scott holder]

I'm doing some research on game mats with an eye toward Hcon and the whole discussion of some type of preset terrain mechanism for tourneys in 08.

Any game mat will need to be very transportable. That means the cool folding boards from Warzone are out. Any game mat needs to be somewhat affordable although at this point, I can't define affordable.

Here's what I've come up with so far in terms of what's available and aimed at miniature wargamers:

http://terrainmat.com/ (cool stuff, costs a fortune)

http://catterrain.tripod.com/ (not in our sizes *but*, somewhat affordable and might be contacted and talked into making a set in our sizes)

http://www.hotzmats.com/index.html (these can be ordered w/o hexes but bottom line, they're still just felt, albeit treated felt, although he says he'll customize orders so if we had two patterns that looked cool....)

http://www.woodlandscenics.com/index.htm (this has real promise--somebody would have to cut it to size--one drawback, width is max 50", so some thought would need to go into how to deal with 8x5 tables)

http://www.mondayknight.com/(these are the successors to GeoHex--they make 4x6 flocked mats in a variety of colors. No 8x5s or 4x4s although I've read elsehwere that they will custom size em for people)

Another intriging option is upholstery vinyl. I've looked online and found a ton of patterns that provide not only a good color but texture. And moving troops around would be a breeze! But, the glossiness could be a visual distraction and might make the whole thing look a little too artificial. Plus, terrain would slide all over the place and I know from year's past, taping terrain down is also a real pain.

Another option is to hit fabric stores and hope we can find a pattern or a series of acceptable patterns, then have em cut and serge the stuff in the sizes we want.

DBA uses indoor/outdoor carpet squares. It works well for DBA but I think that's because of the small mat size. If we did that, it might just look like we've laid indoor/outdoor carpet on tables.

Any other thoughts? Or links to products? Or have you had experience with any of the above? This post isn't so much about DIY at home ideas since we're talking about a lot of mats and no one who's got the time to make them for us. Thus, I'm looking at commercial or services that already have the products or something similar. If we can get this partial step implemented at Hcon, it'll be a big leap for us.

scott

[Terry Dix]

Scott,
Go with the vinyl mats, they look nice and roll up for easy transport.
If you are planning preset terrain you can purchase them in a nice range of colors. I had in a steppe brown for my Bactrians, and in a medium green for my Byzantines, both of which had a matte finish You can use the cuttings for terrain bases aswell. I would think that you could get them for under 15 bucks a mat. If you have robust terrain they wont slide. For felt terrain a small amount of tack gum will keep it in place.