Battle Mats

[Hellefire]

shipping

Yeah shipping prices are insane . I was born in Anchorage, but just because my parents were visiting for the Iditarod. I grew up in Seward. Where ya at in the U.K.? And why? Helle, jsut email me at aaronblairak@yahoo.co.uk...would be nice to talk to someone else from home.

Going to keep checking on options for the next few days before I make any hasty decisions. Great tips guys, keep it up!

Aaron

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I live in Australia and also have to deal with the high shipping cost problem. I bought my wet-erase battle mat directly from Crystal Caste a few years ago. I can't remember what the shipping was but I didn't find it too unreasonable at the time. It is squares on one side, hexes on the other so it fits your requirements.

I would check out their website. If you have any questions send them an e-mail and they should be able to answer your questions (and pretty quickly too).

On a side note, I was looking at picking up some Tac-Tiles. Unfortunately the shipping costs for them are almost as high as the product itself. Damn Australia for being so far away from everything else!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I was going to suggest that you make your own (by drawing on a large piece of paper - as large as you can find in polish office furnishings store - and having it plastified/laminated, thus making it an ideal surface for dry-erase markers) but I realize that drawing hexes is going to be a discomfort in the donkey.

You could always print out hexes on normal paper, scotch-tape the printed sheets of paper together up to the desired size, draw squares on the other side, and have that laminated/plastified.

I found some hexes:
http://www.math.usu.edu/~powell/disease-html/hexes.gif
http://www.smileylich.com/sfb/other/matt_brock/rules/hexwhite.gif
http://www.gamebooks.org/scans/Fatemaster/fatehex.gif
http://www.gamebooks.org/scans/Fatemaster/fatehexenh.gif

I'm not sure they're of the right size, but you can always print one out and adjust the size by photocopying the sheet.

Once it's all done, you'll have a cheap (lamination will cost you about 15$, I'd guess), rollable, dry-erasable, reversible, home-made battle map.

To avoid that the map stays rolled up, I'd store it flat, though...

AR

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Have you considered a FlipMat (by Steel Sqwire)? They've got both sides done--one in hexes, one in one-inch grid. Since it folds to regular US paper size (8.5 x 11), it should be less costly to ship.

I have to run, but I can post the URL later.

 

[The_Universe]

Have you considered a FlipMat (by Steel Sqwire)? They've got both sides done--one in hexes, one in one-inch grid. Since it folds to regular US paper size (8.5 x 11), it should be less costly to ship.

I have to run, but I can post the URL later.

Flipmats are available here, and I can't recommend them enough. I've laminated a home-made grid with contact paper, made my own dry-erase grid with a big white-board, used wet-erase mats from both Chessex and Crystal Caste, used dry-erase tact-tiles, and just picked up a flip-mat from steel sqwire at gen con. Thus far, the flipmat is my favorite!

At only ten dollars, its competitively priced with even my home-made options, and it's easily the most portable of the things I've used (since it folds up to the size of a normal sheel of 8.5x11 paper). Although not as modular as tact-tiles, the flipmat offers both hexes and squares, and is incredibly versatile, and enormously hard to screw up. Unlike your other options, you can use dry erase, wet erase, and PERMANENT markers on the flipmat without damaging it - it's amazing!

In short, I've been extremely impressed with the product thus far, and I fully expect it to become my "go to" gaming surface.

 

[blargney the second]

I can't help with the hexes, but I've got a great cheap solution for squares! The big pads of paper with 1" grids that you can buy at an office store for $10-$12. The best part is keeping them after to re-use at a later date, which you can't do with erasable mats. You can also laminate or put one under plexi-glass to alter on the fly and avoid wasting paper.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Flipmats are available here

That does indeed sound like the best product so far...

How do the fold creases hold up after several uses? is there a chance that the whole thing will fall apart?

AR

 

[Festivus]

You can also go to an automotive upholstry or marine upholstry shop and get a sheet of the vinyl cut to size, then measure out and draw a grid for yourself. I made two mats, each roughly 30x48 inches for about $15(us).

The only problem is drawing the grid with a pemanent marker gets really tedious after a while.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Flipmats are available here

Thanks for posting the link, The_Universe. FlipMats are great!

 

[Hellefire]

Flipmat

Those look pretty good. Due to fellow gamer recommendations, I think I'll give them a shot (going to order 2 and see how well they work together). I also like to reward people being inventive and entreupenuerial (sp?/is that a word?).

Home ideas for making mat - really good ideas - mostly for the states though. I'm glad you posted them, for people who want to try making their own and have access to those supplies/stores. I can't emphasize enough how much we take things for granted. There are things that are laminated here, and that use vinyl, however they are all industrial type, very specific to what they are used for. For a private person to waltz in with a custom idea would have about a 1% chance of success I'd guess. Hard to explain the cultural differences, but there is an entirely different mentality here.

Also, some products we take for granted in the states are not sold in Poland (or sometimes Europe). For example, a friend begged me to bring her some 3-holed paper from the states. You can buy a hole punch here and make your own, but they don't sell pre-holed paper here, anywhere. They got Mt. Dew 3 or 4 years ago. They got Reese's like a year ago with WalMart in Berlin (disclaimer - might have been earlier, was the first I found it). And, as far as I know, U.S. Military bases are still the only place in Europe to find Ranch Dressing.

And lastly - I am, how do I put this, NOT artistic. Well, I wrote poetry, and stories for Ceramic DM, and act. But in the visual art drawing-painting-trying to make a straight line type sense, I can't draw a straight line with a ruler.

All that being said, I am going to order some flipmats, and will report on them, BUT please write about other do-it-yourself ideas you have. They will help other people, and I might just set aside a week and a few hundred dollars trying to make my own with straight lines next time I make it to the states.

Thanks again for all the input!

Aaron