Flip mats versus Tact Tiles

[IronWolf]

Heres the funny thing, both of these guys are in my group. I don't know how many battlemaps type devices are too much, but I swear these guys are trying to find out!!

Just in case you decide to run us through a really big Dungeon one day! We'll be prepared! Two sets of Tact-Tiles and two sets of Flip-mats!

 

[Crothian]

Just in case you decide to run us through a really big Dungeon one day! We'll be prepared! Two sets of Tact-Tiles and two sets of Flip-mats!

I have Worlds Largest and I just got Ruins of the Dragonlord.......

I think we're going to need a bigger table

 

[TheGogmagog]

I recall someone from BC posting on this board that transparent Tacti-Tiles were in the works, but that was a while back. That would sure be sweet.

A local machinist sold some lexan with 1" squares lasered into the surface. They chose an odd size, probably because of the size of the lexan raw material. The sheets ended up being about 24" x 15" (about as long as our table is wide). They sold them for $15 apiece, but the machinist who made them isn't going to make anymore. I don't know why.

1) They could handle wet or dry erase (one brand of dry erase left tracks that took some elbow grease to reduce to barely noticable so we threw them away). They said it could handle permanent, but we didn't have the heart to try.

2) They were clear, which made a really neat tripple level effect (only used to set up the scene) when combined with some 1" square pieces of glass. I'll need to set that up again and take a photo of it.

3) They are bullet resistant. ok, that's not really a selling point, but it gives an incredible lively surface to roll dice. That really made them worth it.

They were too big to travel, short of a big art and crafts portfolio. They were also too big to use in a tact-tile fashon across the board (remove the board you have already left to put it infront of the board you are approaching). They could have cut them in half again, which would have solved both of those. They also didn't have an interlocking feature, which I am happy without.

In all they are great if you are running the game at a fixed location. Since they were so large, we put them across the surface of the table and put our books and papers on the edges making moving them cumbersome.

Since they were a local shop and they arn't making them anymore I'm sorry I can't refer you.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

We've got two battlemats and purchased our tact tiles at Gen Con. Last weekend, we played with them for the first time and - like has been said - they erase REALLY easily which is a bit of a pain. However, if you're running a dungeon or a chase scene, or anything combat that will extend forward or backward - there's nothing like tact tiles! You just move the minis up and pull the tiles from the back! TA-DA!

If I planned on having an adventure that happened in a confined space and the PCs were going to stay there for the whole session (or close to the whole session), I think I'd be more inclined to use the battlemat b/c I can draw on it and not worry about messing up a portion of the mat while moving a mini from point A to point B. If I'm doing something that is fluid and ever-changing, I'd go with the tact tiles.

 

[shaylon]

I think we're going to need a bigger table

Man can I guy have a regular size coffee table without his whole game group busting on him constantly about it!

I bought the tact-tiles after the first guy had his because I thought they were cool and no sense in him hauling them when I wanted them.

The flip mat was cheap and portable so I thought it would be a sound purchase. Like Monte said it is easy to take with you, folds down to paper size and weighs nothing.

I am going to go buy a huge table now!

-Shay

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I loves me some Tact-Tiles.

While dry-erase comes off rather easily, it's not a huge problem for me. If, after a long combat, the lines are a little faded in places from base-scratching ... eh.

The utility is just too much to be beat.

I have a vinyl battlemat as well. The only time I've used it since is when I had a large room that would be the set-piece combat of the night ... that way before the game day I could get out all of the colored wet-erase markers and draw up a very detailed map to unfurl.

Another thing I love tact-tiles for is ODD SHAPES ... if somebody gets teleported to a small room somewhere? You can take a tact-tile and set it off on a side-table or something with the mini on it. A little silly, but sort of cool. We used a single tile for the top of the obelisk in the Moathouse of RttToEE, which we held up above the vinyl battlemap I drew for the bottom room. I've used a tile to represent a ship, etc etc.

Only problem with using Tact-Tiles and vinyl maps ... I got absent-minded and drew something in dry-erase on my vinyl map ... DOH ... can't get it off, now.

--fje

 

[IronWolf]

I am going to go buy a huge table now!

Woo Hoo! Can't wait to see it!

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I don't have either but I would love to get the Tact-Tiles. I saw them at GenCon and didn't pick any up, figuring that I could get them on the last day. Sadly they were sold out.

I'll agree that they seem better suited for playing at home rather than lugging them around to conventions, other people's homes, etc.

 

[IronWolf]

I'll agree that they seem better suited for playing at home rather than lugging them around to conventions, other people's homes, etc.

I lugged mine to the game I was DM'ing earlier this year. They are on the heavy side for a battle mat. I used a leather messenger type bag to transport mine in and made sure to use the foam pieces between tiles during transport. They seem to have handled the transport with little issue. Now the house we play at has a set (thanks Shay!), so no need for me to lug mine around.

I also lugged some of mine around at Origins for one day last year where one of our friends was running an open game. That's where the Flip-Mat would have been really, really handy!

 

[der_kluge]

I bought a set of flip-mats at Gen Con, since I needed something to run my Round Robin games on. I was going to buy a set of Tact-Tiles, but I had a dickens of a time trying to find them. I finally did - on Saturday, and by then I'd already found the SteelSqwire ones.

I bought the map, and a set of markers for $11 total, and they both held up very well.

The maps don't fold down all that great at first, so it helps to put some weights on it to get it to lay flat, but that might improve once the creases are worn in a little better. And I noticed a deposit of dry erase powder collecting in some of the folds, but other than that, I was quite pleased with them. Once I was done, I folded them up, and shoved them in my backpack with no worries. They're certainly much lighter than tact-tiles, which is a bonus for convention gaming.