Hello Gents,
As promised, here is a short review of the terrain mat I recently bought from Paolo in Italy.
I have to concede that I am a bit of a nerd regarding game supports. I have owned or still own game felts from Terrain Mat and Mat O War, and I also have the Hexon tiles from Kallistra.
Yet, when I saw Paolo’s ad, I was intrigued by the pics of his products on his website. Given the fairly good prices of his products (okay, you cannot beat the GW grass mat but I am looking for something a bit more sophisticated and diverse than just a grassy area…we don’t fight on golf greens now do we?)
I decided to order a 90x120cm mat and told him that I needed a Mediterranean type of ground, or semi-arid. I am most pleased with the mat I received today.
The support is plain black felt. The gaming surface is coated on the felt, with an edge of 5cm all around, which is very smart. Indeed, my problem with the mat from Terrain Mat was that at the end of each game, I had to get the vacuum cleaner as the mat sheds its flock and sand. That was especially true around the edges of the mat, where very quickly, bald patches of vinyl would appear (IIRC, Terrain Mat uses vinyl or nylon as support). No such thing here. The coating that constitutes the terrain is amazingly resilient and does not shed at all. I can’t say what Paolo uses (it is not latex though) but it is absolutely brilliant.
Another advantage of this product is the combination between a very flexible felt as support and a sufficiently flexible coating that makes the terrain. That means two things:
1. There are no creases. You just roll the mat and store it. Done. That is far less the case for Terrain Mat and Mat-O-War mats, with which, while excellent products, I always struggled to keep them crease-free.
2. You can represent various elevation levels by putting things under the mat. That is something you cannot really do, at least not with the same effect, with the other two products.
Finally, the coating itself seems to be a mix of something similar to Vallejo pumice (or sandy paste), wood chips, fine sand/gravel, and grass flock. The whole thing holds nicely together and I think that it will take a lot to get it to peel off the support. I guess that is where the genius of this product is: the felt absorbs the coating enough to make it solidly anchored on the support.
In summary, if you have the luxury to have a permanent game area, Terrain Mat and of course the Hexon system can do the job nicely. The killer with that breed of mat is when you have to start moving it around. Mat-O-War is heavy-duty stuff and strongly recommended for gamers who move a lot in between conventions/tournaments. However, Paolo’s mats can do it all. It is lightweight, does not crease, does not shed and looks absolutely gorgeous.
Am now going to order a 120x180 grassland.
It is a very welcome addition to the existing terrain mat markets and a very smart product indeed, all that for a very good price.
60 x 60cm 25euros = £20 ?
120 x 60cm 38euros = £31 ?
120x 90 cm 45euros = £37 ?
120 x 180 cm 70euros = £57
More information on
http://pieropablosworld.blogspot.it/ If you wish to see pics of the product, visit the other forum I am active on:
http://wdlovesme.19.forumer.com/ in the wargames section of the forum