Sea Mat

Buying a gaming mat these days leads to quite a few rabbit holes, due to the vast amount of options currently available. Used to be one bought some felt at the local fabric store, then that permeated into buying Geohex mats, then Geohex terrain pieces, and that covered the gaming needs for a number of years. But more recently one can buy mats on fleece or mousepad material or PVC, beautifully printed. One could also use various sign making companies and upload an image for the company then to produce a mat printed on banner material. Then, does one want hexes or no? All sorts of decisions to be made.

To use with my Figurehead Great War ships, mounted on Warbases custom bases, for the Coronel and Falklands scenarios, I spent a few hours weighing options at various online retailers. Cost would be a primary factor as I did not want to spend too much on a mat, but still wanted to have a nice looking and functional surface. To that end I went with a PVC mat from Deep Cut Studio.  

I placed my order on a Sunday afternoon (U.S. time). The website is easy to use. Find the mat you want, pick a material, pick a size, add to cart, and checkout with PayPal or a credit card. My 6' by 4' mat was $72.00 which included included overseas shipping.

I received my mat on January 24th, the Friday following my order. During the process I received updates about shipping with a FedEx tracking number. A Sunday to Friday turnaround time is really amazingly fast from Europe to the United States! The mat came in a long tube, which I should be able to use when the mat is being stored.

I am very happy with how the mat looks with my Warbases custom blue bases. Now, time to determine rules and to host this game at a local shop!

Coronel and Falklands Ships - Based and Ready

Using tacky glue I have been able to base the various ships for the Coronel and Falklands battles. I am just waiting for my Deep Cut Studio mat to arrive to see how well these blue tinted bases from Warbases will look on the gaming table. I am really looking forward to running some games with these little beauties!

Basing

It is time to get these Figurehead ships for Coronel and the Falklands (picked up from Tiny Tin Troops) on their newly acquired bases! I recently received my custom bases from Warbases, each base etched with the name of the ship. Should make it easy for players to know which ship is which, while not being as intrusive as a print out of the name. The blue color of the base will blend nicely with the gaming mat as well. 

Now, next quest, to find a glue that will not cause any hazing or smoking of the base itself, just in case I get a little glue beyond the miniature itself!

And the other next quest, a nice sea mat to game on!

UPDATE - Per the suggestion of some on a gaming forum, I've tried some tacky glue on the Scharnhorst to see if it will hold decently enough for game play. Checking it after a night of drying, the ship is firmly in place. Thus, the basing glue conundrum has been solved.