Sponsor Spotlight : GameMat.eu

The countdown has started, and the War Kings GT is just a couple of days over two months away.  Welcome to the first of (hopefully) many Sponsor Spotlights! Things are moving along, and we have received a package from the first of our sponsors - gamemat.eu.

Gamemat.eu is based in the Czech Republic, and makes neoprene battle mats and resin terrain for wargaming.  They actually have a couple of baby play mats as well :-).

I had heard of gamemat.eu when I was looking at getting some battle mats to use for my demos, however I did not physically see any of their product until I played on their mats (and won one of them) last year at SlaughterFest, held near Cleveland OH.

Their battle mats are 2mm thick neoprene backed with full color artwork.  They currently have 16 different 6' x 4' designs, although a few of them are definitely more for sci-fi gaming than fantasy (Quarantine Zone and Imperial Base fall into that category) and their Kingdom of Heaven seems a little too specific (looking like an oriental temple).

As a sponsor, they offered us a fantastic deal - two mats for $10 each plus shipping, as well as 10% off coupons for everyone (and we all love stuff in our swag bags).  This really helps our budget, as after the venue, additional gaming mats are the single most expensive item.

Hmmm, the discount code seems to be missing for some reason on my picture.

I picked two more 'generic' fantasy mats ( Battleground and Medieval Town ) to go with the one I had already ( Highlands in War ).

Battleground

Medieval Town

Highlands in War

For our (mine as a Mantic Pathfinder doing demos and tournaments, and the Ohio War Kings putting on their own GT(s)) needs, I am looking at needing quite a few mats (if we sell out then we need 20!), and with a wide variety of patterns. 

Some people (ok, nearly everyone but me) want to be able to have a variety of mats, but aren't able (or interested) in getting a huge collection of these.  Gamemat.eu has a solution there - they now have double sided mats.  These have two different printed designs on them (still backed with the same 2mm neoprene layer) - so you can have both "Highlands in War" and "Forgotten Realm" (though not at the same time :-) ) for your game table - at a great price of $109 each.

Each mat comes their battle bag for storage and transport.

A good bag for your mat is very important.  The full length zipper allowing you to lay your rolled up mat into the bag makes it extremely easy to use - as opposed to a bag that I received with one mat that was only open at one end - forcing you to slide it up the length of the bag (and making it impossible to store the mat neoprene side out (because you couldn't slide the bag over it).  The heavy cloth protects your mat, the straps can fit over your shoulder, and there is a loop at the end that can be used to hang the bag, or to put on an id tag so you can tell which mat is in which bag without unzipping it each time.

To finish off - my own pictures of the actual mats

Highlands in War

This is the mat that I won at Slaughterfest.  The organizers actually drew lines (and a circle) on it to mark all the necessary points for playing Kings of War.  The exact center - and a circle 12" around it.  The center line.  Deployment lines 12" from the center line.  And hash marks on these for breaking the area up into six sections.

To address some immediate concerns that some people may have - yes, it makes it fairly Kings of War specific, but I don't have a problem with that.  Since you can measure AT ANY TIME, it only saves  a bit of time and questioning (is this unit in scoring position or not?)

I like the idea so much I'm thinking about doing it to ALL my mats.

a closeup of the markings

I really like the building kits from 4 Ground, and plan to have a table featuring them - and this mat will fit that perfectly!  So much so that I kind of wish it wasn't for the tournament - it would have looked great at Masters this weekend!

Medieval Town

The last one is their battleground mat, rocks and weeds - a perfect place to crush your enemies and drive them before you, listening to the lamentations of their women as you do so.

Battleground

So a big thank you and shout out to Matous Hlousek and his crew at gamemat.eu.  Please support them (and all our sponsors), as without their support we could not have such a great event.

Because it is all fun and games . . .