"A look at a Cigar Box Battle Mat in Action~!" Topic

Just had an awesome game of Battlegroup using my recently acquired Cigar Box mats. This is the Europe I mat in all its glory.

Cigar Box Layout Demo
Lots more pics and a write-up.

I should be posting video reviews of the Europe I and II mats soon.

Kurtus

I saw a few Saturday at the SYW Con; they are very nice. I'm thinking about picking one or two up for myself.

I am loving them so far. More versatile than you may think to. Well worth it.

Kurtus

I added the hedges, trees, a couple felt fields, etc. They are just loose atop the mat. The mat is very versatile in fact. You can add terrain atop it as much as you like to change it up. The great thing however (besides the textures already in place on the mat) is that you can add hills and elevations under the cloth mat itself! Elevations are much more natural looking (and can be quite big if you wish).

This one is nice. Actually only the Waterloo one I found not so.

Very useful write-up, because I had wondered about using terrain under the mat while still having overhang. Did you pin the mat to the table underneath or anything? I had once seen a layout where the gamer put those rubber tiles on top of the table, then the mat over the rubber tiles with hills underneath, then pinned the overhanging sides of the mat to the rubber tiles underneath.

I own the Europe, Town Square, Desert, WWI No Man's Land and Winter mats. Spectacular!

This was my first go at laying the mat over top hills and such. What I did was use some Geo-Hex foam pieces, as well as some foam hills I already made placed underneath. I started on one of the short sides and began to un-fold the mat over top, making sure to cover the terrain underneath properly. I didn't have to pin anything. However, I can deff. see pinning it some way as being very useful.

There was still lots of over-hang on all sides, I could have added even more height if I wanted. Quite impressed with that fact as I used quite a bit underneath for elevation. Also, note that the "logo" still is on an overhang and can't be seen; that is a concern some have.

Here is a video I just threw together showing of the lay-out above.

Short Video on the Europe I mat layout

Thanks for that video.

Welcome. Hope it helps.

The roads look wider than I thought they would be. Is this the 25mm or 15mm scaled mat? Regards Alan

These are the 25mm scale mats. The only difference between the 15mm and 25mm versions are the road widths. I prefer the 3" wide 25mm widths for my 15mm gaming (they look about right for what I am use to). Their 15mm version of the mat have the roads too narrow for me (1"??? I believe).

Kurtus

I was looking to purchase about 20 mats for Little Wars, to be used for tournament support and open gaming, but they have yet to respond to my email to them, That was maybe two weeks ago.

Monger, while I like the 25mm versions as well, would the 15mm of these mats work well for gaming where dirt tracks was more appropriate like ancients/medieval battles?

@lasalle012:
Not sure why they haven't gotten back to you. They are a small operation I believe. Hmm… I would email them again. I have never had any issues with their service.

@Rwphillipsstl:
Yes. The dirt tracks on the Europe series of maps are just that: dirt tracks. No sign of modern tech. anywhere on the maps (as far as I can tell). Again, the only difference between the 25mm and 15mm maps is the width of the tracks. 1" would be fine to represent roads or tracks in the ancients/Med/renn period.

I intend to get a couple more of their mats to go along with the Europe I & II mats. I want to use them not only for my WW II battles, but also my AWI and ECW. The Europe II mat (which has fewer fields) I def. will use with Ancients.

Here is a pic of the Europe II mat. Don't mind the creases; they are an easy fix from my experience (fresh out of the bag! I might add):