"DIY wargame mat size suggestions please? " Topic

hello folks!

soon I am going to mkae my own wargaming mat using the canvas and caulk method as others have done. my main goal for doing this is to have an unique mat, and also one big enough to do an 8 x 5 game easily and also bigger. i know i could just buy 2 4x6 mats nut i'd rather just have one peice.

i want to be able to put hills UNDER the mat, so i'm wondering from folks who do that, how extra big should a mat be? do hills under the mat (say that they are 2 – 3" high) take more roam? I was planning on making 2 mats, one 7x5 (to be used for a 6x4 table with hills under) and an 9x6 (for a 8x5 table). think that would be big enough?

i figure for 28mm i might still make some hills that sit on top, but cover with the same materials so that it blends in well. and for ACW gaming which requires a lot of different hill configurations that it's not practical to do all of them, i'll put the hills under the table.

-Stew

Your sizes will be plenty big. Unless you have tons and tons of hills they don't "shrink" the mat by more than an inch or two….

Pick the biggest size you think you'll ever want, and go with that, instead of having regrets later.

I went with 6' x 12' for my desert hexmat I made for aerial gaming.

cool. some of the RFF scenarios have a LOT of hills though so I was concerned. For example, i really want to one day put on the little round top scenario from the RFF rule book

-Stewart

I probably have six inches of extra "fields" (the cloth overhang is even larger) on all sides and have never had a problem. My table is 6x8. One foot of extra space should be plenty.

Yup, one foot will be ample, but make your loth as long as you reasonably can like 24 foot. For one thing, if it lies on the table top double thickness it will give your hills a better shape. Alternatively, having your hill shapes sandwiched between two layers of the cloth will make them less mobile, though personally I've never had an issue with that, I am aware of those who have. I'd also suggest using a think and heavily textured cloth – felt/baize/whatever.
Also, sooner or later you may (will) want to borrow a hall an a mass of tables to have a big, big, big game. having a huge cloth of the same colours helps a lot.

I made a 7x5 for a 6x4 table and it worked really well. I have plenty of extra cloth, even with several hills underneath. They don't really shrink the size much, but given that tables are a little bigger than 6x4, it is nice to have the overhang.

Good luck!

great feedback, thank you guys.

i just realized that my standard table will actually be 5 x 6 (two folding tables put together) so it sounds good to do 1 extra foot all around, 6x7 for my smaller mat, and keep 6 x 9 for the bigger one (to cover a 5 x 8 table). i personally don't like tables much wider than 5ft, so with the width constant i could put the two together for any super long table that i'll probably never need.

i'm planning on using a painters drop cloth. it has a texture and is pretty heavy. I also have some think moving blankets (the kind you wrap over furniture) that i plan to put over the hills and under the textured mat to help with the shape.

-Stewart

Check out HOTZ Mats, I like the European field mat myself.

link