"Foldable Mats?" Topic

I'm soliciting suggestions. Trying to get each 2mm pair of armies in a courier bag. The one holding my ACW is 14"x10"x4" and holds troops, terrain, rules, markers, dice and measuring instruments. (Scenarios will be added.) But my worst troubles right now are playing surfaces. I need grass or desert tan, roughly 24" square--ECW slightly longer: long story--and capable of being folded up in one of those bags for months or years and being unfolded flat. So far, my best options have been grass paper from a model railroad shop, green or tan felt, and cut-up remains of an old Geo-Hex mat. Working on painting or dying some tough paper used for packing.

Are there other, better options out there? How about if I spend more money?

Thanks.

Cigar Box Battle Mats are a fleece that can fold and lay flat without wrinkles. They come in 3x3' and 6x4'+. Cut down to size easily with no fraying.

For smaller mats, I buy the 6x4+ and cut out smaller ones in various sizes. I've also used the leftover scraps to cover foam hills for scatter terrain.

Deep Cut Studios. Their cloth mat folds nicely. The wrinkles from the folds all but disappear over the course of a game.

You could just try crumpling up cloth squares. Crumpled cloth laid out looks much better than folded cloth. One of my pals scrumples all his cloths. I fold mine and worry about the creases later.

My experience with the Deep Cuts mats is that the folds stay forever. If you line them up carefully you can fold them into 12" squares, the resulting creases are handy for lining up terrain…

Bob,

I would second miniMo's recommendation of Cigar Box -- link

I have a number of them and have never had a problem with the fold lines.

Jim

8"x12" (or so) pieces of cloth/felt. Just lay them out to make the size of BF you need. Overlap the edges onto each other so that they stay down. No need to fold, just stack them flat again when you are done. You can also have pieces to represent forests and hills (just lay'em on top!)
Experiment with some scrap cloth first to see if it works for you.

(Dang, I just gave away a new terrain business idea… ;-)

Hie thee to JoAnn's before they close completely and buy a length of Blizzard brand "Tie-Dye Brown" fleece:

All good ideas. Thank you very much.