Battle mats

Over the past few months I have been lucky enough to get a few games in, 4 in total, one of which I have already posted and the next few will be posted over the coming weeks as I get around to writing them up. Over the course of these games I have come around to a conclusion, namely that I really need to get so proper terrain and a mat. The reason for this is quite simple, it looks so much better!

The first game I played a few weeks, possibly months, back was played on the bare table with whatever bits and pieces could be scratched together for scenery (including my apple that I had to snack on!) and while it did not detract from the game too much, it just looked silly. Over the course of the next few games, more scenery appeared and a member of the club also received some battle mats from a Kickstarter that he had funded a while back.

The first game in question, not apples on the left, with a few boxes and dead knights littering the field acting as terrain. It played out fine, with few issues, but it wasn't very good to look at and looks very amateurish in the pictures.

The next game was better, having some proper buildings and a few bits of terrain that belonged to one of the other club members. It was still quite sparse but looks more like a proper battle field, but the table still makes the scene look unrealistic.

The next battle was a big difference. Proper buildings and a good looking base, even if it was a piece of fabric. The building are simple MDF type jobs and even though there are not many of them, they really make a difference. The scene looks like a real battle, granted if it was a more city like mat it would look even better with the building, but as it stands it still looks good. It also made the game a little more tactical, offering more then just basic line of sight blocking terrain, as depending upon what level you were on, depended upon what was line of sight blocking and what wasn't. It also caused me no end of problems with my flyers!

The last game was played on a battle mat with some Mantic Deadzone terrain. While there was not as much terrain as in the previous game, it worked well, and was more in keeping with the mat I thought. While in reality it made little difference to the actual game, the overall feel of the game and the image that it provided was really good. Personally I could really feel myself getting in to the sprit of the game, with all the Nids rushing across the jungle/swamp though the old ruined and rusty buildings. It just seems to make the game that much more enjoyable for some reason.

So, my mission is to try and find a battle mat or 2 and some good terrain. I have been looking at a few options for mats, which I might put up in a different post, and have found some MDF terrain on eBay I like the look of and I have an idea for some jungle like foliage, which I'll post up along side the mats options at a later date. This is definatly something that I thing I need to make a priority, as it really does make a difference. 

For anyone that's interested, these are the battle mats that were from the kickstarter, Kraken Wargames.