The Grass is Always Greener...

For a very long time, since the 1980s in fact, I have used those grass rolls of the sort Games Workshop sold.  On top of this I would duly place my terrain and most importantly, the two large polystyrene hills which seemed to focus in so many of my battles.

This sufficed for a very long time and I never really thought about the drawbacks until about 2 years ago when I started playing a lot more regular games.  Suddenly scenarios were having to be adapted to take account of my hills.

The solution became clear after some web-browsing.  A large fabric grass mat!  This would allow me to create hills of any shape and size and wow! some of these mats looked fantastic.

So it had to be done.  I debated it for a year, shopped around, looked about,became distracted by other things and then returned to the website where I first went 'WOW!'

I purchased this Warmat from Barrage Miniatures in Spain.  I ordered the very handy duffle bag (and I would recommend getting the duffle bag as it keeps it very nicely tucked away and thus dust free!).

The link is here: http://www.barrageminiatures.com/en/12-warmats

Hopefully that link works!  I found ordering very straight forward, and I was very impressed by the continuous contact that Clara from Barrage Miniatues maintained with me to ascertain which scale of figures I wanted to use, which season the grass was to be and if I had any other special requirements.

I opted for a Spring/Summer for 28mm and wanted various shades and lengths to add interest.  Clara sent photos of the work at various stages until it was ready and informed me when it was being despatched.

My photos probably haven't done justice to the mat, as I used various lights and flash photography in my usual amateurish way with cameras and lighting!

I purposely went for a larger mat than my table currently is.  This is with the ever-optimistic view that I might one day move house and get a bigger gaming room.  Having lived here at this address for 22 years now, it might not be happening soon, but who knows.  At least I have the option.

I note that the website also has a snow mat and a desert mat too.  Yes, they both do interest me, especially the desert mat, and after buying this grass mat I would happily buy another from them.

I consider this mat to be a worthwhile investment. Ok it wasn't cheap but then quality rarely is, like most things in life.  I don't have to buy any more polystyrene hills though - so that's a saving, an old jumper shaped beneath the mat and I have a wonderful piece of high ground.

A few more pics to show the varying shades of colour.  More terrain blog posts to follow! :-)