Review – Cigar Box Battle Plush Gaming Mats

Rating:

Cigar Box Battle produce a number of different styles of terrain mat (we interviewed Chris Ward and Cory Ring from the company in Episode 221 of the Podcast)

One of the newest products they produce is the PLUSH fabric gaming mat. This was developed due to the rise in popularity of using ‘Teddy Bear Fur’ mats for gaming – the PLUSH finish provides a deeper texture/pile on the gaming mat – it’s it not as long as ‘standard’ Teddy Bear Fur, but enough to provide a grass texture on the mat.

This review is looking at one of the Double-Sided PLUSH terrain mats that Cigar Box Battle will only be producing using a special kickstarter campaign, which is running until Friday 1st September. More details can be found here.

The first side of the mat is #410 New Grasslands design.

The other side is #240 Mixed Ground

Both sides of the mat have a beautiful colour range with very natural-looking blended areas where colour transition occurs.

There is no sign of any colour bleed between the two sides of the mat

As I mentioned above, the ‘pile’ of the fleece fabric is only a few millimetres in depth, but is more than adequate to create a very good ‘rough’ texture when required – in the following photos the same piece of fabric is shown both smooth and rough.

The edges of the mat are well finished, so fraying or tearing of the edges should not be an issue.

Whilst the fabric is heavy enough to sit well over any materials you want to use to create contours, and measures around 60″ x 80″ so that it will easily cover a 6′ x 4′ board, it is also light enough to easily fold and wrap up small enough to pack into a small rucksack or carrier bag.

The all important question – what do they look like with miniatures on them? Very good indeed…

In short, the PLUSH terrain mats from Cigar Box Battle are the best mats I have ever seen. Whilst they are not suitable for every occasion – I can’t convince myself that a textured space mat would look right! – this is the exception as opposed to the rule. There is no doubt the they are at the high end of the gaming mat price range, but it is very much the case that you are purchasing a premium product.

I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Cigar Box Battle provided a sample of this product for review purposes.