Frontline Gaming made a big splash recently with there one of a kind battle mats. For those of you not familiar with Frontline Gaming battle mats, they are essentially a giant mouse pad with a terrain graphic printed on it. The original battle mat was a grassy field. Nemesis Andy from Judson's NYC crew brought this bad boy down to Cold Wars this year and it was amazing to play on. Back in Alaska my buddy, GI Joe scored a new front line mat at our local convention, AK Battle Brothers, in August. GI Joe opted not to get the grassy mat and instead scored their new city mat.
As I mentioned above Frontline Gaming battle mats are made of the same material as a mouse pad, but are 4'x6' and intended to be used for miniature gaming, not computer gaming. They are a little on the pricy side at $85, but are durable, highly detailed and store easily. Each mat comes with a tag and storage bag so you can ensure your mat stays nice. All you have to do is unroll onto your table, throw out some terrain and your ready to play. Here is an overview of GI Joe's city battle mat loaded down with city terrain.
Without the terrain this is still a great looking product. Just look at all this detail.
A couple sections of the mat are covered with craters.
Like us you are probably wondering what these red lights are. Originally I thought maybe downed street lights, but upon closer examination we realized these are road flares.
Manhole cover.
An industrial elevator maybe? I just covered it up for WW2 gaming.
In the middle of the mat there is a city park with raised concrete platform.
Cross walk.
One Way arrows.
The back side of the battle mat is a black rubber that grips table surfaces really well. I normally lay play wood down on my plastic folding tables because if I don't the fleece mat I use slides all over the place. You shouldn't have that problem with the Frontline Gaming battle mats.
The mat rolls up like a set of blueprints for storage in a carry bag.
The bag has a sling so you can throw it over your should with your army bag and operate hands free. Look at GI Joe in all his gamer glory.
Our group really, really liked this product and we are happy with the city mat. The only downside I could find is that if you get a grass, desert, or snow mat and put hills under you mat it won't work as well but if you put your hills on top of the matt you will have no issues.
Do you or someone you know have a Frontline Gaming battle mat? What are your thoughts? Share with us on the forum.
