It's somewhat reassuring to know the maps do show up! Seems like most of the lead time is shipping, not manufacturing time. For those of us in the USA, I find it kind of surprising there isn't a company in North America that makes these. Or even someone making them in their garage. When I've looked at print companies, seems like there are companies making custom mouse pads or other vinyl materials, just not in a big enough size. There are vendors on Etsy selling vinyl maps for Memoir 44, both breakthrough and overlord which look great.
It is those guys but FYI they have a website as well with cheaper prices. I too was going to purchase one from them but it would take way too long. I ended up getting a neoprene mat from Amazon. It doesn’t have grids but I just drew some with a thin sharpie and works fine for me.
It's somewhat reassuring to know the maps do show up! Seems like most of the lead time is shipping, not manufacturing time. For those of us in the USA, I find it kind of surprising there isn't a company in North America that makes these. Or even someone making them in their garage. When I've looked at print companies, seems like there are companies making custom mouse pads or other vinyl materials, just not in a big enough size. There are vendors on Etsy selling vinyl maps for Memoir 44, both breakthrough and overlord which look great.
Seems pretty simple to preprint hexes or squares on an ocean map. I could see buyers who might want a custom design for WAS or other games.
While they don't make a mat specific to WaS, Gripmat is a Seattle, WA based company. Their shop is on Etsy and they do custom sizes and, if I'm reading their info correctly, they'll add squares or hexes to this water mat.
It's somewhat reassuring to know the maps do show up! Seems like most of the lead time is shipping, not manufacturing time. For those of us in the USA, I find it kind of surprising there isn't a company in North America that makes these. Or even someone making them in their garage. When I've looked at print companies, seems like there are companies making custom mouse pads or other vinyl materials, just not in a big enough size. There are vendors on Etsy selling vinyl maps for Memoir 44, both breakthrough and overlord which look great.
Seems pretty simple to preprint hexes or squares on an ocean map. I could see buyers who might want a custom design for WAS or other games.
While they don't make a mat specific to WaS, Gripmat is a Seattle, WA based company. Their shop is on Etsy and they do custom sizes and, if I'm reading their info correctly, they'll add squares or hexes to this water mat.
Darn! Wish I'd known about that. I already placed my order from someplace in Lithuania. Hopefully it will come before 2022!
Someone on board game geek recommended www.deepcutstudio.com/printomat/ which prints extra large mousepad type materials. I ordered a two sided, one with hexes and one with squares. The company is in Lithuania so we will see when/if it comes. Guess I will use the original A&A maps until it comes.
I've ordered several mats from Deep Cut Studios for Star Wars: Armada and they are fantastic. The neoprene is good quality and the images are crisp (the best out of all the neoprene mats I've purchased for gaming, though FAT mats by Tablewar and Frontline's FLG mats are very close). The rest of my game group was so impressed that they all placed a large order from Deep Cut Studios as well.
I've been mulling over ordering a custom WAS mat from them at the 3'x6' size for scenario play (something like 20 rows across) so I'd love to see how yours looks when it arrives if you wouldn't mind posting up pictures here?
By the way, personally I was not impressed by GripMat at all. I've used them for X-Wing. The texture is not pleasant to play on and the image was horrendously rendered. Maybe they've gotten better over time but ones I used don't look anything like the photos on their website. I think you dodged a bullet there.
I'm having deepcutstudio custom print me two myself. It's been a bit of a process since they don't offer offset square grids on their website, but after a few emails they figured it out. I'll respond to this again when they come in.
I was lucky enough to get the GF9 one for a reasonable price, but I also bought a couple of hex-based ones from Hotz and, after a good commission from work, bought the two from HBG...so it just depends on the size of the game we want to play...
BTW, I should probably mention my thoughts on the HBG mats. They're nice and the material is holding up well overall...however, the image scratches easily. If you don't use Reacher's bases, this is probably never going to be an issue. But, even though he buffs the edges, sometimes just sliding his bases forward will leave a mark. One of the reasons why I'm paying so much attention to this thread.
My group bought the GF9 mats when they first came out, and while I like them a lot, they do scratch very easily. We use the acrylic Litko WaS tokens and even just moving around a damage/crippled marker on the GF9 mat would sometimes scratch the vinyl. Back then, neoprene mats weren't as readily available as they are now, and after playing on them for X-Wing and Armada, I'm moving away from vinly/cloth mats to neoprene for all of my games.
I'm having deepcutstudio custom print me two myself. It's been a bit of a process since they don't offer offset square grids on their website, but after a few emails they figured it out. I'll respond to this again when they come in.
That would be great!
My order got canceled and I have to place a new one. I was trying to have my cake and eat it too by ordering a double-sided map with the off set squares on one side and hexes on the other. On BGG, someone uploaded a variety of png images for self-printing maps which I was hoping they could use. Unfortunately, deep cut said they couldn't print a 2 sided mat the way I requested. Will have to reorder with one side only and see what happens.
Good communication from deepcutstudio though. Was concerned about the Lithuania location, but they responded quickly and importantly refunded my PayPal promptly.
My order got canceled and I have to place a new one.
Just curious as to which mat background of theirs you used for your base color (or if you went with your own). They have the Ocean and Caribbean Sea for water.