You may remember back in June I reviewed a 3×3 space mat from Deep Cut Studio and I really rather liked it. Being someone who appreciates beautiful things – and with a massive X-Wing fleet – I got back in touch with Deep Cut to see if I could look at their 6×4 foot mats and they kindly obliged. Just as a teaser we’ve played a 400 point X-Wing game over this thing and we’ve got a game with the Tantive IV coming up so watch this space for the prettiest X-Wing battle report this side of Tatooine.
After I reviewed the 3×3 mat I had a couple of The Chaps and people on Twitter ask me if the mat was really that good, especially compared to the better known Gale Force 9’s product. In a word? Yes it is. And its big brother is even more so. To be clear it’s not made of a different material or possessed with an AI that strokes your ego every time you move your X-Wings (although that would be wicked cool), there’s just more of it. There’s more material which means a bigger gaming space and that means bigger games. Because it’s 6×4 rather than 3×3 or even 6×3 it’s Battlefleet Gothic compatible which fills me with such unbridled joy even I can’t find the words.
But more over it is completely and utterly beautiful. Mat and I are both in marketing. We both appreciate a good bit of design and we’re both hyper critical especially on things we’ve deluded ourselves into thinking we could do better. Mat’s exact words, when I unrolled it the other week at games night, were ‘Oh my God! That’s gorgeous.’ And he’s right.
I’ve been in the hobby a long time and in terms of my painting skill I’ve hit my plateau. I’m as good as I’m ever going to be plus or minus a few skill points. Equally I’ve hit the time wall that everyone hits when they do silly things like grow up, get jobs and have children. My personal time is very limited and the time I do have I try to indulge in all the various different facets of my hobby, but the one area that always gets neglected is – I’m sure you’ll all be stunned to learn – painting. And not just my armies: my scenery too. And my boards. These stupendous games mats offer people like me the opportunity to play across breathtaking boards that aren’t normally scene outside of places like Warhammr World or Babylon 5.
The production value of the design is crazy. The previous mat was like looking at something from Astronomy Picture of the Day which, for all I know, it could have been. Not that I would have cared. But this is an entirely original creation. Time and effort and skill went into designing the mat. Not to mention the faultless printing of it.
It is a bit of a faff to get in and out of the cardboard tube and you either need to reverse roll it or flatten it with a couple of figure cases when you first lay it flat, to prevent curling, but they’re minor, trivial, gripes that in no way detract from the product. And the benefit of playing over a pretty sexy looking space board. And the fact that 6×4 is available breathes life into a game that could grow stale trapped within the confines of a 3×3 gaming space. That’s not to say smaller games of X-Wing aren’t fun or even that the space is tiresome, but it’s just nice to be able to kick things up a notch from time to time and the mat from Deep Cut Studio allows you to do just that.
And the cost for this 6×4 beauty? A trifling £39.90. Now to put that in perspective, I did make a space board a while back and the paint cost me – at those prices – £30. Today that’d be more like £50. And whilst it looks pretty cool it isn’t anything compared to the mat and doesn’t include the cost of the boards themselves.
The epic 6×4 game mat lives up to that word. It’s a stunning looking mat and the fact that Deep Cut Studio offer other sizes over the standard 3×3 puts them head and shoulders above Gale Force 9. Throw in the fact they look better, they’re made better and are better value makes them the best and first choice for gaming mats.
You can pick up the game mats direct from Deep Cut Studio.
