Warning, Pic HEAVY! – Also, most pics can be clicked for larger versions.
Here’s the last of the first batch of my gaming mat reviews of Urbanmatz‘ products from the Czech Republic. The Dirty Roads 6’x4′.
I’ve got a bunch of Deep Cut Studios and Gamemat.eu products that I’ve also purchased that I will be photographing and writing reviews for shortly as well. But today we’re looking at the Dirty Roads.
Often when I buy something from a company, there’s a “key” item that acts as an anchor for other stuff you then add-on. In the case of my Urbanmatz order, it was this mat. After seeing several photographs of it online, I was sold. The overall colours and theme matches my bases once again, as the Urbanmatz Badlands mat did.
As with the other mats I’ve gotten from Urbanmatz, the design is printed onto neoprene (mouse pad material) and is once again quite nice. This time, the game I’m using to showcase the mat is an Age of Sigmar clash between Dwarves and Ogres, set in an unnamed Old World city (because I can use the ruleset without the background!) We were trying out the rules, so it’s an actual game rather than a mockup.
We made a bunch of mistakes, mostly due to not quite understanding all of the nuances and not reading warscrolls properly. I’ll put a lot of that down to the rules. Well, not the actual rules, but man-idiot Kirby’s insistence to the designers that everything fit on four pages in total. I’m all for streamlined rulesets, but 4 pages is a bit much (or not enough!) I’m looking forward to trying out 40k 8th with 12 pages of core rules.
One thing that can’t be argued is that we had a good looking game of toy soldiers. While I consider the quality of my models and terrain to be pretty solid, quite honestly the mat really does add to it. And no, I’m not paid to say this and didn’t get a discount – if I were offered one I’d certainly accept it – as I accepted the stained Snow Territory 6’x4′ mat, but I’d also state it upfront in my reviews, as I did there.
I didn’t set up a full 40k mock battle, nor any historical skirmish games because it literally takes hours to get out all of the stuff, set it up, photograph it and take it away for photos, but the actual AoS game being played on it shows it’s versatilty pretty well, along with those scale shots. I think this mat works very well for a variety of genres and a variety of scales. I could easily use this mat for 40k and it’s derivatives, Fantasy Battles/9th Age/Kings of War with fewer buildings, Age of Sigmar and other more densely built up fantasy skirmish like Mordheim and Frostgrave (if you play outside of the snow!) or Malifaux (in a sectioned-off area, or the smaller versions). It also works across period and scale quite nicely, as demonstrated by the below set of photos, so 20mm games such as Flames of War/Team Yankee/Crossfire will work as well as Bolt Action or SAGA with Romans or SAGA with Crusaders.
Based on its similarity with the “Badlands” design and colouration for the non-road sections, I’ve also found that it works both with “forest” and “jungle” foliage when I was playing around with my scenery, so once again that’s a positive.
Once again, the mat came in it’s own, labelled bag at no additional cost, which is good. Until this one, I really liked these bags. Unfortunately, the zipper turned out to be faulty on me as I was putting the mat away after reviewing it. I’ve got it back in awkwardly by not drawing the zip to the end, which is awkward. Since this was only the third or forth time I’d had the thing out of its bag, I found this really disappointing. I’ll let them know about it, and update with their response.
Verdict: I’ve said this before, but this mat is very much what I wanted it to be. As I’ve mentioned, it was the “key” design that motivated me to buy this batch of mats from Urbanmatz, and I’m very happy with the final product, as I was with their service. I’m considering buying another batch of mats in the near future (another 4 or so). I figure that while I’ll have spent a fair bit on game mats in 2017, I’ll then be set for the rest of my life, assuming that the neoprene lasts!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Wow, I like this one. I think I’ll go down the mat path soon as my terrain boards are only getting harder and harder to store. I really like the colours and the cobblestone roads suits just about any era/fantasy. Nice review mate. Where do you store all your gear? Man cave/shed?
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It’s a nice one for sure. Generic enough to work across many games but also with enough “character” over a plain “wilderness” type setting (though they can be pretty cool, also!)
As for storage, it’s in The War Room. (As my friends Orez and Pyro dubbed it awhile back.) We should get together for a game sometime and you can check it out. 🙂
https://azazelx.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/the-war-room/
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Ahh cool. I like the War Room as a name. the trouble is I actually don’t know how to play haha. Although every Jedi needs a Padawan.
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My experience would depend entirely on what the game was. We’re all starting reasonably fresh in 8th, and with only 12 pages of rules by all accounts it’s much more accessible than the current game. AoS only has 4(!) pages.
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Pretty cool. Was this a Kickstarter? How much?
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Nope, retail product. Price is 58 Euro + shipping for you or I, or 70 Euro for Europeans (because VAT). The shipping is a bit of a kicker, so you end up needing to buy about 3 or 4 mats to make it worthwhile per mat, so good for going in with a friend or two, or just really kitting out your table with options.
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Looks great! I’m looking to get some samples delivered today of the Deep Cut Studio beach mat – like IRO above, I’m finding terrain boards a chore to store so I’m looking to get a mat for my pirates.
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Samples? I got one of those (and several others) recently that’s now on the list to review, but I had to pay for mine!
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I paid for mine as well – the postage anyway 🙂 I wanted to check the compatibility of the mat with my minis etc before committing.
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Interesting – how does that work? You return it if you don’t like it? Full-sized mat or a small “square” etc of one?
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I don’t know yet, as I should be receiving it later today. I assume it’s pieces of the mat’s various prints or a long slice or something. I’ll let you know once it arrives!
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Sounds good to me 🙂
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It was a decent-sized piece, maybe 60x30cm or something like that! Lovely quality, but I’m afraid it’s more Normandy than Caribbean.
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Time to make some tiles, perhaps? Or modular beach-hills to lay over a water mat?
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I currently have two blue foam boards which are quite nice, but a pain to store. I do have a Zuzzy latex mat that could probably be repainted, maybe that’s my next step.
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I was thinking one of these, with beach or islands overlaid as needed.
http://www.deepcutstudio.com/product/wargames-terrain-mat-waterworld/
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Nice, the streets/roads are very effective. Really adds to the town look. Looks good up close too, my Deep Cut mat kind of “chips” up when I take photos up close. Might be because its a cloth rather than a “mousemat”. I love my mat, but damn, aren’t they pricey.
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They’re not bloody cheap. I’m looking at them as a “once and done” kind of thing. I may pick up a few more before the year is out, but I see that as being (let’s face it) excessive in “future-proofing” however I may want to play games in the years to come.
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