My son and I have recently been getting into Age of Sigmar, particularly the Shadespire setting for the Skirmish ruleset. This being a new venture in gaming for me necessitated a battlefield. Since we were getting into this from scratch we needed to get terrain and mat in short order . This stuff can get pricey, so I looked around for the best value. Behold Mats by Mars.

Pouring through their site, I happened upon the Misty Mayhem mat. Now, Shadespire, per the GW fluff, is set in a desert. However, I wanted our setting to have a bit more ‘Ravenloft’ to it if not at least a much darker color pallet than sand. GW sells a graveyard mat to go with their Skirmish release, but just because the setting is an ancient city doesn’t mean it has to be in the graveyard. I passed.

Misty Mayhem looked to be a cobblestone street bathed in dark blue from the light of the moon. Mist crawls along the streets and dark shadows hide the ancient secrets of Shadespire waiting to be discovered. This was the mat I needed. I went with a 2’x3′ to fit one of our smaller folding tables as I hope Skirmish to be a game we can roll out and get into quickly.

In short order, I received the mat in the mail. Opening the packaging and rolling out the streets of Shadespire I was able to take in the product. It’s a thin vinyl, sort of like you might find on a banner. The printed image seemed a bit lighter and a little more purple than the website image, but I was actually pleased with that. Additionally, as is the case with most mats, there’s a small company logo in one of the corners. Fortunately, this logo is small and unobtrusive.

I apologize for the glare in the above photo, as it doesn’t do the graphic justice. Measuring the mat because shortly after Misty Mayhem arrived I received an email from Alex at Mats By Mars stating that potentially my mat was cut undersized by an inch or so and if that was the case they would send another. I wouldn’t have noticed if my mat was, but this is great customer service to reach out and offer a replacement. After the measurements pictured above, I found that my mat was indeed about an inch and a half shorter on the width. Mats by Mars sent me a second mat free of charge. Cheers!

Mats by Mars has a wide range of graphics to choose from at great prices. Not only that, but if one desires they have options for printing various overlays on their graphics for different gaming purposes….RPGs, hexes, maybe even what looks like Guildball, etc. Additionally, they carry a range of Fantasy Football mats for $20 which I’m sure will be of interest to our readers.

In closing, I have to say that I am very pleased with this mat and will purchase from Mats By Mars again in the future. Misty Mayhem came in at a great price point and is durable enough for more plays than we’re likely to get stuck into. I expect my son’s Stormcast Eternals to fight battles over the dark streets of Shadespire for a long time to come.

Here’s a few action shots of his warband scouring the first explored section of our little corner of the Age of Sigmar universe.

https://matsbymars.com/