Game Jargon Definition: “Battle Mat”
Battle Mat (noun) bat ‧ tle mat. / ˈbad(ə)l mat /
Battle mats (also known as “battle boards”), are the game board equivalent for miniatures games and a number of war games and war game simulations. Battle mats are similar to game boards in that they provide a sort of geographic context (to some level of scale or abstraction) for the other elements of the game, as well as delineating the boundaries of the area in which the game will be played. That is, the edges of a battle mat are essentially the edges of the world on which miniatures and other game components (such as terrain pieces) may be placed and moved (until such time as they are removed from play).
Battle mats are different from game boards, however, in that game boards (in the absence of game expansions) are typically not expandable, whereas battle mats can easily be expanded in accordance with the size and scope of the game that players wish to partake in. Battle mats can be expanded just by adding more battle mats to the play area. Or, players may simply declare that the play area will be the dimensions that they happen to have the room for.
Battle mats can be made out of many different materials, with the most common being plastic, vinyl, cloth, neoprene, and wood. Some players take 4’ x 8’ sheets of plywood and spray paint them green, gray, tan, blue, and/or black in order to correspond to grassy fields, mountains, desert, water, or outer space, depending on the type of game and anesthetic they are going for.
Some battle mats have square or hexagonal grids to indicate spaces. Other battle mats have no space indicators, because movement of units and ranges are measured in metric, imperial (or game system-specific) units of measurement rather than by grids on the battle mat.
Examples of games that use battle mats include: Pirates of the Spanish Main (2004); Sails of Glory (2013); Star Trek: Attack Wing (2013); Star Wars: Armada (2015); Star Wars: Legion (2018); Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition (2018); BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat (2019); and Warhammer 40,000 Ninth Edition (2020).
