I used to be big on space games. I even painted my ping pong table completely black to be used as space. Still' it is a bit flat... Recently I spotted someone on a local wargaming forum sellign banner prints to be used as a gaming surface. They looked nice enough and the price was okay so I ordered one a a sample.
In case you were wondering, since the seller is a local private individual, not an established company, I decided not to put his contact details here. If you're really interested, you can probably find his ads on Sotavasara.net
Impressions
The banner was delivered to me in a little over week, which I consider pretty fast for custom work (these are not off-the-shelf items).
The print is supposed to be 4x6 feet, but upon closer inspection the longer side is actually a couple of inches short. This is not a major concern for me, but if you absolutely must have a regulation size board you should consider this. The actual banner is sligtly larger, as a substantial white border surrounds the print. This is probably easy enough to cut off if required.
The material is some sort of vinyl I guess. It should have a slightly glossy finish as you can see from the photos. There is also a very slightly raised gridlike pattern on the material if you look close enough, similar to rip-stop fabrics.
The biggest problem with the product are the creases. Since it was delivered folded, not rolled, I now need to iron out the creases or something. Which means I'll have to start with clearing my gaming table to even have the room to work with this... I can't place spaceship minis on this, they'd topple over if placed on one of the creases.
Quite frankly, I would have paid a little bit extra to have it shipped rolled in a cardboard tube -- which actually turns out to slightly tricky due to local postal regulations, but let's not get into that here.
Verdict
As for the uses for a product like this: To be quite frank, it's a printed sheet and therefore flat. Placing actual three-dimensional objects on top of it only serves to emphasize the flatness. I feel this is a very good choice for space, naval and maybe aerial dogfight games (using aerial photo for backdrop). For more traditional ground warfare I feel it's a good quick and dirty solution, but it'll never replace a properly done terrain board.
A fork may not be good for eating soup, but that doesn't mean it's not a good utensil. I think this is as good product for specific purposes, especially if the delivery issues are resolved.
Sucks!
