We reviewed the first wave of Rochester-based Objective Ctrl’s game aids late last year after they approached us at NOVA. I picked up a set of their terrain mats in the first Kickstarter and have been using them in games ever since. So when they contacted us about reviewing their second wave of game aids, I told them to send a set over and I’d take a look at them personally.
Full Disclosure: While we do not accept payment for our reviews, we are running ads for Objective Ctrl’s Kickstarter this month. And I’d like to thank Objective Ctrl for sending a set of their second wave of products for review.
The Terrain Footprint Mats and Objective Markers
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For me the biggest draw of Objective Ctrl’s Offering are the area terrain mats. Clear mats aren’t necessarily my style but making textured ones is a real pain and after Games Workshop switched from 12″x12″ to 12″x6″ terrain bases I wasn’t really eager to make a new set or cut my Necromunda Underhive tiles in half. Objective Ctrl’s original set were clear with lined edges, with a mostly glossy finish. They’re an improvement on Games Workshop’s plexiglass plates in terms of visibility, but a bit too glossy and they can slip and slide a bit more than I’d like.
This new set offer three different designs with a frosted finish and improve on that original set in every way. As the Goonhammer Chaos Guy(tm) I immediately gravitated to the terrain bases using the 8-pointed chaos star. While the star on all the terrain isn’t necessarily the aesthetic I’m going for on my table, these look great and work extremely well. A set comes with everything you need to make the current Games Workshop terrain layouts in Pariah Nexus – four 12″x6″ mats, two 10″x5″ mats, and four 6″x4″ mats.
Someone asked in the comments on the Kickstarter how their grip was, and that’s a fair question – I’m pleased to report that these have quite a bit more grip to them. That design pattern doubles as a grip material – it’s got a little bit of (non-gross) stickiness to it, and that really helps hold them in place. They’re still not as steady as neoprene mats, and you can definitely shove them around if you want to, but incidental contact isn’t likely to move them. I did some relatively light rubbing in the test below, and moved around a model as well to see how they’d fare and I was pleasantly surprised.
The objective markers are made of the same material as the terrain mats, and use the same designs. It all works pretty well, and I’ve used them in a few games now and enjoyed having them. The frosted material and colorful designs make it easy to see what’s going on across the table at a glance.
The Effect and Deployment Zone Markers
The set I received came with twelve effect markers, all made from the same frosted plastic material as the terrain mats and objective markers. Of these six are super relevant to current Warhammer 40k, and the rest would be useful for effects like Oaths of Moment in a pinch. They look pretty good, and if you like using markers to remember rules they look better than most.
Also part of the set are objective zone markers, which come in both straight and curved varieties. These are pretty great, and were super handy for marking deployment zones on the Search & Destroy mission. They’d also work well for doing a 9″ deep strike deployment from a single model.
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Also in the set was a 3/6/9 measuring tool, which was pretty handy.
The Dice
The dice are just dice; I didn’t think much of them until I pulled them out of the bag and actually felt them. They have square corners (great) and are a little larger than the Kill Team dice I use but they have a kind of matte finish that I really liked. They just feel really good to handle and roll. My only qualm is that the Six side will often be mistaken for the one but the color markings make it easy to quickly read them. So, pretty great dice if you’re looking for a new set.
The Bases and Magnets
One of the more interesting parts of the second wave of Objective Ctrl game aids is the bases. These are 3D-printed bases made to match the magnets in the set (more on them in a moment), and one of the more interesting things about them is that they can be printed easily with an FDM printer – no resin required. STL files will be made available, but higher tiers can get printed bases. These are pretty clearly 3D printed bases up close but they look pretty good and the sizing on them was perfect.
With a little clean-up I think the textured bases in the set will look great. More importantly, they’re flat on the bottom as opposed to concave, making them ideal for the magnetic base sheets in wave two. I’m not a big magnets guy, but I wasveryimpressed by these – they’re a series of adhesive-backed magnetic sheets you can apply to the bottom of bases (though you need solid bases for them to adhere to). I used the 100mm printed base I was sent for a hobby project I’m working on and slapped a magnet to the bottom of it to test how it would hold on my fridge.
Yeah, I’m really impressed by the results here – that’s a hefty model (the hands are claws form a MacFarlane Flayed One artist proof), and I slapped that magnet onto the base about five seconds before testing him on the fridge.
Final Thoughts
I was already a satisfied customer of the original Objective Ctrl terrain mats but I think I like this set more from a quality of life standpoint. I’m already using the dice in my regular rotation and the objective mats and terrain mats are now going to be fixtures on my table, so expect to see them in future “Road Through 2024″ articles. The bases and magnets are super interesting and while I don’t currently use magnetic trays for transport, this seems like a really solid way to implement them if you’re using printed bases. At the very least I was impressed by how strong the magnets were and I have to admit, making them adhesive-backed sheets is really smart.
If you had an issue with the sliding on the original Objective Ctrl mats, these are a big improvement in my opinion, solving that problem in a way that works while still being aesthetically pleasing. They’re light and travel easy and won’t have the issue that the first generation mats had in that they won’t show a bunch of scratches. It’s hard to talk about downsides with these as do what you need them to do well without being too expensive. They aren’t as hefty or as sturdy as neoprene mats would be but they’re much better than even GW’s plexiglass when it comes to sliding on the table.
Ultimately I think these are one of the best options on the market if you’re looking for clear terrain mats and objective markers. With the new Tournament Companion out for Pariah Nexus it’s a good time to get a set of terrain markers and with Age of Sigmar switching to 3” control on 40mm objective markers like 40k it’s not a bad time to snag those, either. I’m planning to grab an extra set or two of the terrain mats for my local game store to help shore up some terrain issues they’re having and I honestly might buy a second set of the dice.
The Objective Ctrl Kickstarter is currently live until July 19th. You can find it here.
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