Budget Terrain for our Retreat from Moscow Project

Recently, Ray and I spent a full day tackling a big part of our ongoing Retreat from Moscow tabletop wargaming project: creating a massive winter wargaming mat and winterising a collection of custom-built river terrain. The result was a dramatic snowy battlefield for a fraction of the cost of a commercial gaming mat, plus a set of icy rivers ready for Napoleonic misery. 

Rather than spending £100+ on a commercially available snow mat, we went down the DIY route using a large white fleece throw as our base. Fleece is a brilliant option for terrain builders—it’s lightweight, flexible, absorbs paint well, and drapes naturally over hills, books, or other sub-surface terrain features.

We laid the fleece out on a flat surface and began building up layers of paint. The goal was to replicate the subtle variations you get in real snow—areas of slush, icy shadows, windblown drifts, and patches of churned-up mud or earth. We used diluted grey, brown, and white emulsion, lightly sponged and brushed to avoid flattening the texture. The key to success here was patience. We worked in layers, letting each dry before adding the next. This not only gave the mat a convincing natural look but also helped prevent it from becoming stiff.

Once the mat was complete, we turned our attention to a set of river sections we’d commissioned some time ago from Last Valley, who do superb custom terrain. These rivers needed a serious cold-weather makeover to match our new snowy setting. We added sand and grit to add texture to the earth areas, and when dry, we painted them with Earth Brown. Then a quick drybrush of white emulsion added a frosty 'frozen earth' look. The last step was adding our snow mix and frost grass tufts. 

The fleece cost £20, and we probably spent about £50 on paint and tools, so this was significantly cheaper than buying a commercial battle mat. More importantly, it has been painted to our specific requirements and is 7ft by 7ft, ample for our needs. 

If you want to see the results for yourself, check out the YouTube Short! We packed the highlights of the process into a quick clip.