Just watched your table intro video on youtube. Great content but the presenter kept going in and out of sound. I assume they were using a fixed microphone or maybe something hung on their clothes. As they turned their head, reached for stuff their voice kept changing strength to the point of being unheard in parts. I am not into any of this stuff but I assume a headset microphone would stop this. In any case, assuming this is an issue where the microphone’s proximity to the speaker’s mouth is the issue if you could look into this for future it would be really appreciated.

I found this very interesting as I have been using painted cloths for 40 years. I also have a lot of felt used as described. I am not so sure on the hills under or over the cloth debate. Personally I like to be able to see the contours as most rules I use make use of the contour lines.  In the past I had some carpet which was about 1/4″ thick with half that being a medium density foam backing. When cut this gave very identifiable contours which showed up well on the game table. Again this was decades ago and I don’t know if such still exists. The carpet was a mix of greens and tans so was a good colour as is.

A couple ideas I have used with homemade cloth game mats in the past is RAFM made, and still carry, iron on hexes in 1″, 2″ and 3″ across flats. Each was available in white or black.The 2″ has a dot in the centre of each hex. Of my game mats I covered one side in while and the other in black of the same size. Depending on the sheet colour it made for either subtle or obvious hexes. I know they still have 2″ and some 3″ still available, as of a couple years ago. It seems the 1″ is long gone (probably into boxes in basements as opposed to actual sheets) although I did see Noble Knight selling some a few years back at exorbitant prices. Another alternative is I bought a template to allow me to paint hexes on my new sheets. I think it was from one of the outfits which produce the plastic game tokens. I have yet to use it but have a couple sheets to be prepared when I need them. There is a trick to preparing the iron on hexes which is detailed on the supplied instructions. Basically tape the iron on sheets to the base sheet and take your time aligning the next row of iron on so they don’t go astray. Take your time, measure and think ahead.

I hope this helps.