Octopus Overlords

We need a thread for discussing the accessories for the board game hobby. Lately, I spend almost as much time getting the boxes stored as playing.

If you have Eclipse, this box organizer from the Broken Token is the only way to get everything into one box. Even if you have all of the expansions. They even sell the must-have population trays.

I also just jumped on this Talisman accessories kickstarter for the 5-tray Fantasy Flight small card holder. A 6-tray holder would be perfect for Battlestar Galactica.

Zarathud wrote:We need a thread for discussing the accessories for the board game hobby. Lately, I spend almost as much time getting the boxes stored as playing.

If you have Eclipse, this box organizer from the Broken Token is the only way to get everything into one box. Even if you have all of the expansions. They even sell the must-have population trays.

I also just jumped on this Talisman accessories kickstarter for the 5-tray Fantasy Flight small card holder. A 6-tray holder would be perfect for Battlestar Galactica.

How does the Eclipse organizer work with the trays that I got, that you have as well?

27 dollars is worth it, but if I have to put the trays off to the side, not sure I want to spend it...

You will have room for trays filled with cubes. My set with all expansions including the Ship Pack One just fits, as long as I don't have the cover on each cube tray.

The Talisman kickstarter didn't fund, so instead I picked up this excellent organizer for Lords of Waterdeep and the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion from Broken Token:



The inner part with the meeples, coins, scoring gems and brains is a removable tray which makes for rapid setup.

I found these pretty great for Eclipse.




You can fit almost the entire tech tree of stock components into one tray so removes the need to set them up at the start of the game. It has sped up our setup and tear down time by at-least 10 minutes.

Damn. I mean, seriously, DAMN!

The Big Damn Crate from Broken Token

It's beautiful. But, damn!

I have had several broken token organizers. Laser cut wood is a pain in the ass.

I'm thinking about trying InsertHere.me foam core inserts next time I have such a hankering.

I can't wrap my mind around paying more for the container than I did for the game. But that's just me, I suppose.

Have you ever tried playing the Firefly board game? It would be cheaper to buy a $159 storage/display solution than pay a person to serve as card manager and attendant.

I didn't know there was a place to buy foam-core solutions so thanks for that. I made it my mission to really get stuff stored and organized this summer and while I'd like to think I'll go out and buy the foam-core, glue and whatever other materials, it's hard to argue with an assembled product sometimes.

I own everything for the Firefly game. It's an insane amount of table space. But I've got the game down to two boxes right now. It's not as pretty as this solution, but I can use that 160 bucks to feed my gaming monkey. Now, if I was Zarathud (the Martha Stewart of gaming is my nickname for him) I'd be all over this. He even sent me an email about it this afternoon. But I ain't bitin', dagnabit.

It's definitely out of my price range, but I understand it. I mean, I special ordered coin pouch pages from Canada for a Duel of Ages 2 storage solution.

I have a confession to make... I have a problem pimping out my games.

I have the broken token organizers for- many games, mostly because of the greatly decreased setup time-
- Lords of Waterdeep (great organizer. The original insert is fantastic but this makes room for the expansion as well).
- Caverna: This one greatly reduces setup time and is well worth it.
- Eclipse: Yes. Very important to have, I agree with Zarathud. And I have to cube holders for it as well, really makes the game quick to set up and play.
- Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Not necessary, but really nice to expedite setup.
- Manhattan project: Completely unnecessary broken token organizer. But it does increase the speed of setup so I think it's still worth having.

I also have a liking for metal coins if I can get them. So I have the metal coins for Carson City, 7 wonders: duel, Lords of Waterdeep, and I would get more for other games if I could...

Oh and another accessory (pimping really) is the DnDeeples for Lords of Waterdeep that I really like.

I could go on forever about the accessories for X-wing that I have between battle foam, playmates, asteroids and debris. It's a bit out of control.

I just looked at what I've spent on kickstarter games over the last 5 years. I have zero room to talk, I've decided. I will stop trying to be a naysayer at this point as I'm just a big, fat hypocrite.

A D20 that light up on a crit roll.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/deaa/

Stick anything inside a die and you're going to get a player who bitches that his bad rolls are due to the damn thing being unbalanced.

I have that die. It seems balanced, but it is so heavy and the edges so sharp that it doesn't really roll. You try to roll it and it tends to thunk and slide on whatever side it lands on. I use it when I run D&D games for attacks as I roll all the dice in the open (the blinking 20 really makes people yell), but I had to take the time to learn how to make it tumble, or it just looked like I was dropping it onto a particular number.

coopasonic wrote:I have had several broken token organizers. Laser cut wood is a pain in the ass.

I'm thinking about trying InsertHere.me foam core inserts next time I have such a hankering.

If you are going to use foam core why don't you make the insert instead

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/ ... tlesonly=1

Gato wrote:

coopasonic wrote:I have had several broken token organizers. Laser cut wood is a pain in the ass.

I'm thinking about trying InsertHere.me foam core inserts next time I have such a hankering.

If you are going to use foam core why don't you make the insert instead

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/ ... tlesonly=1

Mainly because I have more money than crafting skills, but if there were a really good tutorial/guide I might be willing to give it a shot.

coopasonic wrote:

Gato wrote:

coopasonic wrote:I have had several broken token organizers. Laser cut wood is a pain in the ass.

I'm thinking about trying InsertHere.me foam core inserts next time I have such a hankering.

If you are going to use foam core why don't you make the insert instead

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/ ... tlesonly=1

Mainly because I have more money than crafting skills, but if there were a really good tutorial/guide I might be willing to give it a shot.

One of the posts had this:

For a quick tutorial, you can warch these:

http://www.orderofgamers.com/using-foamcore-part-1
http://www.orderofgamers.com/using-foamcore-part-2
http://www.orderofgamers.com/using-foamcore-part-3

You can find some plans on the same website

http://www.orderofgamers.com/category/foamcore-plans

I may have to give that a try...

That looks totally doable. I may have to look into that more. The guy does specifically mention that he stores his games flat. Mine are vertical... I'd imagine you could mitigate the risk there with a crafted lid? At the cost of a few mm of vertical space in the box.

coopasonic wrote:That looks totally doable. I may have to look into that more. The guy does specifically mention that he stores his games flat. Mine are vertical... I'd imagine you could mitigate the risk there with a crafted lid? At the cost of a few mm of vertical space in the box.

I watched with the sound off. So I didn't catch that. But I did notice that he had a lot of loose stuff. Of course, just because you are doing this, doesn't mean that you still couldn't use bags for components.

I might have to try it with Zombicide. I like all their packaging. It makes the figures look all neat and orderly. But it takes up SOOOOOO MUCH space. Damn.

TheMix wrote:Of course, just because you are doing this, doesn't mean that you still couldn't use bags for components.

Part of the value in the foamcore is ease of setup, if I still have to open bags, then I am not realizing all of that value. I guess I can just integrate a plano box into the design.

I use Broken Token's Zombicide organizers. It consolidated things (all 3 sets plus MANY extras) to 4 boxes -- the last box with the Battlefoam inserts and book. If I went through again to mix the figures better and remove some of the many basic walkers, I could get it down to 3 boxes.

Zarathud wrote:I use Broken Token's Zombicide organizers. It consolidated things (all 3 sets plus MANY extras) to 4 boxes -- the last box with the Battlefoam inserts and book. If I went through again to mix the figures better and remove some of the many basic walkers, I could get it down to 3 boxes.

Maybe I should do that. My original zombicide takes over a whole shelf. I would like to consolidate. I am unloading black plague soon though so at least that will give some space.

coopasonic wrote:I'm thinking about trying InsertHere.me foam core inserts next time I have such a hankering.

He's having a buy 2 get 1 free sale for this weekend, so I just made an order. Coupon is MemDay2016, applied during checkout.

And now I ordered a new insert for small world (from Daedalus) and an insert for Carson City from Meeple Realty. Never used either company before but the inserts look good. I just love a good clean organized game especially if it limits set-up time.

Over the last ~5 years I've really come to appreciate the huge difference having an organized game makes - setup, game play and cleanup all go so much faster when you have things organized and I'd be a liar if I said that didn't factor into my motivation to play sometimes.

I'm learning this. I thought I was doing okay at organizing. But it took way too long to set up Shadows this past weekend. For now I'll probably have to try and schedule games at my house so that I can have the game already set up when guests arrive.

Hey zarathud for the zombicide broken token do they have VIP zombies, crows and dogs?

I'm considering getting them but I have all of the 3d train doors etc and I'm not sure if it will help consolidate.

The Token zombicide inserts consolidate a main box and expansion into the main box with some room to spare. There is extra room for the kickstarter add ons and some room for extra heroes. I have an extra zombie box in the mix but not the VIP box -- I plan to use some but not all of them.

My 4th box has painted basic zombies and extra heroes. I went way overboard on the heroes each season. I don't think there is room for the 3d doors, so you may also be down to 4 boxes rather than 3.

Yeah I have almost all the survivors to date and all the 3d terrain. Its beyond excessive. I would be happy with 4 boxes. But that is steep to pay up front.

Also considering the imperial assault insert. I'm all about decreasing storage space and increasing accessibility.

Zarathud wrote:The Token zombicide inserts consolidate a main box and expansion into the main box with some room to spare. There is extra room for the kickstarter add ons and some room for extra heroes. I have an extra zombie box in the mix but not the VIP box -- I plan to use some but not all of them.

My 4th box has painted basic zombies and extra heroes. I went way overboard on the heroes each season. I don't think there is room for the 3d doors, so you may also be down to 4 boxes rather than 3.

Well I bought the inserts and... I have way too much zombicide stuff. Officially way too much. I managed to get it into... 5 boxes. Yup. That's it. Five boxes. Previously though it was five boxes and 3 tackle boxes so... I'll take it as an improvement all the same.

Battle Foam is having their 4th of July sale now, ending 7/5. It's 20-60% off with the discount applied at checkout. Picked up a tray for Heroes of Normandie as that game has about a thousand pieces.

I think the Insert Here guy is on overload. When I placed my order on 5/28 I was told I was #66 in line and now a month later, I'm #35. Still probably faster and better than I could have done...

So my foam inserts from Insert Here are shipping today - 15 days short of the three month mark from the day I ordered them. That seems...excessive. What I learned during this is that if you order something with him and tell him that it's your birthday or they're a gift for someone, he'll bump you to the front of the line. All he asks is that you're truthful. Forgive me if I don't trust the unwashed masses of the Internet... Regardless, I think that's a pretty crappy policy and likely why it took almost three months to get mine. I also appreciate it's a mom and pop effort and he does this in the evenings and the weekends. What's funny is that in the time it took him to ship mine, he "released" (on his store) and updated insert set for one of the games I purchased an insert for (Eldritch Horror) that now holds all the expansions. I'm not going to lie, that's a bit frustrating on my end.

The Battle Foam inserts work as described for Normandie, but I'm not overly impressed with the quality. They also took a month to deliver, which surprised me. Overall there are some very rough cuts to the backing/base pieces and sloppy gluing of the custom cutout to the backing. Not exactly what I'd expect for a product that similarly priced to a laser cut MDF insert. I'm quite curious to see the quality of the Insert Here inserts, but the Summer of Organizing(tm) continues...

Just created inserts to fit all 3 expansions to Elder Sign into the base box. I cut up and taped the expansion boxes to create holders for the 3 location types (with Elder Gods and Characters on top), and made a box/dividers for the equipment, condition and time cards. The tokens are in a long pill box, with all the creatures in a plastic bag.

After GenCon and Kickstarter shipments, my games are busting out of my closet. I'll have to figure out a way to create an insert for Runebound Second Edition to consolidate two boxes into one, or remove it from my collection.

Smoove_B wrote: I think that's a pretty crappy policy and likely why it took almost three months to get mine. I also appreciate it's a mom and pop effort and he does this in the evenings and the weekends. What's funny is that in the time it took him to ship mine, he "released" (on his store) and updated insert set for one of the games I purchased an insert for (Eldritch Horror) that now holds all the expansions. I'm not going to lie, that's a bit frustrating on my end.

These are two really legitimate complaints. You should contact him and let him know your thoughts. If it really is a mom-and-pop, it may not have occurred to him the impression it is giving.

He should have contacted you to let you know there was another option. And given you the chance to amend your order. That is BS.

If you read the relatively recent customer feedback posts on the website he did exactly that for other people. It's possible that because he still offers the one I purchased (just for the base game) and now a +$20 "system" that covers all the expansions with the base game he didn't contact me. What I specifically ordered wasn't changed or updated - just expanded.

Based on what I've seen he's routinely offering specials/coupons/discounts and my general impression is that he's stretched rather thin. There was a family vacation a few weeks ago that delayed it and of course the trip to GenCon (I know far too much about a guy living in KS making foam inserts for me). Maybe I'm weird thinking ~3 months is too long to wait and everyone else that purchases from him is totally fine with that. I just don't know yet. I also don't know what's realistic to expect for turn around. He never directly answers that question on the site or as part of the order confirmation. I'm absolutely going to wait until it arrives (Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week) and go from there but I'm absolutely going to write him to find out what's "normal" - particularly if I really like the inserts. If nothing else, I can set my expectations.

Are those just foamcore? I'd be tempted to just use his photos as templates and build my own. They might only be 80% as neat, but foamcore is cheap and easy to work with.

Yes, they're all foam core inserts. I think he was sharing his designs on BGG for a while and people told him to just sell them instead. I've looked at what people have shared (designs) on BGG myself but I just don't have the artistic skill (and patience) to craft them. When I see what people figure out (how to design the spaces and compartments) I'm absolutely amazed.