Brass Birmingham - Board Game Inserts

prusaprinters

<h3>What is this</h3><p><i>[<strong>Update:</strong> Added two smaller box variants, each holding the industry tiles and connection tiles separately. Being significantly smaller than the original box, these can now be printed with a Prusa Mini.]</i></p><p>Brass Birmingham is very, very good game! But in my humble opinion <strong>setup sucks big time</strong>! There are dozens of different cardboard tiles that need to be sorted by player and by type and then need to be stacked on player boards. And since originally everything is stored in zip-lock bags, you start by emptying everything on the table where now you have a pile of tiles that all look very similar and that you have to go through…it's boring and takes ages.</p><p>So I wanted to print a couple of organizers which should help decrease setup time. But I had certain requirements in mind:</p><ul><li>Compartmentalization: Depending on their purpose, game pieces should be separated in dedicated containers, e.g. all pieces belonging to a player should be in the same holder that can easily passed around the table during setup.</li><li>Usability: Containers shouldn't be only usable for holding the pieces in the game box, they should also be usable when playing the game, i.e. it should be possible to take it out of the game box and put on the table to keep everything organized there was well.</li><li>Everything should fit neatly into the original game box.</li><li>Pieces should always stay organized. Even if the game box is stored vertically or if there is a lot of shaking during transport, all components should stay where they are.</li><li>The organizers souldn't look too ugly.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I came up with a couple of inserts for the cardboard pieces as well as boxes to hold said inserts and all the cards. The boxes come with a &nbsp;sliding lid that clicks into place when fully inserted, preventing the bits from falling out of the inserts. The arrows indicate the direction in which to push the lid to open the box.</p><p>Here is a small guide that shows how to sort all the bits and pieces:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>Industry tiles</h4><p>The industry tiles, which create the most pain during setup, are stored in four inserts, one for each player. Sort the tiles in stacks according to their type and put the stacks into the insert. Also, There are four &nbsp;separate inserts for the river/track tiles. All inserts can be stored in a box. When setting up a game just take out the inserts and hand them to the players. Everyone can now move their tiles onto their player board. I like to keep the river/track tiles in their inserts during the game (that's why I made them separate from the bigger inserts).</p><figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:87.14%;"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/68057/rich_content/06fe4363-ccf6-47fb-9d41-68ca47269e60/02.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2246af30bd-0804-41e8-86de-6fd7cb989f9e%22%2C%22w%22%3A4032%2C%22h%22%3A2268%7D"></figure><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>Wood pieces</h4><p>All wooden pieces (beer barrels, iron, coal, player pieces) are kept in a box that also holds the player markers and the merchant tiles.</p><figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:87.57%;"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/68057/rich_content/772559a3-5564-415b-b6f0-b3b831921ff3/06.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2289a92586-065a-472d-81c0-0f3ee1954fdd%22%2C%22w%22%3A3719%2C%22h%22%3A1645%7D"></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:87.11%;"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/68057/rich_content/5bca7af5-643f-4ce1-bec4-d3fed42c87d0/06a.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2209b8f8e3-2bc2-4ba5-8ace-a5660941cb42%22%2C%22w%22%3A2860%2C%22h%22%3A2268%7D"></figure><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>Cardboard coins</h4><p>Money tokens are stored like this. There might be better ways, but this was the only orientation which allowed the holder to be small enough to still fit in the box.</p><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:87.7%;"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/68057/rich_content/3f5ad558-8890-414b-84c7-477b22f10ad7/07.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2207dcb481-61f5-4c05-888d-ddee8074b9fd%22%2C%22w%22%3A2685%2C%22h%22%3A2268%7D"></figure><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>Cards</h4><p>My copy came with thick card sleeves for the cards, so cards needed to be stored in two separate card boxes. There was enough room left to also hold &nbsp;a set of Automa cards for solo play (Very cool variant! You can find it <a href="http://www.mautoma.com/mautomas/brass-birmingham">here...</a>). If you don't sleeve your cards, they should all fit into a single box. I included sveral types of card box lids to indicate which cards are stored where. There is also a blank lid, if only one box is needed.</p><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:87.89%;"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/68057/rich_content/6c780fc8-ecc6-4201-84b6-1a749d84985c/04.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%228609627f-496d-416d-8e98-75b3ade047d3%22%2C%22w%22%3A1895%2C%22h%22%3A2126%7D"></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:87.69%;"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/68057/rich_content/702b6491-eb01-4cdf-b70b-42daa4557c28/05.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%226f026cea-e328-4273-9f17-58f3f5a6415a%22%2C%22w%22%3A1975%2C%22h%22%3A2268%7D"></figure><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h4>How to fit everything in the game box</h4><p>Put the folded main board on the bottom and the player boards on top. The two smaller boxes (money and wooden pieces) should fit into the extra space left by the player boards (see the upper part of the box in the foto). All the other boxes can be put on top.</p><figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:87.38%;"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/68057/rich_content/18350494-eccf-49d1-9497-19266b094480/09.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%220756025e-94e3-43b1-87d1-0866883b2d80%22%2C%22w%22%3A2049%2C%22h%22%3A3246%7D"></figure><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>How to print</h3><p>I mainly print with <i>Prusament PLA</i> or <i>DasFilament PLA</i>, using the <i><strong>standard Prusament PLA profile</strong></i> in PrusaSlicer. Everything you see here was printed in Prusament Mystic Brown. I left a bit of wiggle room in the inserts so that all the pieces should fit nicely. Still, your printer should be well calibrated. This is especially important for the lock-in mechanism of the lid. I've included a test model which you can print to check accuracy.</p><p>If you find the lid doesn't slide easily (printed too wide) or it doesn't really click into position (printed too narrow), check if your <i><strong>filament diameter</strong></i> or your <i><strong>extrusion multiplier</strong></i> are correct. You can also play with the “<i><strong>x/y compensation</strong></i>” function to change the outer dimensions. Rescaling the lid a tiny bit is also an option.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Misc</h3><p>I printed everything with my MK3S. With the exception of the large box that holds the tile inserts, everything will also fit on the print bed of the Prusa Mini. If you are printing with a Prusa Mini, chose the box variants 3a and 3b instead.</p><p>Please let me know what you think. Also, do feel free to drop me a message, if you have problems with printing these or if you have ideas for add-ons or for how to improve the designs.</p><p>All my models are free and may be used and shared by everyone. I put a lot of time in my designs to get everything right and I hope the result shows. So, if you like my stuff, consider hitting the donate button above.</p><p>Cheers! ^_^</p>