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the Court of the Sun King: a couple of woodworking projects
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Below are pictures of the two gameboards for 'Louis XIV' and 'Keythedral' that my father and I made over the holidays (most of the hard work/talent though needs to be credited to my dad). Being a perfectionist, I've always been annoyed by the constant shifting of tiles on the table while playing games. These two boards have been the solution for two of my favorite games that use tiles as a board. My father is a carpenter by-trade and would be willing to create more of these boards if the interest is high enough (it's easier to make several at a time). If you're interested, and have some money to spend, (wood boards aren't as cheap as cardboard), send me a geekmail, and I'll ensure that he gets back to you with pricing specifics. Enjoy!
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Posted Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:39 pm
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This is the board for 'Louis XIV'. It has recesses for all of the nobles, as well as slots to make them easy to flip. Also, in the center there are places for everyone to put their general influence.
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This is another view of the 'Louis XIV' board.
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The edges of the board have molding with felt on the bottom to add some elegance and functionality to the board. You can see the upper-side of the molding here.
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This shows a closer look at one of the general influence holders.
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The nobles are very accessible thanks to some added finger slots.
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Finally, this is how the board looks without the game.
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This board, made for Keythedral (not set-up here), was much more difficult to make. After several failed models, we realized that the 'Keythedral' land tiles (Pro Ludo version) aren't all exactly the same size. So the board had to be less elaborate in order to allow them all to fit, yet still be secured. I think that ultimately, the end result is still stunning and also allows for much greater ease of play.
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This is the 'Keythedral' board set-up for a five player game. As you can see, we created ample space on the board (2 slots per tile included in the game) to allow for tile expansion in whatever direction during set-up.
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Here is a zoomed-in shot of board. The spaces for the cottages/houses are elevated to allow them to be easily flipped as well as removed during gameplay. The slight elevation also helps keep the fences flush and secure during the game.
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Posted Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:39 pm
I bet there is a market for such a product if you could find a way to produce more of these.
Put me down for a wood set version of Java.
That was a concern of mine as well. That's why we made two slots for every tile in the game, essentially doubling the size it needed to be to allow for peculiar set-ups. And even though this won't completely aleviate the need for room, it works for about 90% of our Keythedral games. Not having to constantly readjust the tiles after everyone places/picks-up their workers makes it worth the limited space for me.
Any other thoughts on this?
Mostly likely not. But I'm still going to check into it just in case. I know that it's no crime to customize your gaming experience, my only concern is whether or not it's infringement to sell it to other people.
Okay... Here goes. We started by measuring how much space the board could possibly need (and even added a bit more room) and started with a base-board. Then for the 'Louis' board, we cut tile-sized squares out of another type of wood; we planed and sanded them with the professional equipment at my dad's wood-shop (industrial machinery that I wouldn't normally be able to use). We created the finger holes using a large drill-bit and simply mounted the tiles onto the base board (leaving room for the molding of course) using wood glue. The influence holders were then drilled with a very large drill and painted (after everything else was finished). Then, everything was sanded down and finished with varnish. It took us about four or five hours to complete. The 'Keythedral' board took a lot more planning... we had to simplify things significantly from what I initially had planned in order to make it functional. It actually was constructed very similiarly to the 'Louis' board. Since we had already put together the 'Louis' board, the actual construction was much quicker.
Since my father builds cabinets for a living, he did most of the handiwork. My dad hadn't played either game (he later tried Keythedral, and didn't like it much), so my involvement was mostly figuring out how to design them in the first place; only contributing my handiwork in areas that I couldn't screw-up.
Collasal Arena
Puerto Rico
Settlers of Catan
In the Shadow of the Emperor
Richelieu
Princes of Florence
Believe me, there are many more that I considered doing. The motivations for choosing the two games I did were a)the design conceptualizations for the 'Louis' and 'Keythedral' boards were the most sound (in my mind) b)both games really needed some way to keep from sliding around, so necessity was an issue c)they are two that I love to play, so I knew that I would get good use from them.
I would especially love to create one for 'Puerto Rico' someday. But this is a much larger endeavor given the sheer amount of bits used in this game. I do have an idea that I'd like to try for PR next time I have the chance though.
'Settlers' was another game that I thought could use a board. But I passed it up for 'Keythedral' simply because I believe it to be a superior game to SoC, and because SoC had just barely recieved the royal treatment with the 10th anniversary edition.
I apologize for the long-winded post... I promise to get back to everyone who's emailed me requesting the pricing specifics as soon as I'm able to.
-BR
Sounds like Trias to me! You could even alternate two different kinds of woods to deliniate the rings.