Page: Main.Assembly - Last Modified : Sun, 20 Oct 13 - 1949 Visits

note: The second edition component's vary slightly so the pictures might not be exactly accurate

This page explains how to make the cheapest and fastest game assembly possible to show that the game could be assembled relatively easily if you do not want the best quality.

For a complete guide on how to build print and play, you can look at my designer's web site. There you will be able to learn all the technique you could use to build a game.

Print and play board game construction guide

What is described here is the cheapest way possible. Still, you might want to have some components in better quality. For example, it is a good idea to print stuff on card board. Even if you do not mount the components, it will be much easier to play with. So it is up to you to determine the quality of your game, I am just showing both extremes.

Generic components

First there are many various way to substitute component of the game with generic components so that you don't have to print and cut them to speed up the process.

Units: Each player has 30 unit tokens. You can simply use small poker chips or bingo token if you want. I strongly suggest a stackable component. Glass beads won't do and cubes could create columns when stacking them. You need a different color for each player. The game goes up to 6 players, so you need up to 6 colors.

Flags: Each player has 10 flags tokens. You can use pawns, glass beads and cubes instead. You do not need them to be stackable but you still need up to 6 different colors since each player has some.

Markers: You need 1 first player maker and up to 6 invader marker. In the pictures on the side, I used larger power chips, but in fact you could use any object you want. A miniature, a buck of beer, a crown hat, etc. Be creative!

Scoring tokens: If you are not playing with hidden score, you will not need a lot of these tokens and you will not need more than 1 denomination. If you play with hidden score, then you need multiple denominations. I used poker chips which have numbers labeled on them. Mine won't work for hidden score since each denomination has a different color.

Print

Now there are some components which are unique to my game and these needs to be printed. Still you can print them in black and white. I strongly suggest printing on card board even if you want to make a cheap copy. Here are the various things to print.

Maps: There are 12 maps, you should print them all. If you don't want to, print the first 7 maps. If should give you some good map combination and all the building tokens will be printed.

Scoring track: Print the scoring track and use as it is. You do not need to cut anything if you want since the buildings are only extra buildings, and the reference sheet could stay into play for reference. You will just not be able to pick it up.

Cards: Print the cards front and back so that you get double sided cards. I strongly suggest using card board to make sure you cannot see through the cards. Still, in my game, there are no cards hold secretly in hand, so it is not that much a problem.

Player sheets: Print each player sheet on color paper or card board so that we could identify the players. Since we won't be using the unit tokens, the only important component to color would be the temple. So you could print it on white paper and use highlighter of various colors to identify the owner of the temple.

Cut

Maps: Simply cut around the map. If you are in a hurry to play, only cut what you need: 4 or 6 maps. Just make sure that you have enough cities for the number of players you have. Using a slicing table could make the cutting faster.

Buildings: There are 18 buildings to cut. These are essential tokens which are unique and could not be replaced. If you could mount them, it would be better. Since there are only 18 of them, it won't take much time to do.

Cards: Cut the cards according to the front of the cards. You need to cut all the cards. Still there are only 45 cards, so it won't be so hard to cut. If you have a slicing table, if will make the cutting faster and you might be able to cut multiple sheets of cards at the same time.

Temple: This is another token that is unique. Each player has one, so you should have 6 tokens. Again, it is a good idea to mount these tokens and there are only 6 of them so it should not be so long to make.

Player Sheet: Cut around the player sheets. The reference sheets are not mandatory to play the game but they can be useful. So you can choose to cut them or not.

Final Results

Here is the results of all the steps above. You can click on the picture to zoom.

Enjoy!