Pro tip: your 'perfect' board game insert might be making things worse

I got that fancy wooden insert for my copy of Terraforming Mars about 6 months ago. Everyone online swears by them, says they make setup faster. But for me, it's been a total pain. The slots are so tight I have to pry tokens out with a knife sometimes, and I actually broke a corner off one of my player boards trying to get it to fit. It's now sitting in a drawer and I went back to baggies. Has anyone else had better luck just ditching the premium organizer?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly.parker6d ago

pry tokens out with a knife" - sorry but that sounds like user error to me. I've got the Folded Space insert for TfM and its been a game changer. Setup takes like 2 minutes vs 10 with baggies. The trick is to not force anything, just let the pieces sit in their spots. Maybe you got a bad batch or the wood swelled from humidity or something. I've had mine for over a year and never broke a single piece. Baggies are fine but they turn setup into a mess of digging through piles and sorting everything out again. Premium organizers just work better if you take your time with them.

angelapalmer5d ago

Agree with all of this. I think a lot of people treat foamcore inserts like they're indestructible and get rough with them, but they're really meant to be handled gently. Once you learn the trick of just letting the pieces settle in their cutouts instead of jamming them in, it's smooth sailing from there.