Game storage

[bob48]

I find sorting counters out strangely....relaxing.........

Hmmm, think I'll go and empty all my WaW counter trays into a big heap and.......twitch, twitch..........

[Rekim]

I'm like bob...I totally enjoy organizing my wargames and adding little refinements to help make the playing go a little smoother. It's a good thing too as I tend to enjoy meaty games, and it is no small task to sort a few thousand counters into a couple of tackle boxes.

At the moment I am working up Compass Games Steel Wolves, plus the expansion Fleet Boats. With a total of 13 counter sheets it has a sizeable chit count, but not massive. The job of sorting them still took me a week, including a couple of restarts, and plenty of head scratching.


Intially I sorted all the U-boats numerically (U-1, U-2,..) until I discovered that was the wrong way to go about it. They are now sorted by their date of availability. The sub counters are pretty sweet. I'll get to clipping those corners sooner than later.



Next task. It quickly becomes apparent that sorting the subs was the easy part of this exercise. Figuring out a way break down all those surface vessels isn't going to be easy. I was fortunate to have a spare GMT tray on hand and my first attempt at sorting transports by tonnage looks workable.



With several classes of warships belonging to 10 nationalities...it took a while just figuring out where to start with what's left.



It took a couple of passes at sorting the warships and required some re-jigging of the tackle box container to make some extra space....plus the use of one plastic baggie...but they all went in  :P

[GJK]

That is neat stuff.  There's something about "prissying" up boardgames; laminating the charts, clipping counters, sorting, etc.  I've often thought about how utterly useless but how cool it would look if you could enclose each counter in a little mini screw down acrylic holder - sort of like a mini baseball card holder for the super high dollar cards that are used.  That way the counter could be protected forever (as long as you don't lose it).

Semi-on topic, but I just woke up to get ready for work and caught myself in a dream so I can remember it freshly; but my work was relocating our entire office to a "new" Manhattan (as in up in Yankee land) office.  I'm thinking about what will be different going from Texas to New York but as I awake my final thought is "well, at least I can still play my wargames".  How's that for prioritization??  :)

[W8taminute]

Very impressive setups guys.  Rekim that game looks very interesting if you can fill up 90% of a tackle box with just U-boats. 

[bob48]

Yeah, that's real neat. I must try and get my hands on some more GMT trays. I had to 'borrow' a couple from WaW to house the new Desert Heat counters, so a lot of the WaW stuff is now in baggies.

[BanzaiCat]

Looks like a still from a Tom Vasel video review.

Those Academy storage containers are the thing to go with, especially with minis. I should have bought a ton of them just before I left there this summer.

[Rekim]

Looks like a still from a Tom Vasel video review.

Those Academy storage containers are the thing to go with, especially with minis. I should have bought a ton of them just before I left there this summer.

Ya. I really don't get why the iPad takes such crappy pictures. On the other hand, I take pictures a lot more often than prior to owning it.

[GJK]

My only "problem" with a tackle box container unit such as that one is the depth of the compartments.  As you can see, most are only half filled (and that's with larger counters).  Personally, I like the Plano 3700 series (I think it is); the "shallow" well design and the compartments are rounded which makes counter retrieval even easier. Works great for every game and they stack up half the size of the larger tackle boxes so I can sometimes even get it to sit inside the game box.  Don't get me wrong, that's a nice tackle box as well, I just prefer a more shallow recess - especially when my fat fingers are trying to dig counters out of there. 

[BanzaiCat]

Looks like a still from a Tom Vasel video review.

Those Academy storage containers are the thing to go with, especially with minis. I should have bought a ton of them just before I left there this summer.

Ya. I really don't get why the iPad takes such crappy pictures. On the other hand, I take pictures a lot more often than prior to owning it.

No no, sorry, I was referring to the "baggie got a hole in it" picture. My OCD commends you on your organization, sir!

[Rekim]

Both Plano and Flambo (the brand of container used above) are available to me locally. I agree that the shallower compartments are preferable, however, in every instance so far I have gone with Flambo. While the Flambo gear is ~50% cheaper the primary reason I choose one container over others is how the capacity meets a specific need. For example, I used the exact same Flambo container to store each nationality of my ASL counters. All of the MMC, SMC, SW, Guns, Dummies and AFV counts for a single nationality fit in a single container and fill it up to a reasonable level. The Plano users I know require 2 or more containers for the same purpose. I've noticed that Raaco containers are popular with some of the hard core ASL players. Super expensive and not all that shallow either.

http://www.raaco.com/Product_list-1121.aspx?GroupID=Boxes%20ind%20CarryLite

I even know a couple of people who use empty match boxes for storing game counters  ::)  now that takes a special kind of crazy.

[GJK]

Yes, agreed.  With the shallow Plano's, you'll require more of them to get the job done; especially with ASL.  I've been to the Texas ASL tourney a few times where guys wheel in these plastic storage containers on wheels full of Plano's (and maps, etc).  ASL is just a whole different mindset - for most hardcore ASL players, it's *the only* game that they play and they are quite serious about it.  For other games, I find that a single shallow compartment Plano usually works but often it will require two (at most).  Not so bad.