Anyone who follows me on Instagram or reads any of my tutorials knows I’m a component nut. I love high-quality components, and spend an inordinate amount of time upgrading my board games. One of the things that annoys me even more than strictly poor-quality components are inconsistent components.

Inconsistency most often (at least with the games I’m used to) manifests in thin, flimsy, card-stock player boards. It’s a frequent choice by publishers that frustrates me. Games like Yamatai, Terraforming Mars, Great Western Trail, and Heaven & Ale all suffer from this inconsistency. Publishers will come up with any number of excuses as to why they do this. My favorite BS reason is “they’re harder to bump and scatter components” which is just flat false (they’re not harder to bump, just different).

The real reason is simple: Cost. It’s cheaper to print and cut cardstock than laminated chipboard. It also saves weight. Not much, admittedly, but when you take an ounce out of every box on a pallet, it all adds up.

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to fix this issue by mounting those flimsy player boards to chipboard. It gives them a little more heft, an aesthetic boost, and helps them to match the look and feel of your other board game components.

And yes: This is a purely aesthetic upgrade! We’re not creating dual-layered, recessed boards here. We’re just making nicer player boards. If you have an issue with purely aesthetic upgrades… why are you reading this tutorial?

MATERIALS NEEDED

A Note About Corner Punches: Most craft punches, like the ones made by Fiskars, will not cut chipboard. The one I link to above is, in my experience, the best option for rounding the corners on chipboard components. Wargamers have been using Oregon Lamination corner punches for decades to smooth out the corners on the chits for hex-and-counter games, and they’re right on the money. These punches are amazing. Accept no substitutes.

The first decision you have to make is whether or not you’re comfortable directly mounting the boards that come with the game, or if you want to scan and print copies so you can leave the included boards in their original condition. I, personally, just mount the boards that come with the game because it saves me time, and when I have sold games with mounted boards, I’ve never had anyone complain that they weren’t original.

The second decision you need to make is whether you care if the boards have graphics on the back. For games like GWT and Heaven & Ale this is a purely aesthetic choice, as the backs of the player boards are just artwork. If you’re going to do this sort of upgrade for something like Castles of Burgundy, where the player boards are double-sided, you’ll need to have access to a scanner and decent inkjet printer. I’ll detail how to do the back-sides of game boards at the end of this tutorial.

SELECTING AND/OR PRINTING THE BOARD FRONT

There are two ways to go here: Either mount the actual game boards to chipboard, or scan, print, and cut out copies the game boards. If you’re using the actual game boards, you can just skip to the next section.

I don’t have a lot of advice for scanning. You’ll need access to a high-resolution scanner with at least a US Letter-sized scanning bed (the vast majority of player boards fall under this size). Scan at a higher resolution than you think you need – I typically scan at 600 DPI. You shouldn’t need to make too many adjustments to the final scan, but you can always tinker with the colors if you’re so inclined.

Once the scan is complete, print it out on good-quality stock using a high-resolution printer. I have an older Canon Pro 9000 MkII printer, and I print on Neenah Paper’s CLASSIC Linen Digital in Avalanche White. The linen finish adds a nice texture to the board and feels nice to the touch. It’s a good aesthetic choice for game boards.

Once you’ve printed the image, you have two choices: You can mount it to the chipboard before cutting, or after cutting. Mounting before cutting saves a little bit of time since you don’t have to do two cuts. It doesn’t hurt to trim away some of the excess paper before mounting, though. Either way, you’re going to mount your finished image to slightly-oversized chipboard and cut it out, which I’ll detail in the next section.

MOUNTING AND CUTTING THE BOARD FACE

Whether you’re using the actual game boards or your own prints, the process of mounting and cutting the boards is pretty much identical. You want a piece of chipboard a bit larger than the board you’re mounting to it:

Then, spray a generous amount of spray adhesive to the back of the game board you’re mounting. Don’t spray the chipboard in this step – always do the game board.

Lay the board, glue side down (duh), on the chipboard sheet. I suggest AGAINST trying to align the edge of the board with the chipboard; that way lies madness. It’s easier to just drop the board onto the chipboard and trim away the excess, and it will produce cleaner results.

Place the glued board onto a cutting mat (don’t cut over a surface you don’t want marred) and tightly align your metal ruler with the edge of the game board.

I’m comfortable eyeballing this step, but if you want a nifty trick/shortcut, you can take another straightedge and butt it right up against the outside edge of the game board, then just slide your metal ruler right up to it to line everything up.


Put pressure on the ruler so it doesn’t move, then cut away the excess chipboard.

Important Note on Cutting: Do not try to cut through the chipboard in one cut. You’ll dull your blade faster and generally end up with a rougher edge. Use firm but not hard pressure and cut through the board in multiple passes. With a new, very sharp blade, It’ll usually take 2-3 passes. As the blade dulls over time it may take up to 5-6 passes, but be patient and don’t try to force it. The final product will look nicer if you take your time.

Repeat the same process for all four sides of the board.

And you’re done! Well, maybe…

If you don’t care about having artwork on the back of the board or you’re not creating double-sided boards, then this is the end of the process. Now you have a nice, mounted player board instead of a flimsy thin one!

CREATING AND MOUNTING THE BOARD BACK (OPTIONAL)

The scanning and creation of the board back is identical to the steps I laid out at the beginning of this tutorial for the board front, so I won’t repeat those steps here (just refer back to the first section).

There is one important difference: Before printing the back, you’ll want to scale it up by about 3%. Use whatever editing software you’re comfortable with to do this.

Scaling the image up will create a bleed that allows you to ensure the graphics go right up to the edge of the finished board without any unsightly white lines. Rather than spend a lot of time describing this, I’ll just illustrate it in the pictures below.

Once you’ve printed your back, lay it face down on a light box so you can see the image through the paper.

If you don’t have a light box, use a window to mark the edges of the image on the back of the paper, like this:

Then draw lines on the back of the print to mark the edges of the image, like this:

This way, you’ll be able to line up the placement of your board even if you don’t have a light box available.

Now, apply a generous layer of spray adhesive to the back (blank) side of your already mounted player board.

Then, using either the light box or the marked lines from the last step, place the board glue side down (duh) onto the backing.

NOTE: Make sure the top edge of the backing is facing the correct direction so you don’t accidentally end up with an upside-down graphic on the back of your board.

Place your mounted board onto a cutting mat and align your metal ruler with the edge of the board, and use your xActo knife to cut away the excess paper, making sure the blade lines up exactly with the edge of the chipboard. The reason we use a metal ruler in this step is to ensure the xActo blade doesn’t accidentally bite into the edge of the chipboard and unintentionally carve away a section of your board. Again, when cutting, use firm but not hard pressure. Even if it takes two cuts to get through the paper (it shouldn’t with a sharp blade) it’s worth going slow.

Then, repeat the process for all four sides.

Now, if you’re using normal paper like this, you’ll need to apply a few coats of varnish to ensure the ink doesn’t peel, fade, or become marked. Spray the back side of the board with acrylic sealer in fine, light coats, waiting about 15-20 minutes between coats, until you’ve built up a nice surface.

DON’T try to shortcut this process by spraying a single heavy coat! A heavy coat of sealant will create a blotchy effect and can potentially soak through your linen paper and undermine the adhesive underneath.

And you’re done! Well… maybe.

Unless you want to round the corners of the board for aesthetic purposes, that is.

PUNCHING THE CORNERS (OPTIONAL)

As I mentioned at the start, you’ll want a good, heavy-duty corner rounder for this step. The only ones I’ve found that truly work consistently and make nice, smooth cuts are the punches from Oregon Lamination. The link above will take you to the exact punch I use.

This step is easy: Slide the corners of your finished board into the punch and squeeze. That’s it.

This will produce a nice, rounded edge to your boards that, in my personal opinion, is much more aesthetically pleasing than squared corners.

This also helps prevent the corners from getting damaged in storage or if you drop a board.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Now, you have nice, mounted player boards that match the look and feel of the other mounted components in the game!

This is one of my favorite simple upgrades for games. I’ve done this upgrade to many of my games now, and I just like the final result better than simple cardstock boards.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I’d love to see your results if you follow this tutorial for your own player boards. Happy gaming!

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Category: Tutorials