Worst box inserts
Krzysztof Zięba
(Lord_Kristof)
Poland
Kraków
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There are some great box inserts out there, designed in such a way that everything fits perfectly and snuggly. You pack the game and you can do whatever you want with the box - the components will stay in place.
Then again, there are those that are either:
a) too big for the components, leaving a lot of free, unused space
b) too small for the components, which has to end with either throwing out the insert (which I don't like doing), or storing the components outside the original box
c) ok, but there's no logic in the design at all

Whine with me, add away.
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1. Board Game: Chaos in the Old World [Average Rating:7.68 Overall Rank:121]
Board Game: Chaos in the Old World
Krzysztof Zięba
(Lord_Kristof)
Poland
Kraków
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The game that inspired this list.
Come on, the box designer had to be a genius to create a box which doesn't fit the figures after punching out all of the tokens and placing the board on top... There's sooooo much wasted space there, I'm very tempted to take out the insert and will probably do that when I buy a good storing solution for the figures...
 
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2. Board Game: A Touch of Evil: Hero Pack 1 [Average Rating:7.48 Unranked] [Average Rating:7.48 Unranked]
Board Game: A Touch of Evil: Hero Pack 1
Krzysztof Zięba
(Lord_Kristof)
Poland
Kraków
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Nice plastic insert that fits all the pieces of this expansion (not much of them) and... nothing else. After ditching it, you get a lot of space for all the Hero and Villain cards and other components...
And they haven't designed a different Encounter Sheet for the Necromancer, even though it would fit with no trouble at all...
 
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3. Board Game: Kingsburg [Average Rating:7.20 Overall Rank:350]
Board Game: Kingsburg
Krzysztof Zięba
(Lord_Kristof)
Poland
Kraków
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The components take up half of the box. At most. You could divide all of them and fill it up partially, but why bother? String bags for the win...
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4. Board Game: Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game [Average Rating:6.91 Overall Rank:1242]
Board Game: Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game
William Collins
(willco)
United States
San Diego
California
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Man. I mean, man, this one is bad. The most useless of all inserts. Not even designed to hold the cards it comes with! And it has pretty printing on it, too!
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5. Board Game: Maharaja: The Game of Palace Building in India [Average Rating:7.13 Overall Rank:687]
Board Game: Maharaja: The Game of Palace Building in India
Tim Synge
(Tim Synge)
United Kingdom
TEIGNMOUTH
Devon
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Oddly enough, it all looks much better in this photo than it ever does in practice ...
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6. Board Game: Dominion [Average Rating:7.62 Overall Rank:97] [Average Rating:7.62 Unranked]
Board Game: Dominion
Tim Synge
(Tim Synge)
United Kingdom
TEIGNMOUTH
Devon
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This one is well documented.

There *is* space for everything, but it's hard to see any logic in the design. And it was particularly difficult for those of us who purchased this before anyone thought of providing a labelled strip to put in the box ...
 
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7. Board Game: Maharaja: The Game of Palace Building in India [Average Rating:7.13 Overall Rank:687]
Board Game: Maharaja: The Game of Palace Building in India
Philip von Doomula
(Quarashi)
United States
Hermon
ME
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I know it was made for another game, I just don't know what.
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8. Board Game: Britannia [Average Rating:7.20 Overall Rank:724]
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Andreas Johansson
(Orcoteuthis)
Sweden
Linköping
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The FFG edition has an aggressively unhelpful insert with a number of compartments that don't correspond at all in size and shape to any of the components. It's apparently reused from another FFG game, but I don't recall which.
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9. Board Game: Stone Age [Average Rating:7.57 Overall Rank:109] [Average Rating:7.57 Unranked]
Board Game: Stone Age
dustin boggs
(ramkitty)
Canada
Victoria
BC
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I thought it was cleverly designed for the box to fit tight post punch but the box fits equally poor after punching. There was a clever post about cutting a notch out of both sides of the insert to inlay the player boards allowing the box to shut tight. The dice cup requires squishing for the box to shut tight as well.
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10. Board Game: Pandemic [Average Rating:7.61 Overall Rank:99]
Board Game: Pandemic
Murray C
(MrScaryMuffin)
Canada
Vancouver
British Colombia
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The cardboard insert has space for the cards, only it isn't stable enough to actually keep the cards in place. I ended up flipping the insert upside down to create a space between the insert and the gamebox that was a good size to keep cards in and ziploc bagged everything else.

Worse is when you get the On the Brink expansion, since it is impossible to stuff everything into one box. I ended up repurposing my Settlers of Catan box to hold everything (all Catan stuff was in the Seafarers box anyways).
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11. Board Game: Trapper [Average Rating:6.10 Overall Rank:8773]
Board Game: Trapper
Brian Moore
(Hopalong)
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
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This one really is useless - whatever game the insert is for - it isn't this one!
 
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12. Board Game: Qwirkle [Average Rating:6.78 Overall Rank:793]
Board Game: Qwirkle
William Hostman
(aramis)
United States
Alsea
OR
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The insert is for the pallatized blocks. Unless you want to put it back neatly stacked, the bag-o-pieces won't fit with the insert in. But at least it has a hole for removing the insert.
 
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13. Board Game: Roads & Boats [Average Rating:7.73 Overall Rank:391]
Board Game: Roads & Boats
Thomas Lang
(Junkfoot)
Germany
Gaißach
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Just. What the hell. No insert at all and a gazillion tiles? Wow that really sucks.

Then again, Splotter is a small company. Still... just terrible and other Splotter games aren't much better (and yes, I'm looking at you, Indonesia!)
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14. Board Game: Escape: The Curse of the Temple [Average Rating:6.99 Overall Rank:538]
Board Game: Escape: The Curse of the Temple
Andrew
(aaj94)
United States
Kansas City
Missouri
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Sorry, best picture I can find.

Apparently, Queen Games thought it would be a great idea to fill about half of the box with folded cardboard -- the two ridges on the side make the insert narrower than the width of the box. Ok, fine. The insert is split in two, and the narrower side of the insert just happens to be wide enough to fit the tiles in a stack. Ok, also fine.

Except there are more tiles than can fit in one stack, and because of the useless air on the sides, you can't fit two stacks of tiles adjacent to each other (hard to explain, but clear if you own the game)

To make matters worse, the larger half of the insert is ALSO too narrow to hold two stacks of tiles long-wise, because of the smaller half, so you're left with max, two stacks of tiles, one in each half, with the bagged components filling up the empty space. Huge waste of space, and forget about the expansions.

Escape is the first game on my list to get a custom foamboard insert. Can't stand the default one.
 
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15. Board Game: Coup: Rebellion G54 [Average Rating:7.04 Overall Rank:1179]
Board Game: Coup: Rebellion G54
Ben MacFarlane
(bmacfarlane)
United States
Cambridge
Massachusetts
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The Indie Boards & Cards version of this game is one of the worst instances of an unnecessarily oversized box I've ever seen. Comparing it to the original, it has about 475% the volume!

IB&C version - Size: 9.84 x 7.87 x 3.15 inches or 25.0 x 20.0 x 8.0 cm
La Mame version - Size: 6.30 x 4.13 x 1.97 inches or 16.0 x 10.5 x 5.0 cm
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