While most people will associate board games with paper components. Cards to play with, a board to play on. Punchout tokens to keep track of the score. But in many ways, wooden components pre-date paper components when it comes to games. Without classic wooden games such as chess, go, backgammon and checkers. We might have had the amazing board games that we have today. There’s a good chance your first introduction to analog games was with one of these games!
But wooden components have come a long way, and are justifiably so a key component of many board games. And the best part is that we can do a whole lot more with them now. While a chess piece with its tonal colorway may not be the most exciting. The technologies we have available now sure are.
Thanks to technological advances, a lot more is possible at very affordable price points. Super precise laser cutting? No problem. Silkscreening an image on a meeple? Heat transfer print high quality, detailed images directly on wood? Consider it done. And guess what component, in our opinion, benefitted from these developments the most?
Without a doubt the most iconic wooden component of the entire board game industry, the meeple. Time and time again we are amazed at the creativity and originality of game publishers and designers. When we see yet another take on what, in essence, is a relatively easy and straightforward component. What is so great about meeples is that by adding small, even tiny details. And changing shapes ever so slightly. They are instantly recognizable for what they represent, despite being a very abstract piece.
Plenty of special finishes
Wooden components can range from small painted cubes, discs and blocks. To painted, printed or laser etched ones that can have an amazing level of detail. And with the high quality wood that Boda Games uses, you can be sure they will feel nice to handle and play with too. Because at the end of the day, that is still the most important thing. Having great wooden pieces to play even greater games!
