As I’ve written before, I like using metal coins when playing board games, especially if they are unique to the game I’m playing. Since a lot of you enjoyed that post, here are some recent acquisitions. I thought I try also something new and give you a close up to enjoy the detail. Metal coin design is really an art in itself!
Trickerion Collector’s Edition
I was curious to try out Trickerion for a long time and I had heard so many great things about this game that I though I might as well get a Collector’s Edition and try out all the expansions. Turn’s out I don’t enjoy this game at all and I’ll re-sell it soon, but the coins are interesting.
They are a bit too thin for my taste and at various places the paint comes off, but the details on it are quite nice. Colour and size separation is also good, no confusing what’s what here. Strangely, there is no denomination on them!
Roam
Roam on the other hand is a game I enjoy quite a lot! It’s one of the smaller box Red Raven Games by Ryan Laukat for 2-4 players in which players place wooden tokens using patterns to claim majorities on cards, giving them access for new patterns to use to place yet more stores. I’m not sure if Ryan designs the metal coins in his games himself, but they are always top-notch.
The shape is a bit unusual with the bumpy back of the frog sticking out, but amazing thickness, great colour, great hand feel. If you have a copy of Roam and not the metal coins, get them! If you don’t own Roam, get Roam! It’s a lovely little game. And then get the metal coins!
Empires of the Void II
Another interesting design, another Ryan Laukat game! Empires of the Void II can easily be called a lesson in game design, there are so many interesting concepts in this one game (definitely planning on writing about it at some point). No wonder that a number of Ryan’s later games can trace their origin to mechanisms he either used or designed for Empires of the Void II. I think the game suffered a bit by people expecting an 4x space game when it’s more like “diplomatic undertakings in space”. Due to the unusual combat system, it’s rather difficult to defend planets one has claimed and instead things are ever shifting. As always has some lovely art und interesting story telling in it.
The metal coins are great: highly thematic, good thickness, clear colour and size separation, well done!
Hippocrates
I had been looking forward to trying out Hippocrates and finding a used copy with the metal coins included was definitely a plus. But the rather cheap price should have made me suspicious. Turns out the game is actually nice, but nothing to phone home about. The Kickstarter edition in particular features a comically large main board which is an embarrassment, no idea how they could think that would be a good idea.
They look great, however I wish they would be a hair thicker. Not bad, but not great either. I think if they had a bit more weight and thickness to them, I would have found many uses in other games for them. But the way they are, I don’t use them except when playing Hippocrates.
Hegemony
Ooooh, I had been looking forward to getting these. I had to wait a while for them to be available for purchase, but since I like Hegemony a lot (I even did an in-depth interview with Vangelis, one of the two designers), I’m super happy to have them now. Much nicer than the included cardboard money.
Really nice design, both front and back! Thickness is okay, however the colours and colour separation are a bit of an issue. We had multiple cases where someone mistook one denomination for another. Also half of the coins are super shiny which makes them look somewhat cheap.
Dune Imperium
To be fair, it’s not currency, but the metal starting player token included in the Deluxe Upgrade box deserves mentioning.
This thing is thick! I provides a very satisfying and audible chunk sound when you pace the first player marker to another player and place it on the table. When I opened the box, I wouldn’t have thought how much I would come to enjoy that this was part of the upgrade.
La Granja Deluxe Master Set
I had never played La Granja when I backed the German crowdfunded version, so I had skipped on the metal coins and extra donkey tokens. Turns out I enjoy this game a lot (will probably write about it in the future) and having all the modules to explore is also super fun. So I picked up another copy that had the add-ons and then re-sold the base game.
These are a bit small (and thus light) for my taste, but still nicely done. Happy to have them, which I can’t say for the also included metal VP markers. Those are way too shiny and could also have used a darkening pass.
Castles of Burgundy Deluxe Edition
I’m still debating if this might be a miss for me. My copy arrived a couple of months ago but since them, I haven’t done more than like 1-2 solo plays of it. Castles of Burgundy was one of my favourites games when the original came out, but nowadays? I think I’m missing the right people to play it with and should probably just stick to the app.
The metal coins are okay. The completionist in me is glad to have them, but it’s not that they have blown me away. They look okay, the size is okay, the thickness is okay. There is just something missing about them that would really make them stand out for me. Won’t use them except for this game.
Dead Reckoning
I’ve unfortunately re-sold this game before remembering to take a dedicated shot of the metal coins. So let me tell you: these are among the nicest coins I’ve seen in a game. Chunky thick, fit the theme well … only problem is one doesn’t really do anything with them in this game. They are VP that are put into a personal treasure chest, not currency that is picked up and spend during the course of the game. I was actually debating if I should keep them when I re-sold the game, but it was just too much money to have them lying around.
ICE
A similar story for ICE, I already don’t own it anymore. But at least I have a good shot of them from writing my first impressions. They aren’t actually coins but VP, but they looked nice and thickness was also good. However, there was something unremarkable about them, like I wouldn’t have missed them if they hadn’t been part of the used collector’s edition I had picked up.
Wrap Up
So that’s it, those are the coins that went into (and in some cases already out) of my collection again. I would say the lesson here is: if you pick up a Ryan Laukat game, get the metal coins! He consistently produces pleasing examples of what one can do with metal coin design. The ones for Hegemony are design-wise done really well, but shinyness and colour separation unfortunately make these less of an auto-buy recommendation.
I also got the metal cubes for Carnegie and Pipeline, which I like to play with, but they are just single colour cubes, so I omitted the images. For Carnegie, I would say skip on them, the wooden cubes are just fine. For Pipeline, having something that has some weight to it is great but the colours don’t match the original colours particularly well, so it’s a “if it’s for you, it’s for you” kind of decision.
Hope you enjoyed the pretty pictures! Let me know in the comments which metal coins you like to play with!