My first Broken Token organizer

My first Broken Token organizer

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I finally had some time to assemble the Broken Token organizer for Caverna, both of which I received on my birthday.  Caverna is a game with a million little pieces, both in plastic and cardboard form, and having an organizer for it seriously saves like 20 minutes for setup and cleanup of the game. And having the organizer ensures that the piles of resources are contained and don’t get out of hand, thereby saving space at your gaming table.

I first encountered a Broken Token organizer for this game back at Strategicon, and I said to myself that I would never play Caverna without it again. With the organizer, you open the box, pop out the two trays, pass out the tableaus and place the little rooms on the board. Easy peasy!

This is what it looks like when you open Caverna for the first time. Beneath the many bags of resources is 8 sheets of cardboard that require punching out as well as player boards.
This is what it looks like when you open Caverna for the first time. Beneath the many bags of resources is 8 sheets of cardboard that require punching out as well as player boards.

It took a little over an hour to build the Broken Token organizer, but I had also opened my copy of Caverna for the first time, which meant punching out 8 sheets of cardboard bits. I then opened the organizer and laid it out in front of me and started reading the instructions, which was a page and a half long, printed out on an 8.5×11″ piece of paper folded in half. The instructions were pretty easy to follow since they carefully labeled each piece on the wood sheet to correspond to a particular letter. There isn’t actual text in the instructions but just diagrams with letters, kind of like an Ikea manual but way more less ambigious.

The Broken Token assembly instructions clearly mark each piece with a different letter.
The Broken Token assembly instructions clearly mark each piece with a different letter.

I laid out the 7 sheets of cut-out wood in the order it’s marked in the manual so that it was easy for me to follow. There’s one line in the instructions in red that says “Note: Some glue may be required when assembling the token trays.”  Since I’ve never worked with wood pieces before nor have assembled a Broken Token tray before, I didn’t realize how important this one line would be until later when I was putting the trays back into the box.

Folks, make sure you have wood glue on hand! My friend recommended using Elmer’s Wood Glue. Anywhoo …

Here's an overview of all the wooden sheets that came with the organizer.
Here’s an overview of all the wooden sheets that came with the organizer.

I decided to tackle the top try first. I carefully jiggered the wooden pieces from the sheet to assemble the tray that holds all the food, animal and mineral resources. I really liked how the company has etched the resource onto the tray so that you know which pieces go into that space.

Here's the top tray of the organizer. You can clearly see which pieces go into which space.
Here’s the top tray of the organizer. You can clearly see which pieces go into which space.

Next up was the bottom tray. This one was a little bit harder to assemble because all the pieces were not quite holding together. I didn’t realize at this point that glue would’ve been super helpful but instead thought that once I got all the pieces hooked in together that it would hold itself.  I also decided to build the player-marker divider, which is optional, according to the instructions. I get so indecisive about customization and figured that if Broken Token had created it, then I will use it.

Here are the top and bottom trays for Caverna. They are now ready to be filled!
Here are the top and bottom trays for Caverna. They are now ready to be filled!

Lastly, I started filling in the trays with the Caverna pieces and everything looked so awesome and organized! I was feeling really proud of myself for assembling everything and started to put the bottom tray back into the box (not before taking a photo, of course). Just as I lifted the bottom tray, the Broken Token pieces came off and all of the cardboard spilled into the box. Gaahhhh!!

And that’s when I realized I should’ve been gluing as I was building. Anyway, it’s all good. I will spend some time this week gluing everything securely. Bottom line: the organizer is fantastic, and I look forward to playing Caverna sometime in the near future!

Look how organized everything is! The Broken Token organizer for Caverna is a must-have for the game. But don't forget to glue your organizer together.
Look how organized and gorgeous everything is! The Broken Token organizer for Caverna is a must-have for the game. But don’t forget to glue your organizer together.

A fun last photo of the cardboard sheets that came with Caverna. And this doesn't include all the wooden and plastic pieces that are in little ziploc bags.
A fun last photo of the cardboard sheets that came with Caverna. And this doesn’t include all the wooden and plastic pieces that are in little ziploc bags. No wonder the box is so heavy!

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