The board game Carcassonne has been a favorite at my house for quite a while now. So with access to the laser engraver and a 3D printer, I decided to make a customized version. The game consists of wood tiles with different combinations of castles, roads, fields, rivers, and cloisters (monasteries). The board as built as you go, with each player picking up a tile and placing it prior to their turn. Every player has 8 pieces (fondly referred to as "meeples" in the game) that can be played on these items for various points. I really enjoy the game because it can be played collectively rather than just competitively and is very easy to learn.

Fortunately for my making, the game is pretty simple relative to other games. I just need to print 48 meeples (8 in six different colors). I found some already designed meeples on Thingiverse.com that had been customized in different ways (a wizard, a king, a warrior, an archer), so I thought it would be fun to try those. They are quite small, and it took around 30 minutes to print all 8 of the grey ones seen below.  This first batch were supposed to have arching bows in their left hands, but the thinness of the bow didn't come through on the final object. That's not a problem, though, now they just look like regular meeples.

The meeples in the software.

Meeples post-printing...you may notice that the archer bows did not come out in the final prints, but that isn't a problem.

I also designed and engraved around 70 wood tiles for the game. The original game only has 64 pieces, but I added some so that the game could be played with six people instead of five. You can see the original file that I created and the printed tiles below. I used a thicker wood than craft board for durability, so I had to vector cut the tiles multiples tiles so that they would come out cleanly.

Wooden game pieces (there are lots more...)

All the troops meeples lined up

Overall, I am very pleased with the result and look forward to playing the game!