Component materials

Beyond cards and the box, most game components come from a fairly standard menu of materials, each with its own cost and feel. Punchboard, the die-cut cardboard used for tokens, tiles, and player boards, is compressed greyboard with printed paper laminated to one or both sides, usually 1.5mm to 2mm thick. It is cheap per piece, prints beautifully, and is the default answer for flat components. Thicker punchboard feels more premium and punches more cleanly.

Wooden components, the classic meeples and cubes, are typically beech or similar hardwood, tumbled with paint or stained. Standard shapes from the factory catalog (cubes, discs, standard meeples) are inexpensive because they exist in bulk. Custom-shaped meeples require new cutting dies, and screen-printed detail on wood adds a per-piece cost. Wood reads as warm and premium to players and is often cheaper than people expect for standard shapes.

Plastic ranges from cheap standard pawns to injection-molded custom miniatures. Custom plastic is the big-ticket item: each unique sculpt needs a steel mold that can cost from several hundred to several thousand dollars before a single piece is made, which is why miniatures games need high volumes or high prices to work. For low quantities, resin casting or high-detail alternatives exist but cost more per piece. Standard catalog plastic (pawns, discs, gems) carries no tooling cost.

Specialty components, metal coins, custom dice, cloth bags, acrylic tokens, neoprene mats, all exist in Chinese factory catalogs and all add cost and sometimes separate minimums. A useful discipline: for each component, ask whether it changes how the game plays or only how it photographs. Upgrade the pieces players touch every turn first.