My friend, Sen-Foong Lim (designer of Belfort, co-host of Meeple Syrup) knows I’m a big fan of Terra Mystica, so he hooked me up with some component trays from Game Trayz while we were at the Gathering of Friends. When he first offered them to me, I almost declined, since I have no problem with my current system: empty bags into ramekins, and sort and stack all the tiles neatly. No fancy trays needed. Why do I need something extra? But that was before I laid eyes on these beauties.

When I first saw them, I could feel tears welling in my eyes. “They’re perfect”, I said. The first thing I did when I got home was to take Terra Mystica off the shelf, take the components out of their bags and slot them into the Game Trayz. It was remarkable how snugly everything fit into them.

The way the favour and town tiles tilt in and out of their slots as you press on them is truly a thing of beauty. Plus, the lid that fits over tray is such a good fit that nothing can possibly move around once it’s packed up, meaning setup time for this beast of a game is reduced dramatically. My only complaint with this particular tray is a small one; the indents to tilt the pieces out of their slots are ever so slightly too large, causing some tiles to dip, especially if they’re the last in their stack.

The other tray houses all your coins, terrain tiles, power tokens, and worker cubes. These are the types of things we would usually bring out ramekins for, but having them all in one compact little tray is way more attractive than I thought it could be. You’ll need two of these for the base game, and a third if you pick up the Fire & Ice expansion. I’m actually quite glad they didn’t make just one tray big enough to hold all these tokens, as the game takes up so much table space that having two or three of these in different places is very convenient. The slot for the 1 value coins is a weee tight, but that’s a very minor gripe.

Honestly, I never would have believed I needed these until I had them. But after seeing how beautiful the Euphoria trays are, I find myself wishing I owned the game just so I could have an excuse to buy the trays. I’m looking forward to seeing which games that Game Trayz will deck out next. I’m looking at you, Castles of Mad King Ludwig!

Highly recommended.