Carcassonne Central

unofficial expansion sets .
I love them. But how do you make them ?
I print them out on A4 labels and stick these onto the blanc Carcassonne cards you can buy at HiG
but what do you do with the tokens ?

The tokens are double sided.  Just print them as usual and stick them onto hard cardboard that you can get from any craft stores.  Then cut them out with a cardboard knife (ask at the craft store for the proper knife if you don't already have one).

off to the craftstore than ;-)

how do you make your tiles ? Do you also use the blanc ones from HIG ?

It's too expansive for me to buy blank tiles from HIG.  I've been buying discounted boxes of Count and Rivers2 from my boardgame store and using those instead (I don't use the tower dispenser) of blank tiles.  I'm happy that now there's C,S & C as I can get the correct background for my tiles!

I've discovered that if you can find a basic Carcassonne set on sale or at a used price, that's the best penny per tile value. And one purchase will set you up for a while...

a basic set costs around 15euro and consists of 72 tiles
the blanc HIG tiles cost 5 euro for 60 tiles ...

Where would you get blank HiG tiles from?

You can order blank tiles from HiG... try their website.

I'm in Canada and unfortunately don't read German.  Can you give us the link to the order area for these tiles?

You need to send someone an email.  Send a Private Message to koolkat to ask him for the email.

I've made some of the customs tiles.  This picture only includes ones that were attached to current tiles.  I'm working on tiles attached to chipboard.  I'll try to post more pictures after those are done. 

Edit: Photo removed for space

What backs are they?  Are they all normal or are some Starting/River backs?


I've been looking for chipboard of the proper thickness all over the place, what do you use?

Blank tiles sold by HiG have regular backs!!!

Thanks!  This means I am in the same boat as the OP, at least for some of the tiles I want to make.  If I can ever find chipboard in the right size that is.

The chipboard needs to be 2mm thick.  Mine came up a little less than that, but the difference isn't that noticeable to me

I just use (very) thick card and craft glue the images on... it works all right...

btw, I'm about to go on holiday in about an hour...

Well I'm happy to report that my project is now complete.  I made Gold Mines, Fruit Traders, Fishermen, Kettle of Fish, Families, Lavender Fields, Medieval Expansion, Thanksgiving and Winter 2008, Mathguy89 and Mathguy2008, and probably a few more that I'm forgetting right now.  Haven't made the Forests, may get to those at some point.  To all the Authors and designers of these tiles thank-you for all your hard work.  It isn't nearly enough, but I hope that people enjoying your tiles makes the work worth it.

Sorry for the poor quality, it's a cellphone pic.

I see about half a dozen mathguy tiles and a Family Feud (or is that families?) tile.  I know that roundabout tile was done by me... but I have no idea which expansion it's from.

Did you have to resize the other tiles (that you didn't add any watermarks)?

I think it's family feud - it's the updated one that has 30 tiles.  The roundabout was in the Winter 2008 set.

I don't think I had to do any resizing, but I had the sizing done weeks ago, so I really don't remember.

By the way, considering the work done by people, I'll be handing out more Author badges in another week or so. Thus if you do not have an Author badge but feel you deserve one, drop me a PM in case I miss you on the next round of promos.

Really?  I'll definitely have to bring tiles with me when I go shopping for chipboard then.  The tiles measure just shy of 1/8 inch (I'm in the US and yes I don't have a metric rule handy  ;) ) and 1/8 of an inch is just over 3mm.  So, I figured the tiles were 3mm (or close enough to work).

The tiles look to be made of 3 layers, which I had previously assumed to be 3 sheets of 1mm chipboard glued and pressed.  When I actually find chipboard that is uncut I'll post back the sizes and some pics of what I made.

Scott measured the tiles with a digital caliper thing.  You can see his results at:

http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=642.0

That's awesome, thanks Novelty!

You can also convert metric to imperial with Google.

I'm just curious:

Question for mathguy and koolkat (and anyone who has created tiles with the "blank" tiles from CS&C expansion) - what glue did you use for the tiles?

I actually used full page label paper.  Printed onto that, then applied the label to the chipboard and cut the tiles.  I would imagine that any kind of decent glue, beyond the sticks and Elmer's (brand name in the US) should work.  Personally I would have tried Rubber Cement if not for the labels.

Well I cut each individual tile drawing and used paper glue so I can adjust the drawing to the tile after I glue it. But I have to be carefull or the paper will unglue. It's dead simple. No hard work.

Thanks guys.  I used a glue stick (Uhu) for mine.

That's what I use, Novelty!

Do you use the tower or a bag or something else when you play?  Does the paper come off easily?

tbh a gluestick is the worst method at all imho. i'm using din a4 pvc stickers. for printing i use a nashuatec mp c4000 (same as océ or ricoh) laserprinter.

I'm not sure I understand.  Can you explain why you think this is so?

- you get no plain surface
- bad durability
- you have to take care not to get glue on your fingers and so the the printed side
- the edges are not easy to glue perfectly

... just compare with printable stickers (din a4 plastic foil ... dont know if this is the correct name) which dont has all these negative points and _not_ talking about the better color results i got on these instead of paper (using a laser printer) ...

Novelty, I use the bread bag, I mean the bag used for shopping bread, made of tissue.
If you're very demanding, glue stick is not the better solution. But it goes fairly well with me. After glueing tiles I wait glue to dry for a couple of hours. If fingers get glue, wash them!... It's not very difficult to glue tiles on the sides if we fold the paper just after positioning it on the tile and if we cut well the paper corners, if I made myself clear... From now and then some tiles unglue but if you reglue them better they won't unglue again... And if you're careful glue won't go either to the drawing or to the back. Apply the glue on the tile, not on the paper... :)

I can live with those.  I'm the worst person with using stickers!  Like koolkat, I like to be able to "move" the "new tile" around so that I get the "perfect" fit of image on the tile.  I will start making some River tiles soon.

Correction: WE are the worst persons using stickers.  ;D

I have found that using chipboard solves this problem, somewhat.  I print to a full sheet label (us-letter, 8.5x11) and roughly stick it to an 8.5x11 piece of .08 chipboard.  Then I cut out the top based on the guild lines on the tile print (cutting both the top print and the chipboard).  Then it is only a matter of cutting out the back (also on full sheet labels) and placing them...for which I don't really care how centered they are.  Once the backs are places I cut the back sheet by placing the tile face up (so the back is on the cutting board and the sticky side of the back sheet is exposed) and then I cut along the edge of the chipboard.  Worked great by my standards, I have them pressed between big heavy books at the moment - I'm hoping a few days under pressure will set the sticky and keep any edges/corners from curling up on me once I start playing with them.

In my experience, glue sticks are the worst for actually sticking. Liquid school glue is slightly better. Craft glue is even better. However, I prefer label paper because I have the option to remove the graphic at a later point in time and apply something different. There are some types of glue that are "repositionable". We have some kicking around the house but nobody has tried doing anything with it yet.

i am demanding and a perfectionist, i tried several options before for other games and this gave the best results, even tried 7 different types of color laser printers ;-) from cheap samsung and hp up to expensive nashuatec and océ which was the best in the end. also tried different sorts of label paper and foil. the pvc laser label foil also was the best solution in the end. ok, neither the foil nor printing is the cheapest option but in the end it pays of, no re-doing, no re-glueing and the best optic ...