Mill Box

[kkokkolis]

I have this Σκάκι/Ντάμα/Ταύλι set (Chess/Checkers/Backgammon).


We play regularly with my wife and occasionally with our kids and visitors.

Greek "tavli" contains three subgames, played in a row, up to 3, 5 or 7 wins. Portes (western backgammon), Plakoto & Feuga. Sometimes Assodyo (US Navy Acey-Deucy) and Gioul Bara (Turkish Feuga) is played too. We usually hit hard the checkers on the board, so we don't like velvet boards. This is oak (with olive root print) with mother of pearl checkers, I also have olive checkers as a backup.



I didn't like chess pieces moving inside and making noise. Neither having to remove them one by one to play the games. I used a bag, but still I had to lie them flat every time.

Furthermore, I like to play the Mill (9 Men Morris).

I had this simple wooden box from my daughter's painting set. It fits perfectly inside the chess box, after removing the handle.



I intended to use the pyrograph, but eventually I was happy with the outcome of a permanent marker (what you call a Sharpie.

ΠΕΣΣΟΙ means "pieces" in Ancient (and Modern) Greek. The Greeks played at least three games with Πεσσούς και Αστραγάλους (pieces and dices). Chess was called Ζατρίκιον, meaning "complete dominance".



Now we can play Mill and when playing the tavli I just remove the box immediately.




Chess pieces, back up tavli pieces, dices and a set with 2x9 smaller pieces for the Mill fit inside perfectly and with a relaxed order. Some flat foam material provides some degree of protection.



I used my Swisschamp XLT, a ruler, an IKEA pencil and a marker to do this and I'm very happy with the (amateurish nevertheless) outcome.

Wanna play?

[ToolJoe]

This looks like an all in one board game fun center. Nice job! 

[AimlessWanderer]

Very nice 

[AlephZero]

Beautiful chessboard too

[kkokkolis]

Thanks. It travels me back to my university days.

[Don Pablo]

It's always nice to see things being neatly customised to be perfect for the user. 

[kkokkolis]

I added today that Petit Corona box, my wife bought me 15 years ago from Amsterdam. It still had 8 cigars in there (I was a pipe smoker you see and now I vape for 6 years in a row). It fits inside the tavli, with room to spare. But it prohibits the bigger Mill box from moving and hitting the side panels.



It is big enough for two sets of Dominoes, a double six and a double nine.



Now I have all my favourite classic abstract strategy boardgames in one place. I can't think of another one. I like Stratego but it is big. I like Chinese Checkers but not as much as Draughts and Dama. I never played Go. Othello is played on the Chessboard, but I don't have the pieces and I'm the only one who plays it in the house (on electronic devices always.

In the meantime I put a double card deck for rumi games, an UNO deck and a Speed Limit deck in a little pouch. I love Speed Limit.

[TazzieRob]

 

Very nice, and practical to be able to store it all away like that 

[kkokkolis]

It's all about enjoyment. The best part is that I play with my beloved people, mainly my wife. I keep inside the mill box my grandpa's fatouran amber komboloi (what's left of it) and I play with it while we play tavli.



I enjoy dominoes a lot lately. I play All fives (American) because it's the version you find easily online. My wife likes it also.

I filled the dead space left with a cribbage board (for keeping scores in All Fives Dominoes, it goes to 30 and 60, 150 or 300 respectively) and a mini double six set. You can see them on the left. The white and red pegs are obvious. They both fit in the boxes, but I put them there at the moment.

[kkokkolis]

I'm enjoying this very much.

I exchanged the double 9 set for a big tile colored double 6, because that's what we use almost always.
Yesterday we played, using the Cribbage set. It was much easier to use the bigger tiles and keep scoring. My daughter beat the hell out of us. She was always a prodigy in Mathematics and she just finished the Polytechnic school. I rarely enjoy loosing, but this time I did.



I bought a mini olive wood backgammon piece set for playing the Mill (now able to play 12 Men Morris and Lasker's 10 Men version also. Forgot to take a pic.

Now I think that only a Pick Up Stick set would fit, isnide the smaller box. The komboloi fills the void snuggly.

[kkokkolis]

It seems that there is always an even better way to exploit available space. 3 sets of double six, in 3 different sizes, plus cribbage board and dices, fit tightly in the cigar box. There's some room left. Poker dices? Tangram pieces? Something else?

[kkokkolis]

It's Tangram pieces!

The lid won't close by a hair when the Tangrams are put inside their base ( unless I do some planing, which I might do). But everything fits this way and now nothing moves.
Almost finished my manic trip to brain game OCD oceans.

[TazzieRob]

Where's your deck of cards for Crib?

[kkokkolis]

I keep cards elsewere, double deck, UNO and Speed Limit.


We don't play Cribbage, so I use the Cribbage board for Domino Scoring. In Muggins (All Five) we play, every hole counts for 5 points.

[sLaughterMed]

I added today that Petit Corona box, my wife bought me 15 years ago from Amsterdam. It still had 8 cigars in there (I was a pipe smoker you see and now I vape for 6 years in a row). It fits inside the tavli, with room to spare. But it prohibits the bigger Mill box from moving and hitting the side panels.

(Image removed from quote.)

It is big enough for two sets of Dominoes, a double six and a double nine.

(Image removed from quote.)

Now I have all my favourite classic abstract strategy boardgames in one place. I can't think of another one. I like Stratego but it is big. I like Chinese Checkers but not as much as Draughts and Dama. I never played Go. Othello is played on the Chessboard, but I don't have the pieces and I'm the only one who plays it in the house (on electronic devices always.

In the meantime I put a double card deck for rumi games, an UNO deck and a Speed Limit deck in a little pouch. I love Speed Limit.

I rather like the knife you have in that picture. Is the other blade plain edged? what company makes it, and where can i find one?

[kkokkolis]

It's the Double Take, made by Gerber, a very practical but discontinued knife. You might find stock in the US though: https://www.gerber-tools.com/Gerber-Double-Take-22-41123.htm

[kkokkolis]

.

Continued. I combined my favorite Double Six Domino set with my favorite Domino box (from a different set). I bought 8-9 different sets and the best come from Germany, named Noris and made from urea “stone”. It looks like ivory, feels and sounds great, stands easily, has colored pips and has no marks on the back. I also have the double 9 but it doesn’t fit (bones are thicker) and we mostly play double 6.

Now we have free space again for something special I ordered.


Bicycle Double Nine Playing Cards, from USA (Discontinued)!








I find it very interesting. Let's see.



I’m hooked on Domino. We mostly play All Five (Sniff), 3s and 5s, Bergen and Italian.

[Gerhard Gerber]

This thread reminded me of better times, childhood holidays in a small town on our coast.

The big thing was the cousins playing Rummy with our Grandmother, a dear sweet-hearted  woman that loved to cheat! 

 

[kkokkolis]

The Bicycle Domino is on its way and I also bought two Bicycle Rider Backs for casual card play. There is room for one more deck and, while searching, I found this:









https://www.kickstarter.c...ng-cards-playing-cards-20


I find it interesting. A card game Multitool!

[kkokkolis]

Close to final configuration.
4 cars decks on the left and a miniature one inside the Mill box (this one is nice for Solitaires).
I’ll decide if I’ll keep the Italian 100% plastic, or the American plastic coated decks and then I’ll replace the two looser decks with the Bicycle Double 9 and another special deck (might be Mille Bornes or a 4 color deck for 2 player technical games).

[kkokkolis]

Some details. I’m quite possessive you see.





The black satin pouch houses my komboloi and I also put there temporarily the backgammon checkers and dice when I turn over the box to play Chess, Draughts or Domino on the chessboard.

I'm much excited by the procedure of making my own gamebox, the way exactly I like it.
Unfortunatelly, I can't fit a Stratego in there.

[kkokkolis]

I now EDC one or two of the smaller sets (the butterscotch ones, mini and medium) I removed from the game box. We had a nice long match with my daughter in an open air cafe at Arachova, the bucolic village next to Delfoi. She beat me badly in AllFive, but I came back with Double Bergen.

[kkokkolis]

Bicycle Double 9 Domino Deck arrived.
Almost finished, I just have to decide what the 4th deck on the left will be. Options:
1. 4 color cards deck
2. Mille Bornes (has ~100 cards)
3. Multi Playing cards
4. A Bicycle plain deck I’ll paint myself
5. A Tarocco Piedmontese deck

[kkokkolis]

I'm not into gambling, but out of OCD I bought these beauties from UK, some Koplow dice for:

1. Crown and Anchor, the vintage British game of luck
2. Slot Machine Fruits (obvious)
3. Black Jack (tha decahedral dice)
4. Poker Dice
5. General use (5 Rainbow dice)
6. Backgammon (2 Michigan Red dice)
7. I'm not sure (2 Average dice, no 1s and 6s)




I also got 4 more Bicycle Double Nine Dominos and 2 Kopag 4 Colour decks, 2 Modiano also. I prefer the 100% plastic over the coated, but I keep the Bicycles inside the box at the moment, since they look more interesting.

Finally, I devised a very simple and effective way to play Mancala and Owari on the backgammon board.

So, we have:

1. Chess games
2. Draughts, Dama and all variations
3. Backgammon (the Greek Triad)
4. Domino games (Double 6 and 9)
5. Card games
6. Fox and Geese, Wolf and Cows (on the checkerboard, Fox on lines, Wolf on squares)
7. Morris (9 men, 12 men, Lasker)
8. Mancala, Owari
10. Poker Dice
11. Black Jack Dice
12. Crown and  Anchor Dice
13. Regular Dice games (Yatzee, Craps, Barbudi etc)

Meine große Spielesammlung ist bereit.

[Ron Who]

Hi KK, nice thread! 

I just spotted you´re writing the capital sigma mirrored. Any particular reason?

[kkokkolis]

It's my whole name mirrored, against my wive's. I'm called Konstantinos, which is abbreviated to Kostas (ΚΩΣΤΑΣ). My wife is Katerina (ΚΑΤΕΡΙΝΑ). The crosslike structure in the center is made from two K letters, back to back (K in Greek is called Kappa, so it is a Robe di Kappa kind of thing  ).


I did that because I made this games box for the two of us, now that the kids are grown up.

[Ron Who]

 

[kkokkolis]

Final shots of this little but satisfying project.

From the outside it looks just like a regular noisy chess/backgammon set.



Inside, everything is tidy, with minimal movement.



Containing all that is needed for unlimited family joy.



There’s a choice of 4 decks, or three and the dice set. Default is a double cards deck, Domino deck and dice. A mini deck is for Solitaire games.



Morris can be played with big checkers (two sets, mother of pearl and olive wood) or the small checkers (olive wood).



Chess pieces are simple Staunton from olive wood.



Checkers are used for Backgammon, Draughts, Morris and Mancala games.



Cards and dice.



Also included the symbol of oriental leisure. It breaks my wife’s nerves when I beat her at Backgammon.

[kkokkolis]

Instead of the Mill box with Chess pieces, I may carry my brand new, original Chinese (I can say that in confidence, despite coming from a German vendor, Philospiele, it is originally Chinese beyond any doubt), natural bamboo 148 piece Mah Jong set.
Now, I need to learn the rules. But I can always play Shanghai Solitaire with it anyway.

[twiliter]

Beautiful collection kkokkolis! 

Thanks for sharing this, brings back fond memories of friends and family.