A few pictures from my library of game photos of games that have been mentioned and a few I want to add:
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The Pax Pamir photos are reminding me that I am an absolute sucker for a cloth mat.
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I often decide I want extra-shiny bits once I’ve played a game a few times. By which time its too late to buy them, if they existed in the first place.
For Evil High Priest I deliberately got the card-token version on the basis that I could print plastic tokens if I wanted to. And while I like it it turns out I don’t play it that much.
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Like Pax Pamir 2 and JoCo 2, Wehrlegig’s next game has a very fancy looking production.
Molly House has a (felt? Neoprene?) mat on top of the board, seems to be purely for aesthetic reasons:
And has some neat looking wooden pawns:
Which are also upgraded to metal if you want to splash out:
I find Wehrlegig’s production really satisfying, fun and well considered. But I could see how someone might find it overproduced and needlessly expensive.
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Compared to many modern kickstarters these are still quite “understated”
That’s 5 metall figurines which are very pretty btw.
I really like the quality of their productions as well.
I skipped Molly House after realizing I will probably never get JoCo to the table…
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JoCo is my current aspirational “we’ve got to play this at some point” game that’s waiting for the right moment. I have played a couple of three handed games to learn and will probably end up playing solo with the Crown before I get it to the table with a group.
One day though!
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Gosh, I am arriving a bit late to the discussion. I am a bit split between table presence and fancy bits. I am afraid I could not quantify it. Definitely favour deluxification, but not for any price.
I am a sucker for metal coins (Raiders OTNS, Architects OTWK, Flamecraft) but funny enough, on crowdfunding are things that I tend to avoid (and regret at times, like I would not have bought so many expansions of Witcher: Old World, but the metal coins instead).
I like poker chips-like tokens, but the weight has to be right. My copy of Splendor has light tokens that don’t feel nearly as good as other versions I have played with. But then again, I enjoy the lighter weight when carrying the box (even if it is marginal 
)
Then, with table presence and design: I will always favour a game with better design and table presence, as long as it does not become a table hog. Recently I have played both Mind MGMT and Beast. I own Mind MGMT, and I regret I don’t own Beast instead, mainly for the art. Same theme (hidden movement), but the design of Beast is one of the best I have seen on a board game, and it made a difference.
So, games that have striking table presence for me… Everdell, Spirit Island, Cthulhu: DMD or Flamecraft come to mind. But I love how games that are not that great like the new version of Escape from Atlantis make it easier for me to want to play them.
With modifications, I played War of Whispers recently, and the map is so dark in so many places, that you need to squint to see which regions have farms or towers in most regions. So I would ask a couple of friends that own 3D printers for a favour if I owned that.
Other than something like that, I wouldn’t bother, besides those fire tokens from @RogerBW for Flash Point, they look ace.
With regards to mats, I don’t own one, but I can see the benefits they bring to card games. My mate Ben has a large black neoprene one we always use on games at his places and it makes it so much better to pick up cards from the table. But I haven’t bothered looking for one, what I have seen here in NZ is either themed (meh) or super expensive… If I found a decently priced one I would not say no to it, though.
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This is a very good point. My whole gaming table is covered in a neoprene mat with edges to hold it in place. It’s so good for picking things up. Cards, chits and tiles plus almost anything benefit from that little give when you need to lift them from the table
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I just bought the silicone bgg ones as they were where I first saw them. @RogerBW has some off brand versions of the bits bowls. Much cheaper and all you’re missing are the bgg logos. If you could source some get those instead and save some euros. The nice thing about them is popping one corner gives you a spout to pour the bits bag in to a bag at the end of the game. I have bought both sizes as a full set. I like having lots of colour options to have them make some colour matching with the token they hold. Occasionally having both sizes is useful to split values of the same token. Judgement to be made on your storage space, type of games played and finances.
BGG card holders are sort of nice being silicone. Like a slappy ruler but overall I might go for some wooden ones if I ever needed replacement. They advertised them as having trays to hold counters in. Never use them, they make it hard to have a better sense of quantity and are hard to get at if you have 2 rows of cards. A strength however is having to 2 gunnels of good size so you can do plenty of hand sorting and display it nicely to yourself. And in Hanabi you can display them nicely to your opponents while doing some memory aiding sorting.
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I find mats with imagery distracting, though I have some for specific games (e.g. Aeon’s End with places for each deck). But I found that large blank mats are sold as “mouse mats”, and I have a few of these:
400×900mm: Amazon.co.uk
800×1500mm: Amazon.co.uk
Specific items vary but “Collapsible Board Game Storage Bowls” finds things on Amazon that look like the ones I have. The quality isn’t quite as good as the BGG ones (I have some of those too) but they’re all still working.
Those, my SJG gaming coins, and some Staedtler dry-erase markers live in my “generic gaming bits” pouch.
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I ended up buying another copy second-hand, so that I could combine the later edition cards that work with colour vision deficits with the original heavyweight chips.
If you do find a 3d-printing friend, I’ll happily pass you the models I used for the bits I printed for my copy. Some of them were from the Tabletop Simulator mod, but I replaced the huts.
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For a ‘gaming mat’ I bought a length of 2 mm neoprene material.
For another similar enough but not the same travel valet trays work as collapsible bits trays
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Can totally recommend this, which I use under my keyboard / mouse but would be perfect for games:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ZNV9B8Z
It’s about 60cm x 30cm.
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This is so key. And nice when it works out. I have exactly five bowls but I can usually get at least 4 aligned, and it simplifies things.
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I am happy to get things like acrylic or wooden token upgrades, metal coins, etc if I expect to want the game to feel more premium and have the budget at that time/it feels reasonable in price tag.
I consider minis not only not premium/deluxe but actively detracting from the experience (in almost every case, there are a couple exceptions). I do see how they might be nicer than things like standees if painted to professional standards but I am never ever ever going to do that so instead they’re a visually indistinct blob of grey plastic and take up huge amounts of space and cost way too much. Please don’t make me get them.
I also don’t ever get playmats, except for the giant burncycle one that has a grey side so it can be a generic mat. To me having game specific mats is too much money and it takes components that would otherwise fit nearly into a game box and makes you find somewhere to store them. No thanks.
That said, I absolutely love Chip Theory overproduction, but it’s because I agree with them that heavy poker chips, nice custom dice, neoprene-as-actually-planned-in-box boards, and plastic cards are all things that actually feel nice to play with and are worthwhile uses of funds, as a distinct contrast to the piles-o-minis approach most crowdfunding projects opt for.
edit: oh, inserts. Please to include a meticulously designed organized set of trays in the box, designed without prioritizing sleeves or the game including minis. space for expansion content ideal. if not, I will definitely be open to buying an aftermarket solution, but I adore Gametrayz personally and that has saved me replacement solutions for a lot of modern games. only for something like Chronicles of Drunagor have they failed me and that only because Drunagor has like 15 entirely separate boxes and takes up several Kallax cubes and the trays are designed for the box contents, not squishing things down . with the aftermarket insert I purchased, that goes down to 2 boxes.
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