Qawale – A miniature strategy game

Me and my son love to play a strategy game called “Qawale”. It is very simple game, but requires a lot of thought. You could think it as a “Four in a Row” on steroids. The problem is that the board used for it is rather large and difficult to take with for the summer vacation or other trips we do. What could be done about that? Well, I will of course design a magnetic travel version of the game!

After I had finished this project, I designed a miniature Chess board that nests with this Qawale board!

After spending way too much time modelling it, this is what I came up with. It’s surprising how much effort you can put into modelling the “correct” shape for the easiest separation of the magnetic pieces…
The pieces are held together with 6mm x 3mm magnets, and also attach to the board.
The lid attaches to the board magnetically as well, and can also be used as a stand. The top is transparent acrylic laser cut into the correct shape.
Here you can see more details about the innards of the board. The acrylic top is printed directly into the lid by stopping the printer on the correct layer height.
The transparent acrylic is laser cut into the right shape.
The acrylic plate and the magnets which makes the lid into a stand are added mid-print.
The lid is ready. Just missing four magnets which attaches it on the board.
All 24 game pieces are printed, and all magnets has been put in place. Here you can see the lid converted into a stand below the board.
The board is very compact, and only measures 12cm x 2cm.
The game pieces can be seen through the lid.
Overall I’m very happy how it turned out. I went into way too much detail on the modelling, but at least I only needed to print it once… Both me and the son will have some epic battles on the summer vacation!

You should also check out the miniature Chess board that nests with the Qawale board!

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