Aquatica and Cold Waters Insert / Organizer

Update October 12, 2024: I posted an updated insert here that holds both the Coral Reefs and Cold Waters expansions. The insert discussed below only holds the base game and Cold Waters expansion.

***Original Post***

This is an insert I designed to hold Aquatica and its Cold Waters expansion in the base game box. Each player gets their own player tray, which holds their starting cards on top of a well that holds their trained mantas. For the wild mantas, you can sort them into the two pictured flat trays. It helps keep those wild mantas organized by type, and when it comes time to play, you can just put the trays out next to the board. The organizer also provides separate storage locations for the ocean characters, the kings, the level I tribes, the level II tribes, the depth locations, and the goal tiles.

As shown in one of the pictures, the card trays accommodate sleeved cards. I used Dragon Shields for the test, but most any should work as long as they are not overly tall (like some FFG sleeves used to be). I don't sleeve my location cards, but there is enough room that they should fit even when sleeved.

The unconventional shape of the boards and the smaller form-factor of the tribes board made organizing this a bit of a challenge. I ended up providing a spacer tray, which doubles as a place you can hold any extra components you might have. I suspect there will be another expansion one day, and we can modify the spacer tray as needed to accommodate additional components. There's also extra room for other card types and extra mantas, should an expansion introduce more of them.

To achieve the organizer as pictured, print:

5x Aquatica Player Tray

3x Aquatica Card Tray

2x Aquatica Manta Tray

1x Aquatica Goal Tiles

1x Aquatica Locations and Tribes

1x Aquatica Spacer Tray

I included photos of each layer so you can see how it all goes together. If you load it as shown, it passes the upside-down shake test. I print with coarse settings (0.4 mm layer height on a 0.6 mm nozzle), so your prints may end up looking smoother than mine. I also included the OpenSCAD files in case you want to edit it for non-commercial purposes.

Update June 7, 2023: In response to a request in the comments, I added alternative versions of the spacer tray and the locations/tribes tray. The alternative spacer tray has three slots instead of two, and the alternative locations/tribes tray has additional dividers for the location cards. Select which version of each you prefer and print one of them.

Printer Brand:

Prusa

Printer:

I3 MK3S

Rafts:

No

Supports:

No

Resolution:

400

Infill:

15

Filament: Hatchbox PLA

Notes:

These parts all fit on my Prusa i3 MK3S bed. The manta trays barely fit width-wise, but they will work. And I had to angle the spacer tray and the location/tribes card tray to get them to fit on the bed.

Category: Toy & Game Accessories