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New Year – New Travel Box — The Barbican Series for Carcassonne!

With a new year comes our latest and most ambitious offering in the Travel Box series!  We present to you the Barbican (in base and XL versions) for the classic game Carcassonne!

 

For anyone not familiar with our Travel Box series, these are a collection of completely contained storage solutions that are more than just an insert for the existing game box.  Travel Boxes are designed to replace the existing game box so that it is easier to pack the game for vacations or game nights, and by using the Travel Box, you avoid wear and tear on the original game box.

Our Carcassonne offering comes in two versions:

  • Barbican – Designed for the Carcassonne purist, this box holds just the base Carcassonne game, along with player pieces for a sixth player.
  • Barbican XL – Designed for the Carcassonne gamer that wants to carry a subset of their expansions with them and still be able to pack everything in a compact and efficient form factor.

One of the key features of this series is that each travel box includes a custom designed scoring track that replaces the standard Carcassonne score track in a more compact and usable design.  This score track features:

  • Size – The Barbican score track is over 40% smaller than the conventional score track.
  • Ease of use – By using a recessed grid for the score board, the chance of score markers shifting when the track is knocked or jostled is significantly reduced.
  • Custom score markers – Six color coded score markers are provided
  • Custom 50/100 Point Tiles – Separate 50 and 100 point tiles are provided for each player color.  These point tiles store in the player trays, and replace the point tiles provided by the Inns and Cathedrals expansion, saving space in the travel box for other tiles.  
  • Wrap around score path – The path through the score track holds true to the wrap around path of the original.  Scoring spots are marked every 5 points and “next space” arrows direct you through the track along with colored guide walls.  Lettering and arrows are provided with durable permanent vinyl lettering for a crisp appearance.
 
The fundamental difference between the base Barbican and the XL version is the height of the overall box, and the internal arrangement of the tiles.  Both boxes have the same overall footprint, and so, share the same configuration / size for the score track, the XL version is just a little taller to accommodate the option to include expansions.  As seen in the picture above, the Barbican base version is 1 3/4 in (45 mm) tall, and the Barbican XL is 2 1/4 in (57 mm) tall.  Additional information on the Barbican XL travel box, as well as how to accommodate various expansions, is available on our Barbican XL Tips and Tricks page.  
 
We have come up with three basic color schemes for variations of both travel boxes.  Each color scheme has a primary and an accent color along with options for having player trays in the matching accent color or in matched to the player colors.  Custom color schemes can be accommodated as well.
The available color schemes are:
  1. Green / Brown – the box and lid are printed in green, with light brown used as the accent color for the score track base and, optionally, the player trays
  2. Blue / White – the box and lid are printed in blue, with white used as the accent color for the score track base and, optionally, the player trays
  3. White / Grey – the box and lid are printed in white, with grey used as the accent color for the score track base and, optionally, the player trays
  4. Custom – After purchase we will contact you to discuss color combinations.  We have access to a reasonably large collection of colors and most color combinations should be able to be satisfied with no up charge.

For the player trays, you can choose from the following options:

  • Accent Color – All the player trays will be printed in the accent, or secondary, color paired with the main color
  • Player Matched (6th Player in Pink) – Trays will be provided in the 5 original colors of the game pieces, with the 6th player tray printed in Pink
  • Player Matched (6th Player in Grey) – Trays will be provided in the 5 original colors of the game pieces, with the 6th player tray printed in Grey

As noted above, if you’d like to explore other color combinations, select the custom color variation.  We will do our best to match your desired color combination.

[su_note note_color=”#65B3CA” text_color=”#1C1D2C” radius=”3″ class=””]So, at this point you may be asking yourself, what is a Barbican?  In our quest to give each offering a theme appropriate name, we found that a Barbican is a fortified gate or entrance to a castle or town.  ‘nuf said.[/su_note]