Aces of Valor – Storage Solution with With Rails on Boards

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of the Rails on Boards (Cube4Me) storage solution for wargames.

Heck, I’ve already done 5 posts about various ones that I have purchased from them.

However, you may notice that the title of this post is “with” Rails on Boards and not “from” Rails on Boards.

That’s because the kind folks there sent me a bunch of trays of various types, including a few card trays, and said “hey, why don’t you come up with some sets?” (I don’t think that’s an exact quote).

I may write with the panache and quality of…well, somebody who writes high-quality stuff with panache.

But trying to figure out spatial relationships, how things fit together, and all that jazz?

I said I would be willing to give it a try, though.

And here’s the first one, a very simple one (gotta start small, right?)

I just recently purchased my first game from Legion Wargames, a wargame company with some great-sounding games that I probably would never get to the table.

The game in question is Aces of Valor, a solitaire World War I air combat game where you are running a squadron of fighters and taking them through campaigns of certain lengths (8, 12 or 16 missions).

The game is designed by Erik von Rossing, was just published in 2023 (BGG says 2022 but I don’t think it was available until January sometime. I could be wrong) and it looks very cool!

As I was punching out the counters (only two sheets), I got to thinking that this would make a good candidate for my first Cube4Me job.

And it worked almost perfectly.

All you need for this one is a 20-compartment, 8mm depth tray with a lid along with three trays for standard US cards (10 mm deep).

The counter tray is almost perfect!

The game comes with counters for all four major nationalities (French, British, American and German) with three tiers of fighters (16 counters for each tier) along with some bombers, 2-seaters, airfield markers, etc.

With 16 counters per tier, each tier fits perfectly into one of the compartments. The extra planes and nationality markers fit into the fourth compartment in the row.

The top row has two compartments where the bigger counters representing ground targets, as well as some other game markers, can go. The final two compartments carry hit markers and the smaller game record counters.

I did say “almost perfect” above because there is one set of counters that doesn’t quite fit and there are too many of them to fit in the upper row compartment that doesn’t look that full.

It’s easy to put these, along with the four dice, into one of the card trays.

You might be able to stuff them into the main tray and then just have a small bag for the dice, but I like the aesthetic better like this. Feel free to forego one of the card trays if you like.

I may do so if I need an extra card tray at some point.

There are three small decks of cards in the game. One of them can fit into a small deck tray and the other two are roughly the same size together as that deck is separately, so they can go into the other tray.

And everything fits nicely into the box.

The player aids and map sheet go on the bottom with the rules and then the trays on top.

Or you can switch those around.

In the game, you have to draw random enemy fighter counters, possibly from different tiers, when you encounter resistance in a sector.

I initially had each nationality put into its own baggies, but that seemed annoying when I have to sort them into their separate cups.

It seemed equally annoying to have each tier in its own bag.

So this seemed like the perfect solution.

Yes, it’s simple. “Yay, Dave, you managed to use one tray. Woohoo!”

But it feels like a good start to me.

Now to get a bit more creative.

What do you think?

Let me know in the comments.

(Many thanks to Rails on Boards for providing me with the complimentary trays. More to come!)