Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition - 3D Printed Insert

last updated June 24th, 2025 — created March 7th, 2023

For each insert we create, we have a few standard design goals:

Reduce setup time as much as possible
Have separate component trays for "setup components" and "gameplay components"
Allow for vertical box storage without components crushing each other
Fit sleeved cards

This insert follows the theme of our last foam-core insert for this game, with player trays that hold minis, tokens, and color-specific technology and promissory cards. The cards are designed to store flat but have a slot to stand them up for ease of use during gameplay. Additionally, we wanted shallower bins for ease of grabbing minis, so War Suns have been moved into a separate tray because they are twice as tall as the next tallest minis. These can be handed out during setup and go near your player tray. This insert is designed for each player to have and use color-specific tokens instead faction-specific, for reasons explained here. The tokens have their own slots with dividers to ensure they stand up and are much easier to grab than in our previous foam-core inserts. We have STL files to print your own color-specific tokens. We've also seen players use the closest colored tokens from the game, ignoring faction symbols.

As always, we really try to minimize setup time. To that end, faction-specific cards are separated in labeled trays in alphabetical order, so you can get them quickly. System tiles are divided into home systems, planets, hazards, and warp lanes for optimal setup speed. Play trays go straight from box to table. All play card trays have separate sections labeled on both sides, making it easy to pull cards and return to the front/back as needed. The action deck, which is quite tall with the expansion cards, has a small divider in the middle of it to prevent cards from falling down into the slot as the deck is drawn from.

For this insert, we've opted to fit the base game and expansion in the base game box. If you don't have extras, you can save on shelf space. If you do, the expansion box is left entirely open for mods, 3rd party accessories, or other extras. In our case: fleet stands, the hard copy rulebook, other booklets we've had printed over the years, and any other goodies we might come up with. As an added bonus, we've also designed a technology deck book. It doesn't fit in the base game box, but for those that really want to take their insert the extra mile, it's a really cool way to handle your technology deck. Pictured below is our very rough first print from designing the proof of concept.

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Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition

NEWTI4 Companion App

Our TI4 games have overtaken our massive table. We designed this app to manage the planet and tech cards taking over our play areas.

Galaxy Mats

Many players wanted a nice game mat to place on their hard-top table, so we made this galaxy mat and have updated it several times to fit requests.

Acrylic Tokens

We designed these laser cut acrylic tokens before we started 3D printing. They're pretty expensive, but awesome if you want that extra flare.

3D Printed Tokens

After trying to find a way to offer color-specific tokens that aren't as crazy expensive as laser cut acrylic, we decided to make our own.

3D Printed Hyperlane Tiles

We printed these hyperlane tiles to make it easier to setup the Hyperlanes variant if you're playing with 3, 5, or 7 players.

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Chess

We got a gorgeous new fossil stone chess set, but it came in a decrepit green box, so we made our own.

Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition - 3D Printed Insert

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