Travel "Cross Roads" game

Cross Roads – a compact travel game for 3–4 players

This is another addition to my Travel Games Collection:
https://www.printables.com/@Henk/collections/199159

This time it is Cross Roads, a compact travel version of the classic Viersprong game. It is a small tactical game for 3 or 4 players, easy to take with you, quick to set up, and ideal for holidays, family visits, cafés, trains, ferries, or any other place where you want to play a real little board game without carrying a large box.

The idea to make this game as part of my travel series came from MakerT:
https://www.printables.com/@MakerT_3466360

Many thanks for the inspiration!

The original Dutch game rules can be found here:
https://github.com/richelbilderbeek/viersprong/blob/master/spelregels.pdf

About the game

Cross Roads is played with coloured discs that are pushed into the four entrances of the crossroads. The discs move through the hidden channels inside the game body. When the crossroads becomes full, discs are pushed out again.

The goal is simple:

Be the first player to push five discs of your own colour out of the crossroads and place them on the four poles that you can screw up from the base.

At the start, open the box. Best is to hold it flat in one hand and with the other hand grab securely only the lid and open it in the direction of the hinges.
Remove the top of the game field and place all the tokens in the upside down lid.
Screw up the 4 coloured posts.
Each player chooses one colour and takes 10 discs.
Two neutral white Hash discs are inserted into two different entrances before the game begins. Players should try to remember both the place and the direction of these white discs inside the crossroads, because they can disturb your plans later in the game.

Players take turns pushing one disc from their supply into one of the four entrances. The disc must be pushed in completely but not further! This pushes the discs already inside further through the crossroads. Whether is already a disk before the end, it will fall out through the sides.

If you push out one of your own discs, you may place it in one of your scoring pole on top.

If you push out another player’s disc, it is returned to that player.

If you push out a white Hash disc, you must take back one of your already scored discs from the top of the crossroads and return it to your supply. On your next turn, you must push the white disc back into the game. In that turn, you may not play a disc of your own colour.

It is important that players try to remember the position and direction of the white discs inside the crossroads.

So the game is a mixture of memory, tactics and a little bit of surprise. You never see exactly what is happening inside the crossroads, but with some concentration you can predict where the important discs may come out.

Playing with 2 players

The original game is intended for 3 or 4 players, but it can also be played with 2 players.

In that case, each player represents two “virtual” players and therefore plays with two colours. For example, one player plays red and yellow, while the other player plays blue and green.

The winning condition stays simple:

The first player who has five discs of one of their colours on top wins the game.

At the end of the game, take off the playing field and shake out all remaining discs.
Place all discs back into the bottom part, nicely distributed over the storage area.
Put the top part back onto the bottom part
and screw in all four posts completely.
Finally, hook the lid back into the hinges and close the box.

Printing

Print the parts in the same way as shown in the provided .gcode and .3mf files.

Recommended settings:

• Material: PLA

• Layer height: 0.2 mm

• Infill: 15%

• Only the latch should be printed with 0.15 mm layer height or better

• The bottom should be printed with supports from the build plate because of the openings in the side walls

• Take care of orienting the parts correctly on the building plate for best results, see the .3mf and the .gode files

For extra durability I recommend gluing the latch to the lid.

In my provided code I print 14 game pieces at a time, you only  need 10 per color. Also more then 42 discs do nit fit in the bottom part. This means you will have some spare
For the white Hash discs you only need two, Just remove or dial down some of them on your print plate

The posts are nicest when printed with the discs in the same color, see the .3mf file.

Assembly

The lid can be taken off completely, so the playing table is free and easy to use during the game.
The lid can be used to hold the discs and prevent them for rolling off the table.

Use a short piece of filament as the hinge axis for the lid. Depending on your printer, filament and tolerances, you may have to carefully ream the hinge holes with a 1.8 mm or 2.0 mm drill bit so that the filament can slide through smoothly.

Before applying any glue, test fit all parts carefully. Make sure everything aligns correctly, the discs can move freely, and the lid and latch work as intended.

Please note that the top part and middle part have only one correct orientation in relation to the bottom part. Before gluing anything, check the position of the rounded and sharp corners. These corners will help you align the parts correctly.

Place the top part on the middle part and test whether the discs can move freely through the channels. Also check that the posts can be screwed in easily. When everything fits and moves correctly, glue the top and middle parts together.

Screw in the posts. To make sure the lid can close properly, the posts must be screwed down completely.

After assembly, check that the lid opens and closes smoothly and that the latch works well. If necessary, carefully remove small rough edges, stringing or elephant foot.

Make sure that the top part and middle part are aligned as shown in the picture below.
The orientation of the marker part does not matter.
All parts that need to be glued together have matching alignment holes. Use these holes to position the parts correctly before applying glue.

First, test fit the parts without glue. When everything is aligned properly, glue the middle part, top part and marker part together.               

Tip:

The top, marker and middle part assembly  can be inserted in the bottom part only one way. Be sure that you put the "sharp" edges close to the hinges, or have the notches on the same side....   see picture above.
If you do it wrong it will be difficult to open the lid. It will be stuck.

Storage and use

The game is designed as a compact travel box.
You can store the pieces in the bottom part.

At the beginning of the game, you can take off the top and middle parts to take out the pieces. After that, put the playing field on top of the bottom  and start playing.

As usual, I am not a professional designer, but I enjoy making practical and printable travel games. I hope you like this little game, and I would be very happy to see your makes, comments, improvements or photos.

Have fun printing and playing!

Henk