The CardHolder.

This is perhaps the most sophisticated box so far. My inital inspiration was my own work for X-Wing, where I built such holders out of foamboard. After that I did an cardboard version for Armada and had no intention to make another one for X-Wing. But then all your feedback came in… So here we go! It’s called “Cockpit” this time for obvious reasons. All rebel and scum players must be brave, there’s only a version with a TIE cockpit artwork on the back, it’s just the most iconic and easiest to incorporate into the design. And you can’t even see it when playing.

Two more CardHolders.

Personally I like those CardHolders very much, because they avoid clutter and keep everything neatly organized and together. I know that on tournaments everything is supposed to be next to the ships, but hey, this only an option for casual play. Furthermore I think it’s way cooler than just have the cards and tokens lying flat on the table. Not to mention that it really helps younger kids when playing with daddy, it makes the book keeping aspect a lot easier for them (and for me, too).

CardHolders next to the play area.

If you’re having problems with the upright position of the cards preventing your opponent from looking at your cards and allowing him to see the back of otherwise facedown damage cards, just place the CardHolders next to the play area instead of in front of it (where they would get in the way all the time anyway) and turn them sideways. Works like a charm and everybody can see everything. Here’s a picture of my setup at home, it’s a little bit older, therefore you can only see the foamboard prototypes (no, there are no instructions for the maneuver template holder thing in the middle, this is one of a kind).

There are three CardHolder variants for X-Wing that can all be build with the building instructions from the tab above, you just have to omit some steps. It’s really not that difficult. Let me introduce you to them and keep in mind: You don’t have to use them like this, feel free to change whatever you like. I won’t come by to check.

Variant 1 – Big ship cockpit

A closed big ship cockpit.

This is exactly the same as the Armada version. I use it for all big ships that usually get a significant number of upgrades and damage cards. As you can see it can hold up to 9 cards of each type. Please don’t complain about any goofy card combos in the following pictures, I merely picked a few cards to show how it works.

Opening up…

…and ready to rumble!

Ready to launch…

A Firespray prepared and ready to launch! You can see that it’s outfitted with three upgrades, four shields in the shield tray and all other necessary tokens in the inactive token area. Now let’s go see some action!

… ouch

That didn’t go so well, it took some beating. All shields gone, three regular hits, one crit, missiles gone (card turned around). At least one focus is still active and it’s having a TL on an enemy ship (token in the pilot card slot). The hidden maneuver dial means that the current maneuver hasn’t been revealed yet.

Variant 2 – Normal ship cockpit

Two closed normal ship cockpits.

Same construction as above, only the right card holder is omitted. I use this for all ships with only few upgrades and hull points, the available space is cut in half (surprise…) and therefore the required table space is reduced. Looks a little goony when collapsed, but if you stack two of them (rotate the second one) you have a neat pile to store.

A small imperial squad…

A TIE Bomber and a TIE Defender en route to the battlefield. Upgrades, shields, dials and markers ready for action.

… and after kicking some rebel butts.

The Bomber has wasted his torpedoes (cards are behind the pilot card) and is really battered. The Defender’s still happy about his last shield and the TL. By the way, in case you worry about cards being obstructed by other cards, that’s not a problem, you can flip through the cards with ease.

Variant 3 – Swarm cockpit

A closed swarm holder.

I’ve spent quite some time thinking about a completely new holder for swarm ships (by which I mean all ships with zero upgrades and few hull points), but none if my ideas really worked. I came to the conclusion that it would be the best to simply go with blank middle section (no card holders at all). No need for you to learn another build, same measurements (can be stored conviently). Looking at the pictures you can see that I attached hinges to two of them, of course this is not mandatory.

Open swarm holder.

Here’s an example of two TIE Fighters sharing a swarm holder. The left fighter took two regular hits (no space needed for the third card since it’s finished by then) and has an active focus, fighter to the right took one crit and has active focus and evade tokens. Yes, there’s some unused space and the crit covers parts of the pilot card, but it works. And you can always put the crit into the token/dial area, if you like.

That’s it. I encourage everybody to play around with the print sheets and maybe come up with a different solution based on the existing parts. If you even think you have a better idea, go ahead and let me know! And now have fun building, it gets easier when the first holder is done!

Note: If you dislike having no slots for damage cards, the download file contains two additional half sized damage card slots. You can build these exactly like the big card slots and glue them into the rather large dial area (left or right). This way you get additional damage slots for the swarm cockpit. I admit that I haven’t actually build this version, therefore you have to do so at your own risk (and inform me of any mistakes or problems).

Yes, you’ll have to build one CardHolder for each ship in play, but I promise you won’t regret it. Granted, the building process is a bit more difficult, but I tried my best to design this in a way that it’s not too difficult to build. I’d rate the difficulty a 3 out of 5, with the MicroHangars and tuckboxes being a 1. Simply refer to the building instructions tab above. The building process is exactly the same as for the Armada CardHolder, I’ve simply changed the artwork. Therefore you can just refer to the Armada instruction slider: