I've been looking at items that we can use for the DBA Ancients campaign next year. Gold and Food tokens were proving tricky - until I popped into Hobbycraft and saw (in the Candles section, can you believe) small pebbles painted gold (for Gold) and some pink glass chunks (which can represent meat - hence Food). Each one will represent 5 of each unit (to keep counting to a minimum).
I also bought some cheap black plastic boxes that the players can keep their reserves of gold and food in (and keep secret from other players).
So this left me with one problem - building ships. I've looked on the internet and can't find anything that is small and cheap enough for the 200+ ships required - so I'm having to build my own.
I've got small coloured lolly sticks from Wilkinson for £1 - and some small square coloured beads for the same amount. These will be stuck amidships of a cropped lolly stick, with a piece of thin dowel making the mast. Each Empire will have about 20 ships each (if they can afford them) - in their own nations colour (so we can keep track easier).
I've now got to work out the economics of the entire region to ensure it is balanced (i.e. there is enough Food and Gold available to fund activities) which means play testing by myself - that will amuse the wife.
Russ said he'll get a large scale map printed if I can create a good enough image. It needs to be about A2 sized to allow space to play.
After that, we're good to go!