Review: Litko Gaming Tokens

I got a package in the mail the other day:

It's the gaming tokens I ordered from Litko Game Accessories!

...so, wait, let me back up a minute.  At GenCon 2009 I came across this little booth selling very cool custom acrylic gaming tokens and markers.  My career as a wargamer was still in it's infancy, and I didn't even know what a lot of the items were meant to be used for, but they looked awesome - I wound up buying some of their pop culture tokens, that have sayings like "n00b" and "OMG" just because they were funny to throw down on the table during an epic moment in a game.  As I actually started playing some games of 40k, it became obvious that there are some things that need to be tracked over several rounds (models that have multiple wounds, vehicle crew stunned) or unit/vehicle actions that need to be indicated (smokescreens, etc).  Like most gamers, we usually just marked these things by setting a dice on or near the model and making a mental note - while this works, the Litko tokens just offer a more elegant, and more immersive, way to do it.

The first product I got was the heart tokens:

I intend to use these to track characters that have multiple wounds.

Next, I got the charge tokens:

...hopefully these will break my habit of forgetting to resolve the charge.

Next, I got the alert tokens:

...these will just serve as a general "note" for a given situation - stunned, shaken, etc.

Next, I got the smoke screen markers:

...these actually come in two pieces - after assembly, they look like this:

These are pretty great!  One of the things that bugged me the most in a game was laying down a line of dice to represent a smoke screen - it just really took me out of the game, to see a bunch of dice in the middle of a battlefield.  These solve that problem.


Finally, I got the flaming wreckage markers:

...these are actually four pieces per marker.  Assembly:

These look fantastic!  The black smoke is semi-translucent so it really feels like smoke, and the glaring yellow & orange of the flames & bases looks great!  I've seen some people make wreckage markers from cotton balls or steel wool, and, sorry guys, but those look so ghetto.  I'll take these any day of the week.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:
I am really impressed with all the products I bought - they really manage to capture the "feel" of the situation they're supposed to indicate, while still being really simple and iconic - kind of like the health & power-up indicators when you're playing a video game.  The products are really well made and are made in the U.S.A., and I've made it a point to stop by the Litko booth every time I see them at a convention and they're always tremendously friendly.  Many of the token packs are are geared towards historical wargames / naval games, and include way more tokens than the average 40k/Fantasy player would need - you could easily place a group order with your buddies and split up the packs to save money.

Cons:
My only complaint was shipping time - it took almost two-and-a-half weeks before my order shipped.  I contacted Litko after a couple of weeks-  they responded promptly, apologized, and said that they were currently short-handed and that my order would ship in the next few days, which it did - I wasn't in a rush to get these, so no big deal.


If you're interested, check out their web site or Facebook page for more info.