Board Game Review: KINGDOMINO

Today, we take a look at the game Kingdomino which is designed by Bruno Cathala and published by Blue Orange Games.  

Kingdomino is a family game for 2-4 players and plays in about 15 minutes.  As you can see from my box cover above, Kingdomino won the Spiel des Jahres in 2017 so there's a certain degree of expectation of a great game before you even open up the box!  The real question is, does this game live up the promise of its box cover?

Game Summary:

In Kingdomino, you are a lord building out your small kingdom using 1x2 cardboard "dominos."  The winner of the game will be the person with the highest total score after counting up the various regions in each person's kingdom.

Game Set-Up:

Kingdomino gets to the table in a hurry.  All you need to do is give each player a starting tile, a king in their color (or two kings for the two player variant), and then shuffle all of the domino tiles and place them into the handy box holder.  Pick a starting player and you are ready to go.

How to Play:

Kingdomino is played over a series of rounds.  At the start of each round, draw the next four dominos from the stack in the box. 

The four dominos get sorted by the number on the back of each tile - the smallest number gets turned face up and goes to the top of the draft area, then the next smallest number gets turned face up and gets placed second in the draft area, etc.  

Once the four dominos are sorted, the first player places his or her king meeple on the domino that they wish to draft for their kingdom.  Once every player has made their selection, draw another four tiles and repeat the sorting process and create a second face up column of tiles to draft.  

Now, the fun twist.  Whoever has their king meeple on the highest tile (i.e. the lowest numbered tile), gets to take that tile and add it to their personal kingdom.  Then that player gets first choice on the next stack of four tiles.  Repeat for all remaining players.  Continue this process of drawing four tiles, sorting them, and drafting them until the stack of tiles runs out.  By the end of the game, each player should have a 5x5 grid (if all went well).

Speaking of the personal grid, in Kingdomino you are restricted to keeping your kingdom inside a 5x5 square.  In addition, the domino tiles you draft act much like "real" dominos in that you must match at least one of the ends of the newly drafted domino to a tile that is already in your tableau (note, you starting square counts as a "wild" and can have any region attached to it but the starting square does not count for scoring purposes).

Winning the Game:

After all tiles have been drafted and placed (with any tiles that can't be placed by players removed from the game), it's time to score everyone's kingdom.  To score, you add up all touching tiles of a specific region and multiply that number by the number of crowns in that region.  Repeat this for each region you have with at least one crown.  Add up all of those values and you have your final score - highest score wins!

In the above example, the player has 5 river tiles connected and 2 crowns on the river for a region score of 5x2 = 10 points.  Next, the forest near the middle bottom of the kingdom has 5 tiles with 1 crown for a score of 5x1 = 5.  Note that the single forest at the top of the kingdom is worth 0 points because it does not have a crown in it.  To finish off the example, the light green grasslands score 2x1=2 points, the yellow wheat fields score 5x2 = 10 points, the black mines score 2x4=8 points,  and the lone gray swamp at the top of the kingdom scores 2 points since it has 2 crowns on it.  Overall, this particular kingdom scores a total of 37 points.

My Thoughts:

I've now played Kingdomino over 30 times almost all of which included playing with my five-year-old son.  The game plays incredibly quick but still has enough tough decisions to make each play enjoyable for both kids and adults.  There is a lot more strategy in the game than it may appear at first glance.  Generally speaking, the higher the number of the domino tile, the better it is (i.e. more crowns or rarer regions).  However, if you choose to draft one of those better tiles, then you won't get an early pick for the next group of tiles to draft.  In addition, while some regions (like the black mines) can provide big, big point totals - they really only work out if you are the only one collecting them!  Speaking of rarer tiles, the distribution of the various region types (and included crowns) is different for each region:

I like that the game's rulebook included the tile breakdown.  As you can see, it's quite easy to accumulate a lot of the yellow wheat fields but if you don't get a least one (and ideally, more than one) of the five crowns on wheat fields you'll score nothing for that region.  On the other hand, the black mines are quite rare but all but one mine tile gives you immediate points (and lots of points if you can chain together multiple mine tiles).  

Another unexpected benefit of playing this game with my son is that he started to learn how to multiply prior to kindergarten simply because of the game!  This game makes math fun - you add up your tiles, you add up your crowns, and then you multiply those two numbers together.  He's gotten amazing at multiplying by 2 and 3 and it's all because of Kingdomino!

The Bottom Line:

Pros:

• Easy-to-learn game that's fun for the entire family
• Plays super quick
• Set-up and clean-up is also super quick
• Fun at all player counts (2-4)

Cons:

• In the two-player variant, you only use half of the tiles which can mean that certain crowns never appear.
• Luck can play a factor (mostly in the order of the tiles coming out)

Overall, this game is nearly perfect for what it is.  A quick and fun family game that simultaneously entertains adults while teaching kids all sorts of great skills (math skills, spatial skills, drafting concepts, etc.).  Even the luck factor isn't a pure negative here as that extra bit of luck can help to even the playing field for kids and parents (for the record, my son and I are nearly 50/50 in terms of which one of us wins when we play two player games)!

Overall Score:

9:  I'm always happy to play this game with my son and I often find myself suggesting it to him.  The quickness of play is undeniably great but the game itself packs a big punch in that short time frame which keeps me coming back for "one more play."  For a family friendly game without any reading, this is perfect for people of all ages!  

Note:  I am using Board Game Geek's rating scale to come up with my score. 

Board Game Geek's Rating Scale:

10:  Outstanding - will always enjoy playing

9:  Excellent - very much enjoy playing

8:  Very good - enjoy playing and would suggest it

7:  Good - usually willing to play

6:  Ok - will play if in the mood

5:  Mediocre - take it or leave it

4:  Not so good - but could play again

3:  Bad - likely won't play this again

2:  Very bad - won't play ever again

1:  Awful - defies game description