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If you already don't have Kingdomino, you need to go out and buy it right now. For $18 - $20, you more than get your money worth. This is the perfect 15 minute filler game. It also is perfect to introduce a newbie to modern euro games. It has been nominated for the Spiels de Jahres for this year and I would bet it wins.
Players
The game can be played with 2 to 4 players. I have played it with 2, 3, and 4 players. I prefer it with 2 and 4.
Theme
You play as a king trying to build the greatest 5x5 domino kingdom in the world. The theme is rather weak, but for a game like this it really doesn't matter.
How it works
In a 4 player game, everyone gets one meeple. You put the first 4 tiles face down in order from lowest to highest. You randomly pull meeple to see who goes first. You flip the dominoes over and everyone chooses one. You then put out 4 other tiles face down. In the next round the turn order goes by who picked the lowest numbered tile. So if in round 1, I picked domino #37, Decar picked #19, Dan picked #24, and Jungleboy picked #7, Jungleboy would get to pick first in the next round, followed by Decar, then Dan, and I would go last. The numbers on the back of the tile represent their theoretical value. Their actual value to you may not be so great, so it isn't in your best interest to always pick the highest numbered tile.
In a 2 player game, both players get 2 meeple. On the first round one player gets first and last choice of dominos and the other player gets the 2nd and 3rd choice. In following rounds each meeple gets a turn based on the tile value. In the example in the picture, the green player took the highest numbered tiles this round. In the next turn, she will end up with whatever tiles the yellow player doesn't want. Because of this, I don't take the highest valued 2 tiles unless they really pay off.
After tiles are collected, you lay them in your kingdom. You can lay any tile next to your castle as it acts as a wildcard. When the castle is not involved, you must lay a tile in such a way that one side of it matches one of the preexisting tiles. In the photo yellow is getting a forest/forest tile. The only valid placements for it are next to his only forest or next to the castle itself. At the end of the game, it isn't uncommon to get stuck with a tile you cannot use.
End of Game Scoring
After each player places the last domino, you all score your kingdoms. Points are scored based on crowns and land type. You multiply the number of crowns in an area by the number of domino halves it takes up. In my photo, I have 2 crowns in an area of wheat at the top. 2x4=8 points. The wheat at the bottom is not connected and cannot count. The castle also cannot be scored. Areas without crowns are worthless.
7x7
In a 4 player 5x5 grid game, all of the tiles get used. For a 2 and 3 player game, there are some leftover tiles. Fortunately the game designer knows how much I hate leaving tiles in the box, so you can play a 2 player game and use all of the tiles making a 7x7 grid. This is by far my favorite way to play the game. It still only takes 10 to 15 minutes, so why not?
Bonus rules
#1 Score 10 additional points if your kingdom is in the middle of your grid.
#2 Score 5 additional points if your grid is complete (you didn't throw away any dominoes)
When playing with these rules, it is really hard to win if your opponent's kingdom is in the center and yours is not. I will say it is much easier to complete your grid without the kingdom being in the center, so that is why we always play with these rules.
Conclusion
On weekdays we get home from work, get dinner, and don't have much time for really long games. This is perfect for those nights. The time to play this, the price point, and the quality make this a great pickup if you like tile placement at all. The game is rather small too, so you could take it while traveling. There is a lot of strategy in this little game. You can acquire tiles you know your opponents needed or force a player to take a tile he or she can't use. Afterward you get a cute little kingdom with some interesting things added to the art. I do believe I see the Lochness Monster.
Thanks to Jungleboy for introducing me to this game. He would have written this review, but he is playing real life Tokaido (but in Spain :(y) )
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No doubt you've heard my stories about playing this at Essen 2016. I caved in recently and decided to play this at the UK Games Expo.
Edit: sorry hit enter too soon there:
Thanks for the write up, the 7x7 play sounds the most interesting, I'm hoping to get this to the table.
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Giant Kingdomino https://youtu.be/CsdCya8lvCM
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All of the fun, but none of the portability. I am not sure what to think.
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Well you know what they say: 'Think Big, or Go Home'...but if you Think Big you'll have to Go Home in order to play it.
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Queendomino (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232043/queendomino) (BGG link) has been announced as an Essen release this year. It's similtanously an expansion to Kingdomino and a stand-alone game. Can't wait!
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7x7
In a 4 player 5x5 grid game, all of the tiles get used. For a 2 and 3 player game, there are some leftover tiles. Fortunately the game designer knows how much I hate leaving tiles in the box, so you can play a 2 player game and use all of the tiles making a 7x7 grid. This is by far my favorite way to play the game. It still only takes 10 to 15 minutes, so why not?
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7 x 7 is also my preferred way to play with the inclusion of the 2 optional bonus scorings. I even bought a 2nd set to play 7x7 with four players.
Queendomino (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232043/queendomino) (BGG link) has been announced as an Essen release this year. It's similtanously an expansion to Kingdomino and a stand-alone game. Can't wait!
I'm equally excited for Queendomino!
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The Gencon video of Queendomino has been put up. It attempts to explain the new mechanics. I didn't think it was particularly clear what difference it made. As far as I can tell, you can generate money, which you use to buy buildings that you can use to upgrade certain tiles to score different points. But if you don't like the tiles you can pay to have a dragon eat them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjM1k64xYcw
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I've played a couple of games on Kingdomino with my wife. We both quite like it, I find the interaction pretty low, as there's little chance to do a profitable hate draft. I managed to hit a high score of 134 (+5 for centred castle and +10 for a complete grid) in the 2-player large variant. I wish I could send it to that man at Essen '16 who berated his family for not being as good as him. Mind you that was after Jen beat me 3 times in a row...so was about time I went for gold. :(y)
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Love kingdomino. Just played first game of queendomino and I like that even more!
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There is an expansion coming out for the base game. It comes with a tower and a take that mechanic. :(n) I wanted more tiles, but not like this.
https://boardgamegeek.com/video/168545/kingdomino-age-giants/spielwarenmesse-2018-age-giants-presentation (https://boardgamegeek.com/video/168545/kingdomino-age-giants/spielwarenmesse-2018-age-giants-presentation)
My wife and I sat down at the FLGS and tried QueenDomino a second time. We still don't get why people think it is that much better. The extra tedium reduces the small footprint of the game and the ease of transporting it. At the same time, the extra stuff doesn't add enough weight to be truly different. We still prefer Isle Of Skye for our middleweight tile drafting game.
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There is an expansion coming out for the base game. It comes with a tower and a take that mechanic. :(n) I wanted more tiles, but not like this.
https://boardgamegeek.com/video/168545/kingdomino-age-giants/spielwarenmesse-2018-age-giants-presentation (https://boardgamegeek.com/video/168545/kingdomino-age-giants/spielwarenmesse-2018-age-giants-presentation)
My wife and I sat down at the FLGS and tried QueenDomino a second time. We still don't get why people think it is that much better. The extra tedium reduces the small footprint of the game and the ease of transporting it. At the same time, the extra stuff doesn't add enough weight to be truly different. We still prefer Isle Of Skye for our middleweight tile drafting game.
Indeed you'r right, it's not what I and many probably expected . I have my doubts on QueenDomino but haven't had an opportunity to play it somewhere :'( before buying.
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My wife and I sat down at the FLGS and tried QueenDomino a second time. We still don't get why people think it is that much better. The extra tedium reduces the small footprint of the game and the ease of transporting it. At the same time, the extra stuff doesn't add enough weight to be truly different. We still prefer Isle Of Skye for our middleweight tile drafting game.
I agree and will try to sell my copy of Queendomino the next time I do a games clean-out. I brought Kingdomino to Australia this week so hopefully my parents will like it.
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I agree and will try to sell my copy of Queendomino the next time I do a games clean-out. I brought Kingdomino to Australia this week so hopefully my parents will like it.
Haha, I hope your parents will like it. KingDomino is great to play. O0
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I agree and will try to sell my copy of Queendomino the next time I do a games clean-out. I brought Kingdomino to Australia this week so hopefully my parents will like it.
If they do like it, you may consider leaving that game with them and just keeping QueenDomino for yourself and playing with the KingDomino rules. Oddly enough we did something similar with King Of Tokyo and King Of New York
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How well does that work - isn't there a new Red type?
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How well does that work - isn't there a new Red type?
I swear I saw rules to do that, but I can't seem to find them. The red type doesn't have crowns on them, so they would be rather useless without the additional rules. I suppose you could make them "Wild" land. I never played KD and QD together, which is supposedly doable. I would think that KD would water down the red tiles in a 4 player game.
You could probably find a KD owner willing to swap KD for QD.
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It lets you play 7x7 with 4 players, but not anything bigger for 2-players - which was a tad disappointing, unless that changes with the Giants. Maybe we're getting close to 144/169 or another square number though for Uberdomino
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Kingdomino is to carcassonne as queendomino is to wheel of Fortune.
More things to be done and for me ultimately more rewarding.
As my 10 year old nephew said "kingdomino is for Leo and queendomino is for older children"
Leo is his 5 year old brother. I had to smile.
I have not played Isle of skye, so cannot offer a comparison. But keeping up the analogy Isle of skye is perhaps for men?
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...adults....I think you meant!
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Maybe
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I got Queendomino to the table and for what its worth, these are my initial, short thoughts that I contributed on the FEB. 2018 'New to you', geek list on BGG:
1 x 2 player
1 x 4 player
Initial rating 8 (BGG scale)
Nice step up from Kingdomino! Well thought out expansions of the original game that don't just seem tacked on. The building tiles are the meat of the expansion and my favourite change up are the tiles that give bonus points for having separate landscape features. This is a great way to have those separate areas pay off, even without crowns!
With both base games we prefer a 7x7 tableau and with only two games in, I slightly enjoyed that with 2 players better, the features of Queendomino are more prevalent in play. With the 4 player game we added the kingdomino set as suggested in the QD variants, this was still a very enjoyable game but all that QD brings is watered down. Again, still a very enjoyable game!!
At the moment I prefer the Queen and have less desire to play Kingdomino but wouldn't hesitate to use it as an introductory game or for a quick(ish) filler. Either way these are nice if you have space in the collection!
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Great review, thanks franks - still not managed to get this to the table.
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I played yesterday with my 4 years old and it was successful. He absolutely adored some of the graphics on the tiles: shadow of the flying dragon, loch ness monster in the water, little wagons on rails outside the mine, etc! I had to argue a bit with him about creating a 5x5 square but he managed in the end.
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The art work really is something special - I almost considered buying the Giant version just so I could see what was happening a little bit clearer. Glad he liked the game!
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We just had our first game of Queendomino.....
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I'm with franks on this one: We were quite surprised how much it added to the game. Describing it, it sounded fiddly but after a turn or two it clicked into place. I like the new rules about placement and the buildings and taxation and the queen just worked. It's been elegantly integrated into (rather than added to) the core game mechanics.
I think next time we play we'd ditch the 0 cost building tile after every round just to keep the flow, but generally the tiles moved quickly.
It's quite a neat step-up from Kingdomino, but I can see why there's space for both, especially when the red zones don't have crowns, which I think would stop you playing Kingdomino with the Queendomino box.
After the game, we both managed to score 134 points, so it was a draw! But we decided my wife won because she perfected the 7x7, while mine was missing a key tile.
I'm contemplating a 14x7 mega game too :D
I'm looking forward to seeing what Age of Giants brings, but I'm concerned that at 2-players the Giants won't do much other than advantage the player who selects the most.
Several dismembered thumbs up here: :(y) :(y) :(y)
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Here's some photos of lastnight's game.
I went for taxation route, while my wife went for buildings, which ultimately gave her the victory. The placement of the northern tile in the centre was a bit silly, but it gave me chance to get the 3xmine tile.
Here's the endgame board:
(http://tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/20180330_203236%20(1).jpg)
and two close ups:
(http://tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/20180330_203239.jpg)(http://tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/20180330_203243.jpg)
I particularly like the tiny taxation meeple, made extra nice thanks to the boardgamebowls :)
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Decar, nice pix, glad to heat you enjoyed your first plays!
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Kingdomino : Age of Giants ordered today due to arrive on Saturday.
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Hello everyone,
Firstly : sorry to dust off this old thread! It was the only one about Kingdomino... And that game is the game that shows me new way of board gaming.
I've discovered Kingdomino in 2018, bought it, played it a lot with my family and liked it a lot ! One year later, we bought Age of Giants and we liked the interactions that it creates and the new challenges. One more year later, we bought Queendomino. With that one, I've found the most mature way of playing this game (in my opinion) and I liked it sooo much ! During the first "stay at home" period, I've discovered "The Court" (the last PnP expansion to King/Queen-domino).
After I played Kingdomino and Queendomino with their extensions, I wanted to create an extension that could use all the preexisting expansions.
To do so I figured out it would be better to use what I’d create as an extension for Queendomino. At the end of this post I will share more about the full game use...
With that in mind, let’s say you have to play Queendomino with a few new things :
• A 5th player (with a new starting tile, a 3D castle and King meeples)
• 12 more dominoes from 49 to 60 (most part of “town” square)
• 24 Building tiles
• 15 Knights
• 13 Towers
• a ton of Coins
• a new “Builders” double board
• a second dragon...
Now, what’s new? you may ask. I thought it could be fun to add events to each in-between rounds. Each event would impact the coming round. Would it be a blissful or an unfortunate event for your expanding kingdom though?
Welcome to Queendomino: Fantastic Era !
You can try it out on this page here on BGG (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/308769/fantastic-era-fan-expansion-queendomino)
Here's the link for the French version ici sur BGG (https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/200608/fantastic-era-queendomino-expansion)
We tried this expansion with kids few times and it definitely added some fun to the game.
At least, I've received the permission from the publisher, so did publish a game entry !
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So back to my first idea (and its rules) for an XXL version of Kingdomino's universe by adding the "Fantastic Era" expansion... And more !
As soon as possible, I will share the link to the files on BGG ! (just wait for the entry to be added ! ;))
Here is the link to the English version ! (https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/202286/royal-wedding-xxl-kingdomino-queendomino)
Here is the link to the French version ! (https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/201101/royal-wedding-xxl-kingdomino-queendomino)
After playing this for around 6 hours a game, and having so much fun... I finally understood that I was an hard core board gamer!!
And you, what are your thinking on these projects ? Let me know ! :))