Designer(s) Donald X. Vaccarino Players 2–4 (5 with expansion) Playing time | Publisher(s) Queen Games Age range 8 and up | |
Kingdom Builder is a strategic board game designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, published in 2011 by Queen Games with illustrations by Oliver Schlemmer in German, British and international versions (English, French, Dutch, Spanish, German). A Finnish-Swedish version was released in 2012 by lautapelit.fi.
Contents
Kingdom Builder is a construction game in which each player creates a kingdom by placing settlers' houses in various locations. The winner of the game is the player with the most gold. However, the gold is only awarded at the end of the game, according to three sets of rules that were randomly revealed at the beginning. The rules are simple but each game is likely to play out differently due to the random selection of board sections (choosing four from eight) and scoring rules (choosing three from ten), the luck of the draw, and competition for resources.
The game received the 2012 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year), German game prize (Deutscher Spiele Preis) for 2012 listed it at number 7 out of 10 best games for that year.
Gameplay
The game has eight different game board sections composed of 100 terrain hexagons each. Five terrain types are suitable for building: canyon, desert, flower field, forest and grass. Four terrain types are not suitable: castle, "location", mountain and water. At the start of the game four game board sections are selected at random and constructed to form a rectangular game board. Three random Kingdom Builder cards are drawn and displayed, which explain the rules for earning gold in that particular game. For example, one Kingdom Builder card may award gold for settlements next to mountains, while another awards gold for settlements arranged in a horizontal line.
Each player's turn consists of:
The game ends at the completion of the round in which at least one player places his last settlement. Then each player totals his gold according to the several scoring methods. The player with the most gold wins.
Strategy
Location tiles and flexibility of movement are the keys. Having to play adjacent to existing settlements is an obstacle to overcome. Therefore, the play of the first settlement should be adjacent to a location that provides a powerful tile. For example, this first placement may require playing on a grassland hex adjacent to a forest hex that later restricts your placements when you draw a forest terrain card. Careful placements, powerful location tiles and luck allow you flexibility to expand to acquire more tiles and to occupy profitable hexes.
Expansions
Five expansions have been released. They contain new game board sections, new locations and more ways to expand your kingdom and receive gold during and at the end of the game.