PLAYED FOR YOU

Kingdoms

Dragon vs Mage and Castle for gold!

In a grid of 6x5 squares we place castles and landscapes in order to acquire treasures. In each of the three rounds the board is completely filled and then scored; the position and interdependencies of the tiles determine the reward. You hold castles of values 1 to 4, the higher the value of the castle the stronger the influence on the realm. Land tiles enrich the realm, danger tiles steal treasures, mountain tiles are insurmountable obstacles, gold is wanted by everyone, as is the magician, who upgrades castles, and the dragons, naturally, wreak the biggest havoc.

In a turn you can place one of your own castles or draw a tile and place it or place your own starting tile: The full plan is scored for each player individually, all its rows and columns. You add the value of all land tiles in a row or column and deduct the value of all danger tiles in the same row or column; the result is multiplied with the rank(s) of all your own castles in this row or column. A mountain splits a row or column into two parts which are scored separately, the gold mine doubles all(1) tiles, the magician raises the value of each orthogonally adjacent castle by 1 and the dragon devalues all land tiles in his  row and column but danger tiles are scored there!

In rounds Two and Three you only keep castles of value 1. If you own most gold at the end of three rounds, you win the game.

Kingdoms is a simple game with lots of depth, it is an abstract placement game despite its fantasy topic; but it is always interesting and challenging, you need excellent timing to use your valuable castles well.

Players: 2-4

Age: 14+

Time: 40+

Designer: Reiner Knizia

Art: Kevin Childress, Michael Silsby, Anders Finer, Peter Tikos, Henning Ludvigsen

Price: ca. 30 Euro

Publisher: Heidelberger Spieleverlag 2012

Web: www.hds-fantasy.de

Genre: Placement game

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en

In-game text: no

Comments:

Abstract despite the fantasy topic

Simple rules providing interesting depths

High replay value

Pretty components

Compares to:

Auf Heller & Pfennig, other placement games with area scoring

Other editions:

Kingdoms, Fantasy Flight Games

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0