Board Games:

Kingdom Builder

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4.5 out of 5 stars Based on 6 Customer Ratings

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"Simple but fun game."
4 stars"
Purchased on Mighty Ape

Kingdom Builder is a good fun game for a small number of players – and honestly I'd consider it could even be played with 5, had they included enough pieces. At least one of the expansions does add red tokens, but also adds complications that really aren't in the spirit of the original game. The components are all good quality – wooden house tokens, a thick board, and decent stock for the cards. However even accounting for that, I'm not sure it's value for money at full price – I'd wait for a good deal. That said, there is good value in the replayability; using only 3 out of the possible goal cards, in combination with 4 out of the possible 8 boards, does mean that no two games are the same. However some of the board / goal combinations do mean that some of the goals become difficult to really aim for, and so fairly moot. I also wonder at the decision to put a scoring track on the back of every game board – they could have made them double-sided to either reduce the overall box weight, or to double the number of board combinations, and added additional special action tokens (some that allowed free building into ravine, mountain, or flower terrain, to match those allowing such for grassland and desert, for example). Especially since you don't score until right at the end – technically a piece of paper and a pen is all you need, though a distinct board is always a nice touch. Overall, it is definitely a good game, but falls short of being great, and is perhaps a tad overpriced for what it delivers. Still, it's likely to remain a go-to alongside Carcasonne as a two-player game, and a likely starting game on game days with friends.

Description

By skillful building of settlements players create their own kingdoms, aiming to earn the most gold at the end of the game. The 3 Kingdom Builder cards specify the conditions which must be met in order to earn the desired gold.

Nine different kinds of terrain are on the variable game board, including locations and castles. During his turn, a player plays his terrain card and builds three settlements on three hexes of this kind. If possible, a new settlement must be built next to one of that player's existing settlements. When building next to a location, the player may seize an extra action tile that he may use from his next turn on. These extra actions allow extraordinary actions such as moving your settlements.

By building next to a castle, the player will earn gold at the end of the game, but the most gold will be earned by meeting the conditions of the three Kingdom Builder cards; these three cards (from a total of ten in the game) specify the conditions that must be met in order to earn the much-desired gold, such as earning gold for your settlements built next to water hexes or having the majority of settlements in a sector of the board.

Each game, players will use a random set of Kingdom Builder cards (3 of 10), special actions (4 of 8), and terrain sectors to build the map (4 of 8), ensuring you won't play the same game twice!

A game by Donald X. Vaccarino for 2 – 4 players aged 8 years and up

Release date Australia
August 5th, 2013
Age Group
Manufacturer
Number of Players
2-4
Play Time
45-60 minutes
Recommended Age
8 years or over
Board Game Type
Board Game
Board Game Requirement
Base Game
Box Dimensions (mm)
300x300x70
UPC
4010350608326
Product ID
21578062

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