Kingdomino

Hey there, First name / friend! I am so excited to bring you two of my favorite quick games this month. This week, I want to talk about Kingdomino. This one was introduced to us by friends a few years ago and we've been playing it pretty consistently since. With two little ones in the house, we never know how long it will take for them to go to bed. Sometimes we have two hours to play a game, sometimes only 30 minutes. This one is perfect for those nights when you don't have a lot of time.

 

Kingdomino is for 2-4 players, ages 8 & up. It takes about 15-25 minutes. The strategy is considered light.

 

Your goal is to create a kingdom of different landscapes to acquire the most points. You'll create a 5x5 grid (we always play 7x7 for the two of us). Just like dominoes, you match like to like - fields match to fields, forest to forest, etc. Every tile is numbered depending on valuableness. Tiles with crowns are more valuable, because that's how you'll get your points. For example, in the picture above I see 11 connected lake squares with 3 crowns. 11x3=33 points for this player's (okay, it's my husband's) lake. Squares have 0 to 3 crowns.

In the pictures above you'll see how one round works (it varies slightly on the number of players). The tiles are all stacked randomly in the tower. You'll pull out four tiles and sort them least to greatest. Then you'll take turns selecting the tile of your choosing depending on your starting position from the previous round.

 

Placement rules… the 4 sides touching your castle are wild, but otherwise one side of your domino must connect to the same terrain as a domino in your kingdom, while remaining in your 5x5 grid.

 

It's pretty straightforward, but let's go over some examples.

The one on the left is perfect. (Leave it to my husband to play a great game when he knows we're taking pictures. 🙄) Note that we play a 7x7 when it's just the two of us. 

 

The middle picture is still a good board. It has gaps because you cannot play outside of the 5x5 (or 7x7) grid. I ended up discarding a card. Also note that if you have a tile that will not legally attach to your landscapes (say you drew a double water and you don't have any available water in your kingdom), then you must discard the tile.

 

The one on the right is what not to do! This board did not stay within the 5x5 (7x7) grid.

That's Kingdomino! When you're all out of tiles you'll tally up your scores for each landscape to determine the winner. What do you think? 

 

Let me know if you try this one! 

Happy playing!

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