''Kingdoms'' is a

German-style board game A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...

for 2-4 players designed by

Reiner Knizia Reiner may refer to: *Reiner (crater), a crater on the Moon, named after Vincentio Reiner *Reiner Braun, a fictional character in the anime/manga series ''Attack on Titan'' People with the given name Reiner *Reiner Knizia, a board game designer *R ...

and released in 2002 by

Fantasy Flight Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game company based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a subsidiary of Asmodée Éditions. History Fantasy Flight Publish ...

. The game is based on Knizia's original

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

game ''Auf Heller und Pfennig'', but has been given a

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

theme. In 2003, ''Kingdoms'' won the

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 a ...

for ''Best Abstract Board Game of 2002''.

Rules

Players take turns drawing tiles from a stack and laying them on an orthogonal grid, representing a kingdom being settled. Tiles can be either resources (with value +1 to +6) or hazards (-1 to -6). The sum of all tile values on a row or column determines the score for that row or column. A special case is the ''mountain tile'', which splits the row and column it occupies into two, so that each section is scored separately. Players may also play castle tiles, ranked 1 through 4. To score points from a row or column, a player must have a castle there; castles score the points of the row and column they occupy times the rank of the castle. This score may be a negative number. A player has a limited number of castles; castles other than rank 1 cannot be reused. There are three special tiles, besides the mountain tile mentioned above: the dragon, the gold mine and the wizard. The dragon negates all resources in the row and column it occupies, leaving only the hazards. The gold mine doubles the value of that row and column. And the Wizard raises the castle-level of any adjacent castles by 1. When the grid has been filled, the round ends, rows and columns are scored and each player earns points. The board is emptied and play continues for three rounds.

Strategy

Players cannot move tiles once they have been placed. They must also play their castle tiles when there are still empty places on the board, else they risk not scoring the best rows and columns. This requires tactical thinking; each player must balance the need to score points with the risk of having their valuable castles negated with a dragon or hazard tile later in the round.

References

External links

*{{bgg, 119, ''Kingdoms''
Kingdoms Walkthrough
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I Play Red
Fantasy board games Origins Award winners Tile-laying board games Reiner Knizia games Board games introduced in 2002