''Kingdomino'' is a 2016 tile board game for 2-4 players designed by Bruno Cathala and published by

Blue Orange Games Blue Orange Games is a board game company based in San Francisco, California. They have been publishing and promoting award-winning games for over 18 years. The company was founded in 1999 by Thierry Denoual and Juilen Mayot. The company is know ...

. In this 15-20 minute, family-oriented game, players build a five by five kingdom of oversized domino-like tiles, making sure as they place each tile that one of its sides connects to a matching terrain type already in play. The game was critically successful and won the 2017

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...

award, and was followed by several spin-offs and expansions.

Gameplay

In the game players take turns choosing domino-like tiles and adding them to their kingdoms. Like traditional

Dominoes Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also c ...

, each tile has one or two different ends, which in this case also show different landscapes, and possibly a number of crowns on it. Choosing a tile with the most crowns gives a player last choice in the next round for choosing a tile, and vice versa - choosing the worst tile now ensures the first choice in the following round. When a tile is placed next to other tiles of the same landscape, they form a larger property. Each kingdom can be no larger than a 5x5 grid of landscapes. The game ends when the tiles run out, and then each property is scored based on how big it is, multiplied by the number of crowns in it. The player with the most points in all their properties wins. There is also a two player variant of the game which allows players to form a larger 7x7 grid of tiles. ''Kingdomino'' is considered by reviewers to be an accessible entry point into

strategy board game A strategy game or strategic game is a game (e.g. a board game) in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decisio ...

s, with its 15–20 minute playing time and its familiar

game mechanics In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...

which bear similarity to

History

The first version of Kingdomino was only available to families in the French Alps who paid for a week-long pass at the nearby ski resort.

Reception

Kingdomino received positive reviews upon its release, and won the

award for the best board game of the year. In a 2017 article, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praised the combination of accessibility and depth of strategy, describing ''Kingdomino'' "the standout game of the past 12 months". Sam Desatoff IGN also praised the simplicity of rules, strategy and the engagement of the tile selection mechanic, stating that "every single fast-playing round into a mindgame of maximizing the points you can earn right now", but criticised the "analysis paralysis". A review in

The Wirecutter ''Wirecutter'' (formerly known as ''The Wirecutter'') is a product review website owned by The New York Times Company. It was founded by Brian Lam in 2011 and purchased by The New York Times Company in 2016 for about $30 million. Approach and ...

praised the fun and engagement of the game, but criticised the interactivity and complexity of the rulebook.

Spinoffs and expansions

In 2017, Blue Orange Games released ''Queendomino'', a standalone board game which used a tile laying gameplay similar to the original, but added knights, dragons, a queen, and buildings to build. This was followed in 2018 by the release of ''Kingdomino Age of Giants'', an expansion for both ''Kingdomino'' and ''Queendomino''. In 2019, ''Kingdomino Duel'' was also released as a two player, roll and write version of the game. In 2021, a simplified version, '' Dragomino,'' was released, receiving positive reviews and won the Kinderspiel des Jahres award. ''Kingdomino Origins'', a prehistoric-themed sequel, was released in the same year and introduced three modules.

References

External links

* {{Spiel des Jahres Board games Tile-based board games Spiel des Jahres winners Board games introduced in 2016