Kingdom Builder Review

Recent days have shown me that perhaps my many years of gaming dominance is no longer a concern to those I call my friends. There was a time when winning was pretty much expected, if we played a game, any game, 10 times, myself and one other person in our group would likely win at least 4 each, give or take. Leaving the last two or three games to be split between the other 5-7 regular game night friends playing with us. I know this sounds like bragging but hey facts are facts and I am pretty sure that few who used to play during that hey day with me would not disagree. But alas, those days seem to be over. Though I would like to think I am in a slump and those days will return, I truly believe it is simply a case that the Seahawks just finally improved enough to compete for the championship. (yes, I know they finally won the big game but 10 years ago, I would never have thought it.) Friends, who seldom used to win, I won't mention their names but they know who they are, have begun beating me it seems with all to great a frequency and it hurts, much like watching my beloved Broncos take a beating to (in my mind anyway, the lowly Seahawks). Not just a squeaker but a thrashing. To be honest I can't even say my team gave it away it was ripped away by Seattle's very impressive defense... But I digress. Suffice it to say I am still hurting. I will move on. I cam to this conclusion this past weekend when I again had an opportunity to play Kingdom Builder.

Now Kingdom Builder was a Spiel De Jahres winner, considered the big Kahuna of Board game awards by most. I can see why it earned the reward and though that may have played a part in my purchase decision the following review is based solely on my play experience. I do tend to frequently purchase expansions with games especially if they will allow more players and that is why I will include the crossroads expansion as part of the review.

Game Length:
Once you know the rules you can expect to play for 45-60 minutes when playing with 4 players. Though we did have the expansion to play with 5 players our players were rotating on this game night and we only played with 4 but the number of players does effect game length. I would say each player accounts for 10-15 minutes of play time depending on the amount of analysis a player applies but unlike many Euro style (non-conflict, non-Dice) games this one is has limited options in actions and thus you really would have a hard time justifying over analysis. So count on 15 minutes a player to be safe, that lines up pretty much with what the box says. We played the game four times with four rotating players each time with at least one new player and consistently finished in under an hour.

Complexity:
I would say the complexity of this game is what makes it a wonder. Not that it is complex, in fact it is actually a very simple game, It provide enough variation that each game will likely be different even after though even after quite a few plays. I would give it a 4 of 10 in complexity where 10 is for players who enjoy being brain drained when the game is done and one is Slap Jack.

 Mechanics:
Kingdom builder has essentially only one mechanic, and that is build settlements, only one card per player per turn and that just tells you what areas of the board you can build on. The Expansion does add a few additional items but even there you gain some new pieces that essentially act like special settlements. Throughout the game you can gain a few special placement abilities to help you accomplish the games scoring goals. Scoring goals are, in the base game three randomly chosen cards that tell you how to gain points in this game and proximity to the castle hexes on each board area. The expansion adds a one to four more scoring goals depending on how many expansion boards are in your game. We determined out game board parts at random chosen from the 12 or so they gave us and only ever go one of the four expansion boards so we had only four scoring goals in our games. I like the mechanics but they are pretty simplistic and not many of them. I would not mind a little more. I will rate the mechanics of this game a 5 of 10. This rating is just my opinion. A one is confusing and perhaps pointless mechanics while 10 would be smooth interlocking mechanics with great choices and variety of actions, that fit the theme.

Theme:
Well the name of the game is Kingdom Builder and building settlements is what you are doing. That said you do not have to connect to the castles on the board, you do not have your own castle to build, you have no armies, knights or adventurers, so who's Kingdom are you building? There are castles and yes you do gain extra points for being near those castles but you can build throughout the game never getting near one of these and still win. The art implies you might be peasants during the medieval times but I don't know that all peasants were part of a kingdom then.  I would say the theme is loosely attached I will give it a 5 of 10. 1 is checkers (theme???) and 10 applies every aspect of the game to the theme and I could not picture the game fitting any other theme.

Rules:
The rules are pretty simple, we were up and playing in 10 minutes in fact they were almost too simple, if there is such a thing. We read the two possible actions,1: required: place three settlements 2: Optional: do any or all of your optional actions; and wondered if we were missing something. It could have at least explained that you would gain the actions during the game. We deduced it by the way the game set up but it was not immediately clear in the rules. Expansion rules were just as basic. Both sets of rules explained the scoring cards they came with in detail and we had little trouble getting started. 8 of 10

Alpha Gamer:
Yes, these guys can put their two cents in, though you can mitigate this by having your move ready when your turn comes and its time to show your area type card. Once you show it you might receive some Alpha Gamer advice, wanted or not.

Quality:
To be honest I am not an art aficionado (heck, I am not even sure I can spell it).  But I can say the art is not confusing, looks neat and fits the intended them. The castles may be a bit over details for the small space they take kind of looks like a bunch of icicles. Board parts are thick and sturdy, though the cards are a bit thin, definitely want to put sleeves on the area cards if you are going to be playing a lot. The settlements and expansion pieces are wood and decent quality. I will give this a 7 of 10

Strategy:
This is where the game excels. In fact this is the games saving grace. If not for the strategy of where to build settlements using your actions and special actions in combination with the end of game scoring goals the game would fail completely. This is why we played four time in one night and why I expect it will be be coming out again soon, well that and one other thing. 7 of 10 is how I would rate it. I know I said strategy is this games best part but in a longer game this would not hold water and so it is combined with its game length that makes it work.

Game Play:
Well I pretty much already went over this, essentially you must play at least three settlements then you can execute additional actions if you have any those would let you move an existing settlement in some way or place an additional piece. Game ends at the end of the round in which one person plays his last settlement. Each player has 40 settlements and in the expansion they gain a few bonus pieces. Typically you can expect you will not get more than 10 or so turns so make them count. I know you have enough pieces for 13 or more turns with the expansion but with extra actions someone will end the game sooner. I will give this game a 7 of 10 in total. If we are still playing it 6-8 months I might push it up a notch.

Conclusion:
I can tell this is a good game because I want to keep playing in spite of the fact that as of yet I have not won. In fact I have not even been close, 2nd but a distant 2nd is the best I have done. Not sure why I cannot seem to solve this game. It's not hard enough to be the complexity, and even so I usually do best at complex. There is no real luck to speak of other than the area cards but wise play can manipulate those to your benefit frequently. My suggestion is don't lose track of the end game scoring goals and pay attention to the points per settlement ratio as you playing pieces. Hopefully I can finally report a win on this soon. I wish you greater success.