Kingdomino is a 2016 board game for 2-4 players designed by Bruno Cathala and published by Blue Orange Games. 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. In 2017 Kingdomino won the Spiel des Jahres award for the best board game of the year.
Gameplay
In the game players take turns choosing domino like tiles and adding them to their kingdoms. Like traditional Dominoes, 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 games, with its 15–20 minute playing time and its familiar game mechanics which bear similarity to Dominoes.
Reception
The Guardian called Kingdomino "the standout game of the past 12 months".
Spinoffs and expansions
In 2017, Blue Orange Games released Queendomino, a standalone board game which uses tile laying gameplay similar to the original, but adds 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. Kingdomino Duel was released in 2019 as a two player, roll and write version of the game.
