The kingdom continues in Queendomino

A few months ago we reviewed the award-winning board game Kingdomino from Blue Orange Games. We also gave it a hearty recommendation for families everywhere.

It’s a colorful tile-laying game that can be enjoyed by young and old alike.

Of course, the Queen can’t let the King have all the fun. So Blue Orange Game recently released a wonderful companion game – Queendomino!

While Queendomino isn’t an expansion to Kingdomino, both games can be joined together to create even larger kingdoms or play with more players. But that’s just an extra bonus.

Queendomino is a stand-alone game that gets big thumbs up in its own right.

And we’re happy to show you why.

 

How to play Queendomino

The main objective of Queendomino is similar to Kingdomino – players use terrain tiles to build their kingdom and score the most points.

And the main flow of play is also similar to Kingdomino – players choose terrain tiles based on their pawn position and then add them to their kingdom. The tile placement rules are also the same between the two games.

With the same objective and flow of play, you may think the games are exactly the same. But you’d be wrong.

Queendomino takes these basic ideas from Kingdomino and ups the ante by throwing in more strategy due to a new terrain type, towers, knights, money, a Queen, and a Dragon!

So rather than cover the main tile selection and placement flow, we’re going to focus on the new elements that create a new game experience.

(If you’d like a quick rundown on the game flow, jump over to our review of Kingdomino now.) 

 

New Terrain Type – Towns (& Buildings)

The new terrain type on the Queendomino tiles is an orange Town type.

Before the game begins, players set out the Builders board with the random stack of Building tiles. There are 6 spaces for Buildings that can be purchased. The purchase costs are designated on the Builders board below each tile space.

After a player places a tile in their Kingdom, they may purchase a Building from the Builders board as long as they have a vacant Town space in their Kingdom (whether added during this turn or a previous one).

The player pays the bank the amount shown on the board and collects items (knights, towers, or both) indicated in the upper left corner of the Building tile. Then the player places the Building (orange side up) in a Town space in their Kingdom.

If the resource on the tile was a Tower, the player takes the indicated amount from the supply and places the Towers on that Building.

As soon as a player has acquired the most Towers in their kingdom, the Queen figure comes to their Kingdom. While a player has the Queen visiting, they can purchase Buildings for 1 Coin less. Also, the Kingdom where the Queen is hanging out at the end of the game gets to place her on their most expansive territory – where she counts as an extra Crown.

If the resource on the tile was a Knight, the player takes the indicated amount of knights from the supply and adds them to their personal supply.

The items shown in the lower left corner of the Building provide a benefit to that player for the duration of the game.

Items in the lower right corner of the tiles are end-of-game points for final scoring.

 

Knights are Tax Collectors

Each player starts a game of Queendomino with 1 Knight and 7 Coins in their personal supply.

When a player places a new tile in their kingdom, they can choose to add 1 or 2 Knights to the placed tile.

When they do so, the player collects a Coin value equal to the number of squares in the territory the Knight was just placed on.

If the player chooses to place 2 Knights, each Knight must be on 1 square of the domino.

The Knight only collects taxes at the time of placement though it will stay there until the end of the game.

This is how players generate income to spend on future Buildings.

(We think Knights are more noble than tax collectors, but I guess that’s their lot in life for this game.)

 

Dragon Bribery

On the left of the Builders board is a Cave with a Dragon.

Another new option a player has on their turn after placing their tile is to Bribe the Dragon to burn down a Building.

If the Dragon is still in its cave, a player may pay 1 Coin to the bank to move the Dragon token to one of the available Buildings for sale.

This Building is removed from the game and the Dragon stays on the space (we assume he takes a nap after such ferocious burning).

Since this option can only be taken when the Dragon is in his cave, only one player can take this action per round. At the end of each round, the Dragon goes back to his cave.

 

End of Game

Similar to Kingdomino, Queendomino ends after the last tiles are taken and added to players’ kingdoms.

Then each player calculates their score.

Just like in Kingdomino, each Territory scores points equal to the number of matching terrain spaces times the number of crowns in each territory.

But in Queendomino, there are a lot more ways to score. That’s where the included score pad is so helpful.

Most of these additional scoring options come from the special Buildings that players add to their Kingdoms. Players also get a point for each 3 Coins remaining in their supply.

 

Can the whole family enjoy Queendomino?

It may not be as simple as Kingdomino, but Queendomino is still a great board game the whole family can enjoy playing together.

We love the quick and simple play of Kingdomino – choose a tile, add it to your kingdom, repeat.

But we also love the additional elements added in Queendomino.

Games of Queendomino will take longer than Kingdomino because of the additional options players must consider on their turns.

• Do I want to send out a Knight to collect taxes on this territory so I can buy more Buildings?
• Which Building do I want to buy now – one that give better immediate benefits or end-of-game points?
• Should I wait another turn before I buy the Building I want so I can get it for less coins?
• Do I try to get more Towers than others so the Queen comes my way?

While the crux of Queendomino (tile drawing – terrain and Buildings) still includes a lot of luck, these additional options bring in more strategic elements to the game.

Not only do players need to balance the structure of their territories and the amount of crowns in each, they also need to factor in an economic element and bonus Building scoring.

Because of this, you’ll find a lot more variability in games of Queendomino than Kingdomino.

 

How does Queendomino score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Queendomino is a definite “keeper”!

Because the game is slightly longer than games of Kingdomino, we don’t have a lot of “let’s play again” calls immediately after one game ends like we do with Kingdomino. But that doesn’t mean it scores any lower on our scale.

That’s because with the age of our kids, we’ll play Queendomino more than Kingdomino.

We’re still keeping both games in our collections because we enjoy them both.

When we just want quick and simple, we’ll pull out Kingdomino. When we want a fun tile-laying that’s still relatively quick but with more strategy, we’ll pull out Queendomino.

We highly recommend both games – so feel free to take your pick of either great game (or both).

We’d like to thank Blue Orange Games for a review copy of Queendomino.