The skinny: Kingdom Builder is a 30 to 45 minute terrain control game. Players alternate placing a few of their pieces each round on the randomly generated board until someone runs out of pieces and the game is scored based upon scoring criteria randomly selected before the game begins. Although skill plays a part in victory, luck plays a larger factor in most games.
What type of game is it?: Kingdom Builder falls into a category of games that I call ‘filler’ games. It is a good option to fill some time with friends while waiting to do something else. What are the characteristics of a good filler game? It is quick (to set up, to learn, and to play) and there is enough luck involved in the game that new players have a reasonable chance to win.
Game length: Although a new player’s first game will often take a few extra minutes, this game pretty consistently takes less than 5 minutes to set up, roughly 5 minutes to explain, and about 10 to 15 minutes per player for a typical length of 30 to 45 minutes.
My key rule for game length is that a game should end within about 15 minutes of someone being 'out of it'. In a 30 to 45 minute game, a player can spend nearly half of the game ‘out of it’ without it being unreasonable. In a 3 hour game, all players must be ‘in it’ for almost the entire game. 'In it' and 'out of it' do not necessarily turn on a player having a chance to win - it just requires the player to feel like their contribution is important and/or fun.
In this game, it is rare that a player is entirely out of it before the middle of the game. You may feel like you’re starting to fall out of contention if you have a bad start, but it is very possible to make a comeback from the worst of starts if your luck changes.
Gameplay: Players will have a ‘hand’ of one terrain card that will determine where they can place 3 of their pieces on their next turn. 884
When placing their pieces, players must place them on the selected terrain type and – if possible – adjacent to one of their pieces already on the board.
If the players place their pieces adjacent to a few special locations spread out over the board, they will be able to gain special abilities that allow them the option to do something once per turn – either play additional pieces, or move existing pieces – on all later turns. Although placing your pieces adjacent to the special locations does not usually directly give you points, those special abilities often provide a significant advantage over the remainder of the game, especially if the ability is gained early. This is especially true because these advantages often make it easier to grab additional special abilities in the succeeding turns, causing an exponential advantage.
Luck: Every game can be describing by the balance between luck and skill. In KB, luck plays a larger part in victory than skill, but both can have a significant impact. A skilled player playing with three careless players will win most of the games, but luck can give victory to a player utilizing very basic strategy.
The primary luck mechanism in the game is the drawing of cards to determine the type of terrain that you will place your pieces on during a particular turn. You’ll often have many options for how to place your pieces on the indicated terrain (although it is possible to have no option what-so-ever by the middle of the game), but there are certainly times when there is a significant advantage to being able to place your pieces on a given terrain type of your turn.
The luck factor is never more significant than on the first two rounds.
There are ‘better’ and ‘worse’ places to place your first pieces on the first turn. If you draw the right terrain type and have the option to place in a ‘good’ spot, you can end up with a significant advantage over less fortunate players. The things you’re looking for in the early placement are the gaining of useful special abilities by placing pieces adjacent to special locations and limiting the types of terrain adjacent to your pieces so that you will have more options in where to place your pieces as the game goes forward.
The luck factor remains strong on the second round. No matter how you place your pieces on turn one, there will now be a few types of terrain adjacent to your existing pieces at the start of turn two and a few types of terrain that are not adjacent to your terrain. If you draw a card for a terrain type that is *not* adjacent to an existing piece, you’ll have many options in how to place your pieces that turn. 937