Kingsburg

Customer Reviews

-Dices and kings- Review by Maxime Yazz

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In kingsburg players must influence a variety of advisers to obtain resources and power to create the most prestigious province in the kingdom.

To do so each player rolls a set of dices and turn by turn must place them on advisers whit a number equal to those on some or all the dice. After that player can build building in their province. The game last 5 years (This means five sets of 8 seasonal steps.) after that all points are calculated and the player with the most points win.

This game is very good and fast, I love it. But re playability is not so good, Once you built most buildings and tried most combination it sort of loose some of it's freshness. But the expansion solves this problem and turn this game into a even better one.

I recommend to use this game as a gateway game, if you are looking for something a little more complex you can also get the expansion to turn it into a more complex gaming experience. (Posted on 12/13/10)

The luck is in the cards Review by Jasmine

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Despite being a dice rolling game, there isn't too much luck involved with the dice. The player with the worst roll gets to place them first, allowing them to nab most of the first or second row advisors. If done right, a player can essentially get the same thing using the dice on different cheap advisors that a higher roller gets using all the dice on a single expensive advisor.

Instead, the luck in the game comes from the invasion cards that are revealed at the end of each "year" in the game. These cards can be game breakers, especially if they make you lose a building.

Of course, that's part of the strategy of the game and one must balance risk with brute force point gain. However, it does drain the fun out of the game.

Kingsburg is ok for casual gamers but is definitely leaning towards being more of a serious strategy game. The light of heart need not apply. (Posted on 11/24/10)

A perfect mix Review by Murray

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This game is amazing, not only because it is fun, but also because it fits perfect in the middle of everybody's interest. It is light enough for the casual crowd, not requiring too much thinking, but heavy enough for the core crowd, as you can plan several moves ahead if you wish.

There are 18 advisors on the board. Everybody rolls three dice and the person with the lowest total gets to influence advisors first. They can add up all their dice together and influence a single person or split them up any way to influence several. However, you can only influence an advisory one at a time, so if you choose to do this, you must wait until everyone else has picked an advisor before going again. Only one player can influence any advisor at a time, so pick carefully or you might get blocked!

Each advisor grants you different things, including resources, victory points, +2 roll tokens (add 2 to your dice total, one time use), soldiers, etc. You will need resources to build structures in your city. These structures are your main source of victory points (which are the only things that matter at the end of the game) but some structures also grants abilities that you can use when rolling dice, recruiting soldiers, or earning extra VP inbetween turns. The structures have tiers that you need to build towards, so you cannot simply build haphazardly as the structures with more VP and better abilities are higher tiered. This also means that you cannot have the best of all worlds and must choose what direction to develop early on.

The game is played over 5 rounds representing 5 years. Each year has several productive cycles where you roll, influence advisors, and build. At the end of each year, an invasion hits your town. These invasion cards are randomly selected at the start of the game and some advisors allows you to spy and see what is coming. If you deflect the invasion with your soldiers, you can earn extra resources or VP. If you fail to defend yourself, you can lose resources, VP, or even your best structure. As such, you will need to balance your resource gathering in order to meet several needs.

Ultimately if everyone survives to the end, they win. However, the player with the most VP is the winningest. Luck does play a pretty big factor in the game, as no amount of planning can save you from several sub-par rolls. The game has several tweaks and balances, such as awarding an extra die to the last placed player at the start of each year, and these can offset bad luck. Good decision making can also do that as certain structures have bad luck offsetting abilities.

Your first game may take a while longer, as there are many options to choose from. However, Kingsburg is typically a fast paced game and has a lot of replay value. There is not real optimized building path and there are many key decisions that you can make to guide you to victory. However, it's not so heavy that you'll get a headache. Sometimes, your dice roll will dictate what you can do and you'll have little choice but to see it through.

The gameboard is well made and beautiful. The player sheets, however, are simple thick paper. I would have really liked thick board like with Stone Age, as the paper will eventually wear. Overall, however, the game is well designed and great. Highly recommended for anyone. (Posted on 9/21/10)

My best game of 2008 Review by TR

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Kingsburg is my personal favourite of 2008. While Agricola is a complex gamer geeks game, Kingsburg is the game that hits the table among my gaming group more because its light enough for their taste but still complex in its strategies for mine.

An interesting mixture of Amerithemed dice-rolling and Euro level rules and strategies, Kingsburg is also quite fast to set-up and takedown, another huge plus with my group. With the on-going complexity of balancing your growth against the approaching hordes at the end of each year, players are continually considering what the next best move is.

In addition, the ability to block specific councilors adds interaction, while the randomness of the dice guarantees a new game each time. Overall, Kingsburg is a huge hit and a great gateway game and happily, allows up to 5 players. (Posted on 3/25/09)