Kingdomino - Raising Hooks

Kingdomino has quickly become one of my favorite games. It involves thought and strategy to build a kingdom out of dominoes and is easy enough for the kids to enjoy, too. The gameplay is short and leaves room for playing multiple rounds.

Gameschool:

Strategy
Visual Perceptual Skills
Math – counting, multiplication, ascending order
Matching
Reading Not Required

Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Game Time: 15 min

Who We Play With:

We play Kingdomino with our 6 and 3 year old. Our 6 year old has quickly picked up the rules and is a good contestant. My 3 year old likes that he can choose his pieces but we help him place them. Kingdomino is a great family game but definitely better for ages 6+.

Find Kingdomino on Amazon

How To Play

Set Up
Each player gets a colored meeple, a matching colored castle and a matching starting square.
For 2 players – each player uses two meeples of the same color.

Shuffle the dominos and place them back in the container, value side facing the players.

For 2 players – remove 24 dominoes
For 3 & 4 players – do not remove any dominoes

Game Play

Draw 4 dominoes each round.

Arrange them in ascending order in a column with the smallest number at the top. Now, flip the dominoes over.

To determine who goes first, shake the meeples in your hand and draw them out one by one. The first player places their meeple on the domino of their choice. Followed by the rest of the players.

2 player games – choose 2 dominoes each
3 player games – choose 1 each, discard the fourth domino

Again, draw 4 dominoes and create a new column in ascending order.

The order in which the next dominoes are chosen is determined by which meeple is on the lowest value domino, the domino at the top of the column. That player collects their domino and moves their meeple to the domino of their choice in the new column. They place their collected domino onto their kingdom. Each player follows after that in ascending order. (In a 2 player game, each person would go twice.)

Placing A Tile

All 4 sides of the starting square are wild sides. Meaning, any landscape can touch it.

In order for a tile to be placed, it must either be touching the starter square or have at least one matching square landscape.

A tile can be touching a square that does not match as long as one of the squares do match.

Correct

Incorrect

Tiles must be placed horizontally or vertically, not diagonally.

Kingdoms must not exceed a 5×5 square.

Your castle can be anywhere in your kingdom, it does not need to be in the center.

Incorrect

Correct

If you get a tile that you cannot place within the rules, you must discard that piece. You must place a tile if you can legally place it.

Keep drawing and choosing dominoes until all the dominoes are gone. This ends the game.

Determining A Winner

Winners are determined with a points system.

Count how many squares are in each territory and how many crowns. Matching territories that do not touch are counted separately. Multiply the amount of squares by the amount of crowns in each territory. This means, if you have 4 forest squares and 0 crowns, 4 x 0 = 0. Another example would be 5 mine squares and 4 crowns, 5 x 4 = 20. So you want to have at least one crown for each territory. It is possible to not completely finish your 5×5 square and have missing pieces.

Do this for all the territories and add them all together to get your total points scored. The player with the most points wins.

Tie breaker goes to the player with the most squares in a territory. If you both have the same size largest territory, you share the victory.

Would we play this again?

Yes, absolutely. Kingdomino is a great game to sneak in and it never gets old. Our family really likes the theme of kingdom building and the different, colorful landscapes.

Family Rating