Review: Kingdom Builder

Introduction & Overview

The goal of the game is to amass as many gold nuggets as possible while building your kingdom, which requires strategic decisions about where to place your settlements. The criteria for earning those coveted nuggets during final scoring will be defined by three Kingdom Builder cards.

Straight to the point: this is Kingdom Builder, designed by the acclaimed Donald X. Vaccarino, creator of one of the milestone titles that revolutionized the modern gaming landscape: Dominion. It was published in 2011 by Queen Games, featuring artwork by Oliver Schlemmer, one of the publisher’s regular artists who also illustrated titles like Fresco, Escape: The Curse of the Temple, and the second edition of Wallenstein. This design was awarded the prestigious Spiel des Jahres in 2012.

The game supports 2 to 4 players, with a recommended age of 8 and up and an approximate playing time of around 45 minutes. The MSRP is €44.99. For this review, a copy of the German edition by Queen Games was used.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom) measuring 29.7 × 29.7 × 7.1 cm (a square box similar to Ticket to Ride, with slightly more depth), we find the following items:

8 Sector Boards (front: landscape; back: score track)
4 Score Markers (one per player color) (wooden)
First Player Tile (cardboard)
35 Cards (59 × 91 mm):
- 25 Terrain Cards (5 of each type: forest, grass, flowers, canyon, and desert)
- 10 Objective Cards
8 Summary Tiles for each of the Sector Boards (cardboard)
28 Hexagonal Location Tiles (2 Oracles, 2 Harbors, 4 Farms, 4 Taverns, 4 Towers, 4 Paddocks, 4 Barns, and 4 Oases) (cardboard)
160 Settlements (40 per player color) (wooden)
Rulebook

How to Play

Kingdom Builder is an area control and kingdom-building game in which players compete to amass the highest amount of gold by expanding their settlements across a modular board made up of four sections. The game takes place over an indeterminate number of rounds. On each turn, the active player reveals the terrain card in hand and must carry out their mandatory action, which consists of placing three settlements from their personal supply onto unoccupied spaces matching that terrain type, always adhering to the adjacency rule: whenever possible, each new settlement must be placed adjacent to at least one of their own settlements already on the map. Building next to special location spaces grants tiles that provide extra actions (usable on subsequent turns either before or after the main action) to place additional settlements or reposition existing ones. After completing all actions, the played card is discarded, and a new one is drawn for the next turn. The game ends at the conclusion of the round in which any player exhausts their supply of forty settlements. During final scoring, players evaluate the scoring conditions from the three randomly selected objective cards and earn three gold coins for each castle adjacent to at least one of their settlements, with the player possessing the most gold emerging as the victor.

Key Concepts

The Boards consist of hexagonal spaces, each depicting a specific terrain type. These terrain types fall into two categories: buildable terrain and non-buildable terrain. Buildable terrains include: forest, canyon, desert, grass, and flowers. Non-buildable terrains include: mountain and water. Additionally, the boards feature two types of special spaces on which players obviously cannot build:

Castles: the most valuable spaces on the boards, awarding three gold nuggets (victory points) at the end of the game if you have at least one settlement adjacent to them.
Locations: spaces that grant special action tiles.

The terrain type where a player can build is determined by the Terrain Cards. The deck contains five cards of each type. Once the deck is exhausted, it is reshuffled and all previously played cards become available once again.

At special locations, players can acquire Location Tiles. Whenever a player places a settlement adjacent to a location hex for the first time, they take a location tile from that space (as long as any remain, since there are only two tiles per hex). Each player may only claim one location tile per space, though this does not prevent having two identical tiles (most boards feature two identical location spaces). Importantly, players keep a location tile only as long as they maintain at least one settlement adjacent to that location hex. If for any reason they no longer have adjacent settlements to that hex, the tile must be discarded from the game. The game provides reference summary tiles detailing the effects associated with each location tile.

As we will see later, our goal is to expand our realm by adding Settlement Tokens to the board. To do this, several building rules must be respected at all times:

Only one settlement may be placed on any given terrain hex.
Settlements may only be built on the following terrain types: grass, canyon, desert, flowers, and forest. Exception: if no hexes of the type shown on the card remain available, the player discards the card and draws another to continue their turn.
Each settlement must be placed adjacent to one of the player’s existing settlements on the board whenever possible. If this is impossible, the token may be placed on any hex across the entire board matching the terrain type shown on the card.

This last rule is undeniably the cornerstone of the game’s mechanics, as we will explore below.

On the other hand, we have the ten Objective Cards, three of which are selected for each game. These cards establish how players should direct their expansion, as they award victory points based on how well their conditions are fulfilled. In other words, victory points are scored through two avenues: building settlements adjacent to castle hexes and fulfilling the requirements set by the objective cards.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

Setup proceeds as follows:

Randomly select four of the eight available sector boards and arrange them in a 2×2 grid.
Place the location tiles onto their corresponding hexes on each board. Additionally, set the summary tile for each chosen board alongside it.
Take one of the four remaining sector boards and place it face down to use its printed score track.
Each player receives all 40 settlement tokens of their color, along with their matching score marker, placing it at the start of the score track.
Shuffle the terrain cards and deal one face-down card to each player, which remains secret.
Determine the first player (the rules state this should be the oldest player).

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

The game is played over an indeterminate number of turns, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise.

On their turn, the active player must first reveal their terrain card. Then, they carry out their mandatory action and may optionally perform a series of special actions:

Mandatory Action. The player must place three settlement tokens on spaces matching the terrain type shown on their revealed card, strictly following the building rules detailed earlier.
Special Actions. The player may perform as many special actions as location tiles held at the start of the turn (tiles acquired during the current turn cannot be used until the following turn). Each time a tile is used, flip it face down to show that action has been expended for the turn. Special actions may be executed either before or after the mandatory action, but each action must be completed fully. You cannot execute an action partially, perform another action, and then finish the first one later.

Once the player completes the mandatory action and cannot or does not wish to execute any more special actions, they discard their terrain card and draw a new one, keeping it secret until the start of their next turn.

Turn order then passes to the next player.

Game End

The game ends in the round in which any player runs out of settlement tokens. The round is played out to completion so that all players take an equal number of turns, followed by final scoring:

Each of the 3 objective cards is evaluated.
Each player scores 3 points for every castle hex adjacent to at least one of their settlements.

The player with the most victory points wins. In the event of a tie, players share the victory.

Personal Opinion

Kingdom Builder caused quite a stir back in the day. It was the follow-up design to the groundbreaking Dominion (here is its tocho-review[cite: 1]), and expectations were likely through the roof and slightly misdirected. It is also true that the theme is purely ornamental, offering little help in understanding its mechanical gears or how matches should truly be approached.

As you may have read in numerous reviews, after a few introductory plays, it can feel as though the game plays itself, leaving you wondering what incentive there is to keep bringing it to the table. A turn basically consists of waiting for your moment, revealing your card, and placing three or more settlements on the board. Decision-making feels virtually non-existent at first glance, as if the eligible spaces were entirely predetermined by that single card drawn from the deck.

If that card happens to align with your plans, wonderful. Otherwise, you end up bloating clusters of settlements that yield no benefit whatsoever. Worse still, some objective cards can feel downright impossible. You have to be careful not to fall into this trap, or you will quickly start feeling as though you wasted your money.

Fortunately, the game changes completely once you shift your perspective. Luck is undeniably a factor, since the drawn card dictates where you can build with your mandatory action. If you have an existing settlement adjacent to any hex matching that terrain type, your hands are tied.

Your primary tactical objective is ensuring this restriction triggers as rarely as possible. Working from this premise, you quickly realize you possess far greater freedom when placing settlements across the map. The feeling that the game is on autopilot evaporates, replaced by the realization that every single settlement placement must be carefully weighed to prevent dead ends that opponents can exploit. From this vantage point, placing your very first settlement is pivotal to the entire match. One misstep early on and recovery becomes an uphill battle.

To mitigate the randomness introduced by the terrain cards, location tiles gathered throughout the match step into the spotlight. This naturally sparks a race among players to claim as many of these tiles as possible: holding more tiles unlocks greater tactical flexibility on each turn and accelerates the pace of the game. Every extra action you hold over your opponents allows you to place additional settlements, meaning that if rivals are caught napping, you can trigger the end game before they can react. Even so, precision remains paramount.

Depending on the board configuration and, above all, the Kingdom Builder cards that shape the strategic landscape, certain special actions prove invaluable while others are far less relevant (serving merely as extra placement triggers to rush the tempo). Luckily, using them is entirely optional, so hoarding as many tiles as possible is always worthwhile simply to deny them to your opponents. Ultimately, the true value of these special actions lies in sculpting the board state at the start of your turn to maximize the efficiency of your mandatory action.

Speaking of rivals: as many of you might infer from reading the rules, the game shines brighter with higher player counts. With fewer players, available placement spots are plentiful, diluting player interaction—which is truly the game’s greatest asset. At four players, blocking paths and cutting off expansion lines are an everyday occurrence, significantly expanding the variables you must assess with every placement. With lower player counts, these clashes and territorial battles over coveted hexes happen far less frequently.

As noted earlier, this is fundamentally an abstract game. Expanding realms often serve as a convenient veneer for designs of this nature. I recently reviewed The Castles of Burgundy (here is its tocho-review[cite: 1]), which is similarly an abstract system coated in a pasted-on theme to make it more visually engaging, substituting an imaginary kingdom with the Loire Valley in the case of Stefan Feld’s classic. This abstract core is an essential aspect to keep in mind when evaluating the title.

Personally, this is one of those games I never tire of, presenting a dual challenge that is endlessly engaging. Successfully navigating the luck of drawn terrains while maximizing the three scoring conditions and leveraging the modular map layout is an absolute delight.

One of the game’s greatest assets (if you enjoy it) is its exceptional replayability. With eight quadrants available and only four in play, arranged in any orientation, the number of possible board combinations is massive. Add the random selection of three Kingdom Builder cards, and the setup variance is among the highest you will find in modern board gaming. Of course, if the design is not to your liking, having a myriad of scenarios will hardly matter, nor will the fact that a strategy that secured victory in one match could lead to complete ruin in the next.

As is standard for Queen Games, production quality is rock solid. The tiles and boards boast substantial thickness, and the settlements are the classic wooden houses seen in countless titles (identical to the stables in Agricola). The cards are decent; while their white borders help prevent noticeable edge wear, I still recommend sleeving them, especially given their standard thickness.

Credit must be given to Oliver Schlemmer for the visual design. Dressing a game of this nature with such visual appeal is commendable. The boards—essentially hex grids featuring 8 terrain types—are packed with subtle details, avoiding any sense of repetitive copy-pasting. Some elements offer less room for artistic flair, such as the terrain cards, which are limited to depicting a canyon or a desert. That said, more distinct terrain choices would have helped, as desert and canyon or grass and forest share very similar palettes. While easily distinguishable on the board, playing on autopilot makes it easy to confuse them on the cards (something that has tripped me up more than once).

And let’s wrap this up. Kingdom Builder is built upon area control and piece placement governed by the dictate of a terrain card. The true brilliance of the design shines once you realize the supposed lack of agency is an illusion: the race for location tiles and the precise calculation of adjacency turn what appears to be a passive autopilot ride into a gripping tactical struggle to outmaneuver the deck. The subtle yet ruthless interaction of choking off opponent expansions creates moments of sharp competitive tension. Working against it is a deceptive learning curve that can frustrate players who mistakenly believe the game plays itself, combined with a starkly abstract core that does little to disguise its analytical chill. Yet decoding that constant optimization puzzle each turn makes every play remarkably rewarding. A misunderstood, elegant title with a wonderful undercurrent of spite. For all these reasons, I give it a…