Your First Three Games of Kingdomino

Your first three games of Kingdomino are where habits form. Some of those habits are rules played wrong because nobody checked. Others are legal choices that cost a lot of points. This lesson covers both, checked against the Blue Orange rulebook.

Rules slips to catch early

Connecting at a corner. A new domino must touch a matching terrain side to side. Two squares that meet only at a corner are not connected, for placing or for scoring.

Requiring both ends to match. Only one square of the new domino needs to touch a matching terrain or the castle. The other end can sit next to anything, or nothing.

Forgetting the castle is wild. Your starting tile accepts any terrain. New players often discard a domino that would have fit right beside the castle.

Building past 5 by 5. The whole kingdom, castle included, must fit in a 5 by 5 square. It is easy to grow six wide without noticing. Check width and height every time you place.

Skipping a domino on purpose. If a domino can be placed legally, you must place it. You may only discard a domino that has no legal spot.

Placing before choosing, out of order. Each turn is place first, then choose. And turn order comes from the line your king is on now, lowest number first, not from where you sat last round.

Scoring land with no crowns. A territory with no crown is worth 0, however large. A 9-square lake with no crown scores nothing.

Counting one terrain as one territory. Two forests that do not touch are two separate territories, each scored on its own.

Ending a round early. In the last round, players still choose from the final line, then place those dominoes in one last turn. Do not stop when the draw pile runs out.

Strategy traps

Big land, no crowns

The most common first-game kingdom is large, tidy, and nearly pointless: wide wheat fields and lakes with one crown between them. Crowns are the multiplier. A small territory with crowns beats a large one without.

Look at the domino numbers. The low numbers, 1 to 18, have no crowns at all. If you take a low domino, take it for a reason: to go first next round, or to grow a territory that already has crowns.

Many small territories

Six territories of 3 squares with 1 crown each score 18 in total. Join two of them into one territory of 6 squares and 2 crowns and that pair alone scores 12 instead of 6. Lesson 4 shows the math; the habit to build now is to keep each terrain together.

No room left

New players fill their best corner first and then have no space for the dominoes they need late in the game. Leave lanes open. A territory against the edge of your 5 by 5 can only grow in three directions, or two in a corner.

The orphan square

Place a domino badly and you can leave a single empty square boxed in by full ones. No domino fits a 1 by 1 hole, so it stays empty forever. Before you place, look for the hole you are about to create.

Ignoring the next line

The line you choose from is face up, and so is every kingdom at the table. New players look only at the domino they want. Better players also look at what the others want, and at whether going early next round matters. Lesson 5 covers the draft.

A three-game plan

• Game one: play the rules right. Check every placement for side-to-side contact and the 5 by 5 limit.
• Game two: pick one terrain early and build it into your biggest territory, with as many crowns as you can.
• Game three: before every pick, say out loud which domino adds the most points and where it would go.

Want to see where Kingdomino sits among other first games? Our guide to gateway board games has it in good company.