Kingdomino Tile Counting: Where the Crowns Hide

Kingdomino looks like a game of luck: four dominoes come out, and you take one. But the dominoes are not a random mix. The box holds the same 48 every time, and the crowns are spread across them in a very particular way. Learn the set and the luck shrinks.

Every number below comes from counting the real tiles and checking the total against the tally printed on the back of the rulebook.

The six terrains

The 48 dominoes have 96 squares and 39 crowns in all.

Read it as a seesaw. The common terrains are easy to grow and hard to crown. The rare terrains are hard to grow and full of crowns. Wheat has more squares than any other terrain and the fewest crowns. Mines have only six squares in the whole box, but ten crowns, more than any other terrain.

Where the crowns sit in the numbers

The numbers sort the dominoes roughly by value, and the crowns follow:

• Wheat crowns: dominoes 19 to 23, one crown each.
• Forest crowns: dominoes 24 to 29, one each.
• Lake crowns: dominoes 30 to 35, one each.
• Grassland crowns: 36 and 37 (one each), 41 and 42 (two each).
• Swamp crowns: 38 and 39 (one each), 43 and 44 (two each).
• Mine crowns: 40 (one), 45, 46, and 47 (two each), and 48 (three).

The one crownless mine square is on domino 23, next to a crowned wheat field.

What pairs with what

Each domino has two squares, so terrains travel in pairs. Two patterns matter most:

• Wheat is the glue. It is on 24 of the 48 dominoes: 2 doubles, plus 22 where it sits beside another terrain, every terrain in the game. A wheat field is the easiest territory to grow, and it is often what you place a rare domino’s other end into.
• Mines live next to wheat and swamp. The six mine dominoes are 23, 40, 45, and 48 (each with wheat) and 46 and 47 (each with swamp). If you want mines, plan a wheat or swamp territory beside them so both ends of each mine domino score.

What a territory can be worth

These counts set the ceiling for each terrain:

• Mines: with only six squares, a mine territory rarely tops three or four squares. But three mine squares can hold six or seven crowns. Dominoes 48, 45, and 46 together put 7 crowns on 3 mine squares: 3 × 7 = 21 points.
• Swamp and grassland: mid-size territories of five or six squares with three or four crowns score 15 to 24.
• Forest and lake: you can grow these to eight or ten squares, and each crown is a single crown, so a 9-square forest with 3 crowns scores 27.
• Wheat: wheat can grow big, but only five wheat crowns exist. A 10-square wheat field with 2 crowns scores 20. With only five wheat crowns in the box, shared by everyone, two is a good haul.

Counting in a four-player game

With four players, all 48 dominoes come out over 12 rounds. Nothing is hidden for long. Everything not yet seen is still coming, so you can count with certainty.

You do not need to track all 48. Track the eight richest: 41 to 48, the dominoes with two or three crowns. Each one that appears in a line is one fewer prize left. When only one or two remain, picking first in the next round is worth more, because the prize might be in it.

Counting with two or three players

With fewer players, part of the box is set aside unseen at the start (24 dominoes with two players, 12 with three in the original rules). Now you cannot know for sure what is coming. You can know the odds.

The rule is simple: the chance that a domino you have not seen will still come out equals the dominoes left in the draw pile divided by all the dominoes you have not seen.

• Two players, start of the game: 24 of 48 in play, so every domino has a 1 in 2 chance of appearing. On average three of the six mine dominoes show up. The chance of a game with no mine domino at all is about 1 percent.
• Two players, after three rounds: you have seen 12 dominoes. 12 remain in the pile, out of 36 unseen. Each unseen domino now has a 1 in 3 chance.
• Three players, original rules: 36 of 48 in play, so domino 48 shows up three games in four.

With the 2024 edition’s three-player rule, all 48 dominoes come out and one is discarded each round, so you count as in a four-player game.

Using the count

Counting turns vague hopes into decisions:

• Starting a mine? In a four-player game, with all six mine dominoes coming, a mine is a sound plan if you can grab two or three of them. With two players, you might see only two or three in total.
• Saving a spot? If you are holding a space for a two-crown swamp, check how many of 43, 44, 46, and 47 are left. If the answer is none, fill the space with something else.
• Late in the game, count the rich dominoes still to come against the rounds left. That count is what makes lesson 5’s choice between a better domino and an earlier pick a real decision.