Review: Kingsburg
By Fantasy Flight Games, Kingsburg is a game of dice/worker placement and resource management for 2-5 players.
In this game, each player takes on the role of governor and compete for resources to build their empire and influence the king.
The game takes place over 5 years, with four seasons (rounds) per year. Each round represents a season and during each season you have the opportunity to collect resources and then construct buildings using those resources. Each player rolls 3 colored dice at the same time. The person with the lowest total roll goes first, then the second lowest, and so on and so on. There are 18 spots on the board, all with a number, that collect you certain resources. You must place the exact amount of dice on whichever number you want. Let’s say you’ve rolled a 6, a 4, and a 3. That’s a total of 13. Your options would be to either place all three dice on the number 13, or the 6 and the 4 on the 10. Or you can place the 3 and the 4 on the 7. Or you can place just the 3 on the 3 and the 4 on the 4 and the 6 on the 6. It all depends on which resources you need. Everybody takes a turn in order to place their dice. If you only place one or two dice on the first go round, when it comes back around to you you’d place the rest of the dice. You continue placing dice until everybody has placed all their dice. The game might sound a little complex, but once you’re playing it’s actually not.
After every one has placed their dice you collect the resources. The resources (gold, wood, and brick) are represented by color coded blocks. Yellow for gold, brown for wood, and grey for brick. After everyone has collected their resources, you can build your buildings if you have enough resources to do so. Every player has a card in front of them that tells them what they need to build certain things. For example, to build an inn you need one gold and one wood. To build the inn, you turn in those resources to the bank, put your colored disc over the building to indicate it’s been built, and move your piece any number of victory points indicated by the card. The inn doesn’t give you any victory points, but once the inn is built, you can build the market and get one victory point for that. You can only build one building per round.
The goal of the game is to come out ahead on the victory track by gaining victory points. You gain points by building. At the end of every year, you fight a monster, which also may gain you victory points if you win. If not, you lose victory points.
This is not a co-op game, but it’s not really a “versus” game either. I’m not fond of games where my opponents spend all their time trying to thwart other players. So, while you are competing against your opponents, mostly you just manage your own affairs, other players manage theirs, and you see who comes out on top.
As with all Fantasy Flight games, the artwork is great, the pieces are high quality, and the packaging is perfect. There’s a spot in the box for everything and everything fits nicely.
