Game Review: Kingsburg

by Andrea “Liga” Ligabue
15 Oct. 2007

Publisher: KDS (Italy) / ElfinWerks (English) / Counter/Stratelibri (other countries)
Designers: Andrea Chiarvesio & Luca Iennaco
Players: 2-5
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 60-120 minutes (approximately 25 per player)
Release Date: October 2007

I’ve had the fortune to try this game at several stages during its development in addition to playing it at least twice in the final version, with nearly complete graphics for the board, cards, and provinces. Here’s a short review of the game:

Kingsburg belongs to the Eurogamer category, but thanks to the nice theme and graphics and the massive use of dice, it also winks at lovers of American-style games.

Every player is governing a border province and must manage it for five years before King Tritus decides who has done the best job. Every governor must improve the province by organizing the construction of several buildings, including military and religious ones thanks to the help of various Royal Advisors. At the end of the year, the governors must help repel the nation’s enemies, who press against the borders to try to invade King Tritus’ territories.

Each year is divided into four seasons: Spring, Summer and Autumn, have a few special phases followed by a production phase; Winter is all about building up the army and fighting the enemies.

The production phase is the core of the game: Each player rolls three dice, then starting with whoever rolls the lowest total, players take turns hiring a Royal Advisor. To hire someone, you place dice equal to the value of the Advisor (which runs from 1 to 18) onto the card. Turns go from player to player until all the dice have been used or no Advisors remain who can be hired.

In each production phase, an Advisor can be hired by only a single player, so rolling low isn’t necessarily bad. You have less opportunity in terms of who you can hire, but you play first in terms of choosing and blocking Advisors. The interaction in the game is all in this interference. With four or five players, it can be really difficult to use all your dice.

Advisors and buildings give players more opportunities during this phase, allowing players to roll extra dice, reroll dice, and influence Advisors that don’t exactly match the value of your dice. There is luck during this phase, but not so much—less than in Settlers of Catan, I think—thanks to these opportunities and thanks to the different powers of the Advisors, which are really well-balanced and tested.

Advisors give players resources (wood, stone and gold), victory points, and special abilities. After resolving all the hired Royal Advisors, each player can build exactly one building. The building locations are organized in five rows with four spots each, and in each row you need to proceed from left to right. All the rows are different, and your choices here will be influenced by—and in turn influence—your strategy: One row gives you lots of victory points, another helps you fight enemies (while preventing you from hiring Advisors to boost your armies), a third affects your economy, and so on. I have played the game several times, and it seems to me that there isn’t a killer strategy.

Sandwiched around the production phases (other than the first) are three special phases:

• Aid from the King, which provides dice or resources to the player with the fewest buildings;
• The King’s Reward, which gives victory points to the player with the most buildings; and
• The King’s Envoy, who provides special assistance to the player with the fewest buildings.

Winter, as mentione earlier, is all about fighting enemies. Each player pulls together his army, including bonuses from buildings he’s constructed and any additional soldiers gained from spending any two resources. A single die is added to this total, representing soldiers sent to your aid by King Tritus. An enemy card is then revealed, and players with fewer soldiers than the value shown lose the battle and are penalized, while players who beat the value are rewarded. The player(s) with the most soldiers also receives victory points.

Fighting is almost a matter of how much you want to spend to prevent the risk of a defeat. You know the range of possible enemy values each year—a range that increases over the course of the game—and sometimes you can scout the enemy card during the production phase. Saving resources for later years rather than spending them on soldiers is a nice idea but sometimes risky; losing a battle usually means you lose a building as well.

At the end of the fifth year, the player with the most victory points wins.

I really enjoy this game, finding the right mix between luck and planning. The competition is usually tight, and there isn’t a single winning strategy. The graphics are superb, and the game plays in about an hour-and-a-half (with 4-5 players). It also works well with two players with the special rules included. Kingsburg is on top of my Essen wish list.

© 2007 Andrea Liga Ligabue

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Comments:

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Very nice review, Liga.  This game captured my attention after reading the rules posted online.  The luck from the dice rolling doesn’t seem to be a problem, as it’s very clever and seems to be balanced as you point out.  The die roll for the enemy attack, though, struck me as more problematic.  Given the narrow range of enemy strengths (two points for any given turn), it seems as if a 1-6 randomizer is pretty huge and could give a player playing it safe no additional benefit over one who doesn’t even want to bother with armies.  Have you found that these die rolls can sway things much? Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 15, 2007 at 10:16 AM | #

Loosing a single battle could really take you off from the winning; loosing two or more make almost impossible to win. So is only a matter if and of how much do you want to risk. Build an army enough big to be safe in every case is not too much expansive and the reward could be helpfully and if you are the best one the extra victory point awarded is also a nice things! good play Liga Posted by Andrea Liga Ligabue on Oct 15, 2007 at 05:12 PM | #

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