Designers: Andrea Chiarvesio, Luca Iennaco
Kingsburg is a realm besieged. You have been tasked to defend it! However, Kingsburg is apparently a corrupt swamp, and the only way to actually defend it is to kiss the ass of various nobles, who after a little cajoling are willing to shell out the resources you need to defend the realm.
Interesting Mechanic: Dice Placement. You and everyone else will be rolling dice. Once rolled, you go in turn placing them – if you have a 1, 4 and a 5, you can place on the 1, 4, 5 spots with one die, the 6 and 9 spots with two dice, or the 10 spot with three dice. Each spot corresponds to a different advisor, and higher level advisors give more and better resources. Also, only one player can place on a spot at a time, meaning that good play requires tracking your opponent’s die rolls, and blocking their placement whenever possible.
After this phase, players use the resources to build buildings, which grant them victory points, defenses for the upcoming invasion, as well as various powers that let them break the rules (such as the ability to reroll dice in certain situations).
Kingsburg is a great game that never fails to get a good reaction, both from gamers and non-gamers, due to its simplicity but depth. Warning, though – if you get it, be sure to get the second edition. The first edition had a fatal flaw that required an expansion to fix, and that expansion is included in the second edition.
(Photo Credit: Board Game Quest)
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