BECOME THE WEALTHIEST KINGDOM
Four kingdoms compete to gather the most wealth. Play cards in descending order from 7 to 1, and ascending order from 8 to 13, onto 8 individual stacks. Each cards has a distinct ability: collect coins, pay taxes, avoid the plague and help your kingdom prosper.
Title: Kingdoms
Players: 3-5 // Time: 15-90 min // Age: 10+
The green 7 (Kingdom of Animals) is always the first card to be played – whoever holds it begins the round!
Pixies, Dragons, Animals & Seafarers
In Kingdoms, the objective of a round is to get rid of all cards in your hand by playing them onto eight stacks. The objective of the game is to have the most wealth when another player goes bankrupt.
Before a card can be played the number that comes before it must be played first. Each card has an ability – and a cost if you're still holding the card when the round ends. There are four kingdoms (suits) in the game, with cards ranging from 1 to 13. The Kingdoms are:
Kingdom of Dragons (orange)
Kingdom of Pixies (purple)
Kingdom of Seafarers (blue)
Kingdom of Animals (green)
To win, you must play cards cunningly to block your opponents while simultaneously forcing them to play cards you need.
Unique Card Abilities
When you play a card you must also perform the ability described on it. Some are positive, others not so much. You must decide if the card is worth playing or if you should hold on to it a little longer.
Some cards give you the ability to play an additional card. These are important to finishing first, but can sometimes be dreadful as you may wish to hold on to cards to force other players to play cards you desperately need.
Prosperity Cards
Draw Prosperity Cards when you play a 12. These cards have abilities that can help you in the game – and it's your choice when to activate them! Prosperity Cards are the backbone of many fun strategies, and a source of dilemmas and tricky choices.
Coins & Taxes
Coins act as score keeping in Kingdoms. You start with 20 coins – a number that will slowly but surely decrease over time.
Pay or collect coins when you play certain cards, if you have the plague, if you're still holding cards when a round ends, and as tax to your kingdom at the start of each round. Play the Tax Collector (11) of a suit to collect all taxes currently on that kingdom. Taxes can build up over several rounds.
The Plague
If at any time you are unable to play a card you must take the plague as a terrible decease sweeps your kingdom. Whoever has the plague at the end of a round pays a penalty of 3 coins.
"Sevens" – the classic card game on which Kingdoms is based – is a great game in itself that forces you to think and plan. The additional mechanics added in Kingdoms present several new layers of strategy, tricky decision-making and interesting situations to an already awesome core game!
KINGDOMS REVIEWS
Don't just take my word for it:
"Coming soon..."
– Unknown
MORE GAMES
Other games & series from Sträckspelsfabriken:
Highest Bidder is a fun bidding game with programmed actions as a core mechanic. Decide which cards to use for each bid and place them face down in a pile at the count of three. Cards are then revealed one at a time around the table to find the highest bidder, with some hilarious and unexpected outcomes. The game series comes in a variety of themed versions, including an art auction, a Christmas edition and an adults-only porn version.
Buy it at The Game Crafter, or
learn more about the game.
Triangles is a unique take on traditional playing cards. Combine pieces of triangles to build complete triangles. With 90 cards and downloadable rules for many different games a deck of Triangles playing cards is unlike anything else by Sträckspelsfabriken. This original deck features photography from three major world cities: Sydney, London and Los Angeles.
Buy it at The Game Crafter, or
learn more about the game.
Tribal Hunt is a brutal two player card game in which you take turns playing as the Hunter and the Mammoth. Hunt down your prey and your village will live to see another day. Fail, and it will slowly give in to starvation. Features amazing custom artwork by Canadian artist Sonja Poon.
Buy it at The Game Crafter, or
learn more about the game.
Collect cargo, load it onto your train, then send the train off when the time is right to score points. Manipulate the market to your favor, use Effect Cards to bend the rules, and be the player to make the best out of the circumstances in this casual but complex card and board game hybrid. The biggest release yet by Sträckspelsfabriken. A STAFF PICK selection at The Game Crafter and with an ART TEST score by the community of 80+!
Buy it at The Game Crafter, or
learn more about the game.