Tips kingdomino

Kingdomino rewards people for focusing on a few sets of tiles with multiple crowns, as opposed to multiple sets of tiles with few crowns, so aim to stock up!

Each turn, there are three primary things I think about:

• 1. Will this move score me points or benefit me down the line?

Taking a tile with a crown is usually more beneficial than taking a tile without a crown. If you don't have the option of getting a crown, can you find a tile color that matches your cluster so when a crown does appear, it'll be more beneficial to you?

• 2. What position will this move put me in for the next turn?

A big part of the ebb and flow of the game is choosing a tile for next round. If you choose the very top tile, you get to pick first next round. This can be a useful strategy if there are no crowns/no useful tiles on the board. Alternatively, when the last round comes, if you picked last, you may be stuck with a tile that you cannot play (and forfeit points potentially). For these reasons, it's important to be mindful of the risk/reward ratio when selecting a tile towards the bottom.

• 3. What can/will my opponents do if I take this tile?

This is something to think about especially if one or more players are focusing on a certain color. While taking a mine tile might not be the optimal strategy for yourself, it might sometimes be better to take one and stop an opponent from getting all six. This aspect is very important in 2 player games.

Tips for duel games

Speaking of 1v1 games, and if you aim to be competitive, some aspects become more important :

• • Be sure to have a decent knowledge of the the tiles pool.

Some minimum things are : Half of the tiles have fields, 4 of the sawmills tiles have a field as 2nd square, and 4 of the fishermen's huts have a forest as 2nd terrain.

It is therefore important to try having your fields as "hub" among most of your terrains, your forests next to your fields and your lakes in contact with your forests.

• • Know the "price" (currency is choice priority for next turn) and the yield of the terrains.

Values (read: cost) of dominoes go, from the highest to the lowest, in that order : mines > swamps > pastures > lakes > forests > fields -- but most expensive terrains are not necessarily the best (in fact, it's the opposite).

While fields only have 5 crowns and mines have 10, all the other do have 6, but the number of squares between them drastically reduces, as costs goes up.

There is 22 squares of forest for 18 of lakes, and 14 pastures for only 10 swamps.

In other words, the more expensive terrains are, the less potential they have. Mines are a bit particular, but only a bit.

• • Don't focus only on a few kinds of tiles
  • ○ Say you're filling your kingdom with forests, think of what will happen if your opponent manages to take 3 (or more !) of the sawmills.
  • ○ Another issue could be many crowns you expect to get, showing up together at the same time. If you focused on forests & windmills, a turn with 4 of the wind/sawmills at once will probably cost you a lot.
  • ○ In case you play duels with only 5x5 kingdoms, it is even more important to exploit the crowns you get correctly, since you never know which tiles will be drawn, and which ones won't.
  • ○ Anyway, do your best to avoid wasting what you get.

         If you aim for forests/lakes but get several unwanted swamps or pastures, try to keep those tiles usable (i.e. avoid closing them in a place where you won't be able to put more, if any come).

         This will make a big difference if you end-up getting some other tiles of that kind, and more importantly, will force your opponent to reconsider his strategy.

         I won't care giving you those two crown on a pasture if your 7-pastures domain is closed already, but will probably act differently if it still has room to welcome more crowns.

• • Your goal is not to score as many points as you can, but to score more than your opponent.

If you can take a forest for 18 points, but doing so leaves a windmill worth 16 points to your opponent, you're only scoring +2 points over them, and letting them take the next priority. Taking the only-9-points windmill and leaving them with a 4 points forest would probably be a better option.

• • Remain as flexible as possible.

You should always try to plan and foresee as far as you can, but thing is : a lot of unpredictable things will happen.

You can't decide things like "I'll take all the mines", which means you have to prepare yourself for situations where things don't turn out the way you expected them to.

Personally, I try to keep "holes" in my build for as long as I can, so that I can use some of the squares for different kind of crowns. e.g. either for a windmill or sawmill, or a mine/swamp/pasture, etc.

Also, keeping places to put any domino (and remain "harmony-safe") in the last turns is a good habit. Crownless dominoes 13 to 18 are perfect for that.

• • Impede your opponent !

Leave them the dominoes they wouldn't want when you can. If they wasted their fields, allowing them to get one more windmill won't harm you too much. If they only have one or two empty spots next to their pastures or swamps and a lot of crowns are still available on it, leaving them with all those tiles will force them to waste some (and maybe this will be double crowns). Be ruthless !

• • Remember victory isn't before last turn

Counting points too early without taking in account the remaining dominoes/crowns can be a costly mistake. What matters is to end-up with more points than your opponent. Not to 'lead' during most of the game.

This means you have to do your best to maximize the efficiency of all your dominoes (and/or deny the opponent's best picks), including the last ones. If several crowns are to come on one terrain type in the last turn(s), weigh their importance. Do you or your opponent need them ?

Try to plan this : a good last turn can make the difference.