Kingdomino Duel

We like Kingdomino Duel better than regular Kingdomino, which we’ve played a lot. But we are really into roll and writes right now, and this is a really good one! You try to get groupings of shields but get bonuses toward one time use spells when you place a shield without a multiplier. The spells can help turn the tide and one can even save you if you weren’t paying attention to placement and end up with spaces that aren’t adjacent to place your last domino.

We like Kingdomino Duel better than regular Kingdomino, which we’ve played a lot. But we are really into roll and writes right now, and this is a really good one! You try to get groupings of shields but get bonuses toward one time use spells when you place a shield without a multiplier. The spells can help turn the tide and one can even save you if you weren’t paying attention to placement and end up with spaces that aren’t adjacent to place your last domino.

This game combines two of my favorite types of board games: dice games, and roll and write games. And it does a LOT of things right: the dice are big and delightfully tactile, the sheets are easy to read and both sides are integral to the game, and the rules are pretty simple to grasp. While my complaints are minor, not to mention mostly personal taste, they do prevent this from being five stars. First, this is a game for two people. And ONLY two people. That should be obvious from the duel in the name, I know, but it feels like this could be expanded to handle four, or even provide solo rules if you don't have another person handy to throw dice against. Maybe they can release rules or an expansion later. My other complaint is, I will admit, incredibly petty: they include pencils in the game. It's a roll and write, so yes, it makes sense that they provide writing implements, right? But...they're pencils. They're basically really nice golf pencils, at that. And I feel like this game would do better with felt tip pens; black ink would stand out against the (really pretty) sheets, and wouldn't wear down so fast (I'll admit I'm slightly dreading sharpening these things; they're already small!). Like I said, incredibly petty. Overall, it's a great game!