Kingdom Builder is a strategy board game designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, published in 2011 by Queen Games with illustrations by Oliver Schlemmer in German, British and international versions (English, French, Dutch, Spanish, German).

Kingdom Builder is a construction game in which each player creates a kingdom by placing settlers' houses in various locations. The winner of the game is the player with the most gold. However, the gold is only awarded at the end of the game, according to three sets of rules that were randomly revealed at the beginning. The rules are simple but each game is likely to play out differently due to the random selection of board sections (choosing four from eight) and scoring rules (choosing three from ten), the luck of the draw, and competition for resources. Upon its release, the game received the 2012 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) and placed seventh place in the Deutscher Spiele Preis for 2012.

Gameplay

The base game has eight different game board sections composed of 100 terrain hexagons each. Five terrain types are suitable for building: canyon, desert, flower field, forest and grass. Four terrain types are not suitable: castle, "location", mountain and water. At the start of the game four game board sections are selected at random and constructed to form a square game board. Three random Kingdom Builder cards are drawn and displayed, which explain the rules for earning gold in that particular game. For example, one Kingdom Builder card may award gold for settlements next to mountains, while another awards gold for settlements arranged in a horizontal line. Additionally, each player receives three gold for each Castle space adjacent to one or more of their settlements.

Each player's turn consists of:
Mandatory Action: The active player displays his or her previously drawn terrain card and places three settlement tokens on unoccupied hexagons of that terrain type according to the building rules.
Extra Action: For each location tile that a player has accumulated in previous rounds, he or she may perform an additional, special action authorized by each tile (namely, place an additional settlement or move an existing settlement) before or after the mandatory action.
Collecting location tiles: Whenever a player builds a settlement adjacent to a location hexagon, he or she immediately takes a location tile, if one is still available at that site and he has not already taken one from that particular site. The player must discard that tile if he ever moves his settlements such that none are adjacent to that site.
Completion of turn: The player discards his terrain card and draws a replacement card to study for their next turn.

The game ends at the completion of the round in which at least one player places his last settlement. Then each player totals his gold according to the several scoring methods. The player with the most gold wins.

Expansions

Several expansions for Kingdom Builder have been released. They contain new game board sections, new locations and more ways for a player to expand their kingdom and receive gold during and at the end of the game.

Nomads (2012): Contains four new game board sections featuring four new location types and the new Nomads spaces, which replace Castles. When a player builds next to a Nomads space, he gets a random Nomad tile which provides a one-time extra action on her next turn. The expansion additionally contains three new kingdom builder cards and game pieces for a fifth player.
Crossroads (2013): Contains four new game board sections featuring eight new location types, six task cards, 10 warrior pieces, and five ship, city hall, and wagon pieces. The new pieces are used via powers granted by the new locations tiles. The randomly drawn task cards provide additional ways for a player to earn gold, such as by surrounding a location or Castle space entirely with her own settlements.
Marshlands (2016): Contains four new game board sections featuring four new locations types as well as the new Swamp terrain type, six new kingdom builder cards, and five new swamp terrain cards. This expansion also replaces Castles with Palace spaces, which each provide five gold to the player with the most settlements adjacent to that palace. The swamp terrain cards show two swamp hexes and three hexes of another terrain type, and the player may choose which to build. Additionally, the location spaces in this game provide stronger "bonus actions" to a player who has built next to both of that location's associated hexes.
Harvest (2017): Contains four new game board sections featuring eight new locations, the new Silo spaces, and the new Farmland terrain type, six new kingdom builder cards, ten numbered settlement coins and two scout figures. The numbered settlement coins and scout figures are used as part of the new location powers. Players may play a settlement once a turn on any farmland space adjacent to an existing settlement. Additionally, after the game end, each player adjacent to a silo space may move three previously placed settlements or build three additional settlements (if they have them in their supply).

Additionally publisher Queen Games has produced three minor expansions, called "Queenies."

Queenie 1: Capitol (2011): Expands the game with two "Capitol" game pieces that can modify Castle spaces, allowing players to score gold for settlements within two hexes of the capitols.
Queenie 2: Caves (2012): Expands the game with four "Cave" pieces that are randomly placed on mountain spaces. Players may move a settlement adjacent to a cave space to another hex that is also adjacent to a cave.
Queenie 3: Island (2014): Contains a smaller, unattached two-sided game board section. Each side has a castle space and a new location tile.

In 2014, Queen Games published a "Big Box" edition of Kingdom Builder containing the base game, the Nomads and Crossroads expansions, and the Capitol and Caves Queenies. In 2017, Queen Games published a second edition of the Big Box which additionally includes the Marshlands and Harvest expansions, and the Island Queenie.

Reception
A board game review in The Wirecutter stated that the game is weaker than similar games in the genre, such as Catan and Carcassonne. A review at Ars Technica states that the game is easy to learn, but requires more "strategic thinking" than beginner-level games. A Finnish-Swedish version was released in 2012 by lautapelit.fi. The review described the game as simple, praising its engagement and scalability while critiquing the theme as abstract.

The game received the 2012 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year), with the jury praising its replayability and strategic challenges provided from variable starting positions, additionally stating that "The different starting positions and the importance of luck create new strategic challenges for the players." Deutscher Spiele Preis for 2012 listed it at number 7 out of 10 best games for that year. At BoardGameGeek, it has a rating of 7.0 out of 10 based on over 21,000 user ratings as of Feb 2022. The Big Box 2nd Edition, which includes all the expansions, has a rating of 8.1 out of 10 based on over 500 ratings as of Feb 2022.

References

External links 
 Kingdom Builder at Queen Games
 

Spiel des Jahres winners
Board games introduced in 2011
Board games
킹덤 빌더(Kingdom Builder)는 도널드 박카리노(Donald X. Vaccarino)가  설계한 전략 보드 게임으로 퀸 게임스(Queen Games)사가 2011년에 올리버 슐레머(Oliver Schlemmer)의 삽화와 함께 독일, 영국 및 국제 버전(영어, 불어, 네델란드어, 스페인어, 독일어)으로 출판했다. 핀란드-스웨덴어 버전은 로타펠릿(lautapelit.fi)사가 2012년에 출시했다.

킹덤 빌더는 각 플레이어가 다양한 위치에 ‘정착민의 주택’을 놓음으로써 왕국을 설계하는 건설게임으로 가장 많은 금화를 획득한 플레이어가 승자가 된다.  금화는 게임 종료시에 획득하며, 게임을 시작할 때 제시된 임의의 3가지 규칙에 의해 주어진다. 규칙은 간단하지만, 임의로 선택된 보드(8개 중에서 4개 선택)와 규칙(10개 중에서 3개 선택), 카드 추첨의 운 및 자원 경쟁으로 인해 각 게임마다 다르게 플레이된다.  또한, 2012년에 ‘올해의 게임(Spiel des Jahres )’상을 수상했으며,  같은 해에 ‘독일 게임’상(German game prize), ‘올해의 최고 10개 게임’ 중에서 7번째를 차지했다.

게임 방식 
게임에는 8개의 다른 보드판이 있으며,  각 보드판에는 6각형의 지형이 100개로 구성되어 있다.  건설에 적합한 지형 종류는 5가지이며, '협곡', '사막', '꽃밭', '숲' 및 '잔디'가 해당된다. 건설에 적합하지 않은 지형 종류는 4가지이며, '성', ‘위치’, '산' 및 '물'이 해당된다. 게임 시작시, 4개의 보드판을 임의로 선택한 후 1개의 사각형으로 만든다. 3개의 킹덤 빌더 카드를 임의로 추첨해서 펼쳐 놓는다. 그 카드에 금화를 획득하는 규칙이 설명되어 있다. 예를 들면, 한 카드에는 산 옆에 정착민의 주택을 놓으면 금화를 획득할 수 있다고 설명되어 있으며, 다른 카드에는 정착민의 주택을 수평선으로 나열하면 금화를 획득할 수 있다고 설명되어 있다.

각 플레이어의 차례에 취할 수 있는 행동은 다음과 같다.
 필수 행동: 플레이어는 지형 카드를 추첨한 후 보여준다. 3개의 정착민 주택 토큰을 건설 규칙을 고려해서 그 카드 타입과 같은  6각형의 빈 지형에 놓는다.
 추가 행동: 이전 차례에서 획득한 ‘위치 타일’이 있다면, ‘필수 행동’ 전후에 ‘위치 타일’의 규칙에 따라 ‘추가 행동’을 취할 수 있다. 예를 들면, 정착민 주택 토근을 추가로 놓거나 기존의 정착민 주택 토큰을 이동할 수 있다.
 위치 타일 수집: 플레이어가 6각형의 위치 옆에 정착민 주택 토큰을 건설할 때마다, 즉시 위치 타일을 획득할 수 있다.  이 때,  같은 6각형의 위치에서는 한 번만 위치 타일을 획득할 수 있으며, 위치 타일 획득 후에 위치 타일 옆에 있던 정착민 주택 토큰을 전부 이동하면 그 플레이어는 위치 타일을 폐기해야 한다.
 차례 끝내기:
플레이어는 지형 카드를 폐기하고 지형 카드를 새로 추첨해서 다음 차례를 준비한다.

한 플레이어가 자신의 마지막 정착민 주택 토큰을 플레이하면 게임이 끝난다. 그러면 각 플레이어는 점수 획득 방법에 따라 금화를 합산하며, 가장 많이 금화를 획득한 플레이어가 승리한다.

전략 
'위치 타일' 및 이동의 유연성이 열쇠이며, 기존의 정착민 주택 토큰 옆에 플레이해야 하는 것이 극복해야 할 장애다.  그러므로 첫 번째 정착민 주택 토큰을 강력한 타일을 제공할 수 있는 위치 옆에 놓아야 한다.  예를 들면,  첫번 째 배치가 6각형 숲이었고,  다음 차례에 잔디 지형 카드를 뽑으면,  6각형 숲 지형 옆의 잔디에 플레이할 것이 요구된다.  첫번 째 배치가 다음 배치를 제한한다. 배치를 주의깊게 하면, 강력한 위치 타일과 운이 플레이어에게 유연성을 줘서 더 많은 타일과 수익성 있는 6각형 지형을 점유할 수 있게 된다.

확장팩 
5개의 확장팩이 출시됐다. 확장팩에는 새로운 게임 보드 및 위치가 포함되어 있으며, 플레이어의 왕국 확장 및 금화 획득의 다른 방법도 추가되었다.

 노매드(Nomads):  보드판 4개,  위치 타입의 노매드(한 번의 추가 행동이 가능)  4개,  킹덤 빌더 카드 3장, 5번째 플레이어를 위한 게임품목이 새롭게 포함되어 있다.
 크로스로드(Crossroads): 보드판 4개, 위치 타입 8개, 킹덤 빌더 카드 6장, 기타 게임 품목 들이 새롭게 포함되어 있다.
 캐피톨(Capitol): ‘캐피톨’ 게임 품목 2개로 게임이 확장되어 있다.
 케이브(Caves): ‘케이브’ 게임 품목 4개로 게임이 확장되어 있다.
 아일랜드(Island): 새로운 위치 타입이 있는 더 작은 보드판 2개가 포함되어 있다.

각주

외부 링크 
보드게임기크에 소개된 킹덤 빌더

보드 게임