Kingdomino was one of our first favorite Blue Orange games. And of course, we have loved all the other games that have come out with a similar theme including the Age of Giants Expansion and the fantastic QUEENDOMINO!
If you’re fans of Kingdomino, you will love this expanded version with a few extra mechanisms and building challenges but the same basic structure of play.
Players still try to create the most efficiently built domino grid to get the most points. Each round begins with laying out 4 new tiles from the box, lined up numerically and then flipped over to show the terrains.
Players choose and place on new dominoes based on the order of meeples from the last round. Turn order begins with the player on the highest (lowest numerical value) domino and moves down the line.
There’s more going on in this Queenly version of the game – turns require a bit more action.
- Add the new domino to your grid following the placement rules.
2. OPTIONAL: Collect TAXES by placing a knight (all players begin the game with knights and can earn more throughout the game) on the domino just placed. Collect the same number of coins equal to the number of adjacent domino squares in the territory.
3. OPTIONAL: Construct a BUILDING on an open red construction square. These red construction squares are new to the Queendomino version and can house a Building Tile from the Builder’s Board. Pay the cost of the building tile and place it on any open red construction square, including those placed during previous turns.
Building tiles can have immediate or active bonuses, which you can collect when appropriate. 
4. OPTIONAL: Bribe the dragon. Besides building tiles, the building board pictures a cave where the dragon lives. If the dragon is still in his cave and you’re not hosting the queen (the player with the most towers (acquired through purchasing building tiles) hosts the Queen, who lowers your construction costs by 1 coin.) you can pay 1 coin to remove any one building tile still on the board and replace it with the dragon. The discarded tile goes into the dungeon (the box) for the rest of the game.
5. The last action players take on their turn is to claim a domino in the new lineup of 4 domino tiles.
After all players have taken a turn in the current round, the board is then refreshed for the next round.
- Send the dragon back to its cave.
- Replenish the builders board with building tiles.
- Form a new line of 4 dominoes next to those already claimed from the last round.
Queendomino lasts 12 rounds and will use all the dominoes. After the final round, points are tallied. On a score sheet, add:
- Wealth: 1 point for every 3 unused coins
- Territories with crowns
- Values of buildings within towns
The player with the most points wins!
There are several variations that can be played including a mashup with Kingdomino for a complete Royal Family attempt at DOMINation.
Queendomino is an excellent gameschooling resource to teach math and critical thinking skills. It’s also a fun game to bring into a study of the history of royal families, monarchies/dynasties, castles, and more. Thanks so much to Blue Orange Games for sharing with us!
