Kaikoro Kingdoms: Buzz Review
Information:
Mechanics: Roll and Write, Modular Setup, Print and Play, City Building, Dice Rolling
Player Age: 10+Player Count: 1 - 100 PlayersTime to Play: 20 - 60 Minutes
Player Age: 10+
Basics:
Kaikoro Kingdoms is a print and play roll and write game where players are focused on building their kingdom while also wanting to protect from and eliminate the threat of a kaiju. Three dice will be rolled on every turn, one of which will be a red dice. Players will share this dice pool and create two buildings per turn. The red dice will only be used on a turn if players are able to activate it by using a special bonus. Players choose one dice for the building type and one dice for the kingdom region (a number 6 is a wild region). Players can choose to either switch the dice around for two different moves or play the same combo twice. Each building must be adjacent to the starting castle or to a pre-existing building. Once players do this any combo coming out of this will resolve as well.
The turns are tracked at the top of the player sheet. With this, players can see when the kaiju will attack. During an attack the kaiju will give a penalty to the player with the least kaiju life depleted. This life can be depleted in multiple ways; through the of several bonuses, by skipping both buildings on your turn, or by completing a segment in your kingdom. The kaiju will attack all players based on the value on the bottom of their card (marked per kaiju attack), if a player has equal or higher defence on the right side of the sheet they will not loose any points. However, if they have less defence than the attack they will suffer damage in the form of loss of points. Players will start the game with 36 points shown on the right hand side if this defence segment. For every hit they cannot defend, they will cross off the top number per hit.
After the kaiju attacks players will score their population (houses connected to windmills), any circled victory points on resource tracks and any points gained by your leaders (occupied castles). On the third scoring phase players will also score any points on the kaiju life segment, defence segment, extra coins (after the gold track is completed), and two points for every achievement token.
Each game uses one kaiju and four leaders out of the five kaijus and nine leaders included in the game. Each kaiju has a different penalty and a different output of damage making each one a formidable challenge. The leaders each have a unique scoring ability such as one point per shield in the same ring or one point per pickaxe in the same region. Each leader also has two unique one-off abilities that can be purchased at two or three gold.
Uniqueness:
The uniqueness of this roll and write comes in the variable setup of the leaders and kaijus, as well as the system of creating buildings.
Each building has a special effect and design goal. The houses (dice roll of 1) and mill (dice roll of 2) create a village where players score points for large clusters of houses connected to a mill; pickaxe (dice roll of 3) will dig one adjacent resource in the same ring to further the resource track and gain the bonus marked off; the fortress (dice roll of 4) will add a leader to your war council that unlocks a new way of scoring and has two abilities that can be used once per game. Each leader can only be chosen once and only one functioning fortress is allowed in each segment. If a fortress is added to a segment where one is already present, the new fortress will be classified as empty.
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The shield (dice roll of 5) can only be added to the inner or outer ring and will increase the defence track by one; and lastly the crown (dice roll of 6) will gain the player gold equal to the amount of non-crown buildings adjacent to the newly drawn crown.
Zig-Zag (Interaction):
Players interact in two ways; kaiju protection and achievement tokens. The achievement tokens are given to the player that can achieve the requirement first, such as having a certain amount of buildings, gaining five of one resource type, or gaining seven defences. This gives players an additional reason to target certain buildings, especially before opponents can get to it.
The other interaction that players are constantly trying to maintain is a better level of the kaiju life. When a kaiju strikes, the penalty can do severe damage like destroy buildings or whittle down your defences. As long as you don't have the smallest foothold on this track you get to avoid this kaiju penalty altogether. Getting ahead on the kaiju track is very challenging for players so they may opt to skip drawing buildings just for advancement on that track.
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Zone:
For me, Kaiju Kingdoms is easily a 'back' as it is a cheap price point and the modular nature of the leaders and kaiju means you are getting a kaiju-sized game at a bargain. The game starts slow as players are faced with the same decisions and the dice can create limiting options but as players earn gold they can activate leader abilities and use the red dice through the ever present king’s ability (new Kings are getting unlocked in the kickstarter), allowing for more placement options.
The game has a really good flow to it as the chaining combo of effects kick in as the game develops. I am looking foward to seeing what new leaders or kaijus are added to the game to keep expanding that variability. i recommend backing this game with a kickstarter excellence seal.
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