How to Play Kingdomino
Overview
Kingdomino is a tile-drafting and tile-laying game. Each player builds their own 5x5 kingdom out of oversized domino tiles (each domino shows two terrain squares). On your turn you draft a domino and add it to your kingdom, connecting it to matching terrain. After all dominoes are placed, you score your crowned territories. Highest total points wins.
Components (what matters for play)
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48 domino tiles — each domino has a numbered side and a landscape side showing two terrain squares (wheat fields, forests, water/lakes, grassland/plains, mines/mountains, swamp). Some squares show crowns.
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4 starting tiles (single 1x1 castle squares, one per player color).
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4 3D castles (pink, yellow, green, blue).
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8 wooden kings (2 of each color).
Setup
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Each player takes a starting castle tile and the matching 3D castle, placed in front of them.
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Each player takes their kings: in a 2-player game, 2 kings of one color each; in 3- or 4-player games, 1 king each.
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Shuffle the dominoes face down (numbers facing out) in the box to form the draw pile.
- 2 players: use 24 randomly selected dominoes.
- 3 players: use 36 randomly selected dominoes.
- 4 players: use all 48 dominoes.
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Draw a number of dominoes equal to the number of kings in play (4 in a 2- or 4-player game; 3 in a 3-player game), and display them in ascending numerical order (lowest next to the box). Turn them over to reveal the landscape side.
Choosing the first turn order
For the first turn only, one player takes all the kings; then one at a time, players randomly draw a king and place it on a displayed domino of their choice (it need not be their own color this time). Each domino can hold only one king, so the last player to choose gets the remaining domino.
Playing the Game (each round)
Turn order is set by the position of the kings on the current line of dominoes (lowest-numbered first). The player whose king is on the lowest domino acts first:
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Take your drafted domino (the one your king is on) and add it to your kingdom following the connection rules.
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Choose a new domino from the next, newly revealed line by placing your king on it (this sets your turn order for the next round).
Play proceeds in king order until everyone has acted, then a new line of dominoes is revealed and the next round begins. In a 2-player game each player takes both of their king-actions each round, so the game lasts 6 rounds (12 placements per player); in 3- and 4-player games it lasts 12 rounds (12 placements per player).
Connection rules (placing a domino)
You must place each domino so that it either:
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connects to your starting tile (the castle acts as a wild — any terrain connects to it), or
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connects to another domino, matching at least one of its terrain squares to an adjacent (horizontal or vertical) square of the same terrain.
Every domino must fit inside a 5x5 grid. If you cannot legally place a domino (no matching connection, or it would push your kingdom beyond 5x5), you must discard it — discarded dominoes score nothing.
End of the Game
When the last dominoes have been drafted, players take one final placement. Each player should now have a (up to) 5x5 kingdom. Then everyone scores.
Scoring
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A territory is a group of squares of the same terrain connected horizontally or vertically.
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Score each territory as (number of squares) x (number of crowns in that territory).
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A territory with no crowns scores 0, no matter how large.
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Add up all your territory scores for your total.
Winning and Ties
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Winner: highest total points.
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Tiebreaker 1: the player with the largest single territory (most connected squares of one terrain) wins.
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Tiebreaker 2: if still tied, the player with the most crowns in their kingdom.
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If still tied, the tied players share the victory.
Official Additional Rules (may be mixed)
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The Middle Kingdom: score +10 points if your castle is in the center of your kingdom.
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Harmony: score +5 points if your kingdom is complete (a full 5x5 grid with no discarded dominoes).
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Dynasty: play 3 rounds in a row; the player with the highest combined points across all three rounds wins.
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The Mighty Duel: a 2-player game using all 48 dominoes to build a larger 7x7 grid.
