I am looking forward to playing again soon. I think if we got Jackson in a 3 player game, he might convert.

I’ve always liked Kingsburg, but focusing on playing it a lot last month really helped me to determine what I was enjoying about it so much and why. I logged 15 plays last month (ok one was in march, but it still counts, right?).

•When is this the right game to bring out?
?For me it works any time. Even though there’s a lot of dice rolling, it’s a very strategic, “thinky” game, so I think it works well as the “main course” in an evening of gaming. I think the many expansions also allow players to determine exactly how deep they want their game of Kingsburg to be. The play with all 5 expansions was a much more involved game than the base game alone is.
•How long does it really take?
?I think the base game with people who know what they’re doing is about 90 minutes. Adding expansions adds time, and I think once we tried the expansions, we ALWAYS added at least 2. So I’d say it’s a 2-hour game. Online play on BSW is noticeably faster – I’d estimate 45 to 60 min. It’s worth noting that the only expansion available online is the Soldier tokens, so that’s probably a factor.
•Is there a sweet spot with the number of players?
?Agreed, three is prime. I actually enjoy the two-player version quite a bit, but as Jeff said, there are better 2p games to play, so if it wasn’t game of the month I’d probably prefer to do something else when it’s just me and a pal. Four is OK, but I actually DON’T like how cluttered the advisor board gets with that many players, and the extra time added pushes it just past the prime time-to-fun ratio that three has. Five is right out.
•Can it be played solo?
?I sure don’t see a way to.
•Is there an essential strategy?
?I’m going to guess “no”, but I haven’t read any strategy articles on the geek or anything. It appears to me that there are several *good* strategies, but that you ought to pick one of them early and plan out your general path to victory through the 5 game years, and then try not to deviate from it too much. I am in love with Farms, so I almost always go for the Merchant/Fortress building rows (I’m not sure if this is a “real” strategy, but it’s been working for me and I have fun with it). It couples amazing production with the ability to defend yourself well once your framework is up and running. It seems to work out very well when it works, but if I make one false step, it’s usually a disaster I can’t recover from. It’s worth noting that I’ve had the most success with this strategy when my Governor card gives me extra defense (such as the Paladin or Mercenary).
•If you are using the expansions, what modules are the best?
?Best: Soldier Tokens are essential. I think we’ve all agreed at this point that there’s absolutely no reason to play the game without them. They’re not harder to learn than the king’s dice roll, and they removed that compeltely random element from the game. It’s very frustrating to try to plan for the battle at the end when the amount the king is going to alter the enemy total (1 to 6) is greater than the enemy variance itself (3 to 5 for example). Soldier Tokens should have been part of the base game.
?2nd: Governor Cards. I really love these. They make you feel “special”, like your character is you and you have a super power. They also strongly influence what type of strategy you’ll attempt throughout the game. I still haven’t got to try the variant by which they are auctioned off for points at the start of the game. Originally I thought I would like that better, but after doing the “draw three and choose one” variant several times, I find I really enjoy it and think it’s probably more fun that way.
?3rd: Alternate Building Rows. I think they’re neat and interesting at the very least, and I like that you have to sacrifice one of your standard building rows if you want to use them. That being said, I’ve played with them twice and both times I chose not to use them, because I wasn’t willing to give up the buildings they would have replaced. Still, a very interesting concept that I hope I get to try sometime.
?4th: Additional Building Rows. I don’t like them. Except for Improvised Defenses (which is ridiculously better than the Barricade or Palisade), I think the new buildings pretty much suck. I’ve never felt like they were good buys after I got them, and I’ve never seen someone win and attribute it even partially to the additional buildings. More variety is always good, so I would never complain about someone wanting to use them. And if they did, I would always build Improvised Defense. Otherwise, they just do nothing for me.
?Last: Event Cards. They don’t really add anything to the gameplay except another fiddly thing to forget about and have to correct yourself on. In general, they just make the game harder, which doesn’t add to the fun-factor for me. Kingsburg should be about who can GROW their kingdom the best, not about who can avoid disaster the best. The monsters are a well balanced concern on their own, they don’t need extra cards taking away your goods and making you lose turns without warning. What I like about Kingsburg is the same thing Hannibal likes about the A-Team: I love it when a plan comes together. When I have spent all year predicting how much of what I can gather and store, and when I need to build what and how long I can wait so that I get the Envoy or the Extra Dice or the Bonus Point, and it all works out perfectly (or falls apart because I forgot I needed to hire one more soldier!) When an event card turns up and says “oops throw three of your stone away and ha-ha, now you can’t afford the Church this year, which would have won you the game” I say “screw you event deck”. I guess I just spend 30 sentences saying “it adds randomness and fiddliness, neither of which make Kingsburg better”.
•What are some important building and adviser combos?
?There are probably lots but I haven’t found many because I’m so single-minded in my strategy. The Paladin worked best with my Farm plan. In year 4 I was able to say “to hell with defending my kingdom, time to stockpile!” and I just made gold and stone like a madman, no need to hire soldiers or build defenses. it was well worth the 3 points he cost me.

I think Kingsburg is a much deeper game than I originally did, and I also think the expansions add a ton of meat to it. I really enjoyed playing this as game of the month, and I see myself continuing to play it on BSW a lot. For a guy who hates randomness, it’s really amazing to me that this game which is totally dependant on dice-rolling can be so strategic. I think it’s because once you get the rythym of the game, you realize that the advisors are balanced in a way that means low dice rolls aren’t really BAD dice rolls, they’re just more limiting. More games ought to mitigate luck in this manner, because it’s a very unique and attractive way of adding randomness without killing fun. That’s a hard combination for a game to pull off with me.