The roll & write crazy is sweeping through the board game hobby and I don’t want the party to end!

These are some of my favorite style of games and now it’s merged together with one of our family’s top games of all time: KINGDOMINO!

If you’re looking for a great two player game that is enjoyable to play with just about anyone, this could be the one!

What is Kingdomino Duel? 

Kingdomino Duel is a roll and write game for two players. 

Four dice feature six different coat of arms. Players will roll these dice and then draft them to create a pair, forming their dominoes. 

These coat of arms “dominoes” will then be drawn onto your player sheet, representing different domains. 

When adding a new domino to your kingdom, one of the symbols on the domino must match and connect to at least one coat of arms already in your kingdom or to the central castle space.

Some coat of arms on the dice have crosses in the left corner while others do not. Each time you add a coat of arms without a cross to your kingdom you fill in a square in the spell book next to that symbol. 

If you fill in all of the squares first before your opponent, then you earn the wizard’s powers which will enable you to use a special, one time power to aid you in the game.

If you add a coat of arms with a cross, you will mark that cross next next to the coat of arms in your kingdom when you draw it. These crosses allow your domains to score points at the end of the game. 

Each domain is worth the number of coat of arms it contains multiplied by the number of crosses present in that domain. A domain with no crosses is worth nothing.

The game ends as soon as someone has filled in the last remaining coat of arms on their map, or neither player is able to place their domino tile.

Each player then adds up the scores of each of their domains, adding them together to form their final score. 

The player with the highest score wins.

What do we think?

I greatly enjoy Kingdomino Duel.

Currently, it seems that every popular game is rushing to come out with their own roll and write version as the R&W craze sort of takes over the hobby. While I’m a big fan of this style of game play, I don’t like ones that feel as if they’ve just been thrown into that style for sake of marketing. 

Luckily, Kingdomino Duel really stands on its own as a roll & write game. You don’t have to be a fan of its predecessors to enjoy this, though if you are you will probably be likely to enjoy it as well. 

The biggest struggle for it is that it isn’t as lovely to look at as the original Kingdomino game. (If you don’t have that one, you need it!) The cute tiles are replaced with coat of arms so the overall presentation of the game is a bit less than Kingdomino, but it makes up for that in strategy and function.

Kingdomino Duel itself is very well made. The dice in a roll & write are very important and I love that these are nice, simple, chunky white dice that are easily interpreted. The small box makes it perfect for travel and it comes with pencils and plenty of player sheets so you don’t need to worry about those. 

The rules of the game are pretty easy to pick up and play. Mechanic wise it is a nice change of pace from some of the more complex roll & writes. It’s straight forward without cards, complex placement rules, or unclear scoring to distract or confuse players. Simply roll the dice, draft, and write. Literally: roll and write. We’ve been playing a lot of the more complex variety lately and I truly found this refreshing in a way I didn’t realize I needed.

While some of the character of the original is lost with the subtraction of the tile art, the general spirit of the game is perfectly carried over. The snake draft to select dice works great for its two player count and still offers a good amount of suspense as you hope to get the dice you need.

We also loved the strategy that came from deciding when to take a valuable die with a cross on it, knowing that it would score in your kingdom, and when to grab a less valuable die so that you could try and earn a spell. 

The spell powers are really the part of the game where the “Duel” aspect comes into play, (other than it being just for two, of course.) With the spells, only one player can get each spell so if you and your opponent each need a particular spell, you’ll have to race to get it first. Some players may like the use of the spell powers, others may not like to focus on them. Luckily, you don’t need to use any spells to win. They are all really well balanced and are more of an aid than a game changer when earned. 

For a strictly two player game, Kingdomino Duel is great. The time on it is nice and tight at about 20-25 minutes. Long enough to be enjoyable, but maybe not so short that you feel you need another go. I enjoy this one in the same way that I enjoy other two player games like Patchwork. It’s a fun little puzzle that I get to work through and makes for a delightful little game to play.

There are enough strategy options here to keep me coming back for more and more plays and due to the unpredictable nature of the dice, each game will feel slightly different and I’ll need to adjust my game to match.

From a parent perspective I found Kingdomino just a touch more difficult for my kids to grasp. Both our 7 and 5 year old absolutely love to play the original Kingdomino so we gave them each a few cracks at this one. Overall, our 7 year old did a great job and picked it up right away and enjoyed her experience. Our 5 year old struggled a bit with remembering to keep his dice together to form the domino. He kept wanting to write each one individually into his kingdom and needed some help with his placement so that he didn’t block himself off from future turns. 

That being said, he still won his game fair and square. If you’re hoping to enjoy this with your own children, I’d say look towards that older 6 or 7 year old as a good age to introduce this one.

Summary

While it lacks the original character of Kingdomino, the spirit carries over into a very fun two player game that offers players a nice amount of strategy for those looking to spice up their Kingdomino experience.

This is a great two player game and a nice addition not only into the Kingdomino family, but also the roll & write category. I love that it is simple while still providing a good amount of choice and strategy to keep the game feeling fun and I see our family playing this one for a long time. It just feels classic. We’re huge fans of Quixx and this is probably what I’ll be reaching for from now on.

Game Credits:
Tilte: Kingdomino Duel
2 players Ages 8+
Designers: Bruno Cathala, Ludovic Maublanc
Artist: Cyril Bouquet
Publisher: Blue Orange Games

A special thank you to Blue Orange Games for sending us this copy of Kingdomino Duel for review. As always, our thoughts and opinions are our own.

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Our (truly gorgeous) dice tower is the hand crafted Walnut tower from Magewood Gaming.