Kingdom Crossing - Board Game Review

[Music] Welcome to Allies Arene Enemies. I'm Jess. >> And I am Sean. And today we are talking about Kingdom Crossing. And our copy was provided for review, but thoughts in this video are all our own. >> Kingdom Crossing is a one to four player game designed by Marco Canetta and Stefania Nicolini. and it is a midweight Euro game with set collection and engine building.

It's based on the seven bridges problem of Coninsburg, but it's set in this fantasy world with animals. Let's take a look at how it plays. [Music] You start the game with six action tiles, a player board full of tokens, a home card, a starting card that gives you some money and stuff, an endgame goal, and a house and beaver on the board waiting to cross some bridges.

On your turn, you play one of your action tiles, moving the number of spaces on the tile, placing a footprint on any bridges you cross, and taking the tile bonus if there is one, and then buy a card from whatever island you end on. If the card is covered by a bird token, take that bonus as well. Then take the immediate benefit from the card, which will get you stuff like resources, money, points, or flowers and sculptures.

And then finally, tuck the card under your board in the corresponding column. Or instead of moving, you can also either play a tile just for its money bonus, or play your queen tile to get that day's queen card and the first player token. After four actions, you gain income from sets of two of the same colored cards above your board and all of the structures below your board.

During all of this, you're also trying to complete bridge goals, put out houses, gain more endame goals, and put out all of your footprints. At the end of four rounds, you score points for your guild cards based on how many stars were passed by the corresponding resource track marker, your structures based on your least advanced marker, your place on the investment track, and your various endgame goals, and then the greatest bridge crosser is named.

[Music] I hadn't heard of the seven bridges problem before. And it is interesting because when you first look at the map and you're told you can't get to all across all seven bridges without double crossing one, you think, "No, surely there's a way. There's got to be a way." But there there really isn't.

>> I spent like 10 minutes just going through all the different things and it tells you in the rule book there's no possible way to do this. And I thought, I bet I can figure it out. I bet everyone everyone will do that same thing as well. But yeah, I hadn't heard of it either. And and when I was told about it as the premise of a game, I thought I don't know about that.

>> Yeah, but it is interesting because it just adds these restrictions. So your very first turn, it's very open because you have all of your action tiles to choose from and you have all of your bridges available. But very quickly, you are ruling out bridges that you can go back across and you're using those action tiles restricting what you can do.

>> Yeah. And I was I was totally wrong about how like whether or not this would make for an interesting game because it is such a such a unique and interesting restriction that has this like weird mathematical problem underneath it that yeah, you can't possibly go across all these bridges. And pretty quickly, some of those islands are just going to get shut off to you.

>> Yeah. And there is the hot air balloon, which is nice. So, if an island does get shut off, you aren't going to be completely stuck. But you're always going to try and maximize how many bridges you can cross because you're going to get the most amount of points because you get a bonus three points if you can put out like six of your footsteps and an additional four if you can put out all seven.

But to put out the seventh, you're going to have to use the hot air balloon. And it's cheaper to use it if you're using it when it's in your space. So that's another spatial puzzle you're trying to figure out. >> Yeah. Trying to end that third turn where the hot air balloon is. And sometimes you can't because the other player might move that or players might move that hot air balloon around.

And it costs 10 coins if it's not where you are, three coins if it is where you are. Even three coins is expensive in this game. Yeah, >> 10 coins often is going to be undoable. But I do like as well that those action tiles because the puzzle really has two parts. So, first of all, it has that bridge part and that whole spatial puzzle of where am I going to go to different places, but then also you've only got six action tiles.

Three of those are only going to move you one space. One moves you two, one moves you three. One doesn't move you at all. And so you've also got to figure out that part of it as well. How like when are you going to use those different um tiles and those ones all have different bonuses on them too? >> Yeah.

So the ones might be worthwhile to use for the bonus, but obviously if you're using the three or two, you're putting more footsteps out and a lot of the cards will give you more bonuses because it will be based on how many of those footsteps you've currently put out. So, you're going to be considering all of that.

And there are so many times in this game when I wanted to move two spaces, but I'd already had used my two spaces and that was that. So, I just had to figure it out. >> Yeah. And there's so many times as well where I don't really want to move one space, but I need the extra coins I get from that one space or I need that extra resource or I need whatever it is.

So, you do have a few things to balance out, but I will say that it doesn't feel that AP this game. That this is very kind of in the middle of midweight, I think. And generally, it seemed like there were kind of one or two key things that maybe I wanted to do that I I never felt stuck in this game. [Music] Part of the reason why you may not get too like overwhelmed with choices is because you're trying to collect different sets.

So there is this whole set collection going on where the different cards have different animals. So often there will be a specific card that you really want. So you're just going to be figuring out how you're going to get there. It's not too often when you're like overwhelmed with choices cuz those cards are really going to like drive you.

Yeah, and they are fairly specific a lot of the cards too where you know they might get you a specific kind of resource or they might get you those tokens that you're putting over top of the resource track or they might get you money and I find often there's something that I need to get either I'm driving towards this goal that needs resources or I'm out of money so I need money before I can do the next thing but most often it is that that set collection element because for income you need two of each of the or you need two of whatever kind of animal in order to get that kind of income.

So, you really want to make sure that you've got even pairs of animals by the end of the round so that you get that stuff at the beginning of the next round. >> And you also want to collect one card of each of the kinds because once you have one of all of them, you get to put out one of your houses.

And anytime you end the round where you have a house, you get to activate one of your structures again. So you are motivated to complete rows and also if you get all of your houses out then you get another goal. So you definitely want that. >> Yeah. And coming back to that that income part as well, each of those different animals gives you a totally different kind of income.

And that is interesting because you can kind of focus in different ways in this game. And that's also going to depend on those goals that you have and all that stuff. But the different income is I think the foxes get you points. There's one, the pigs. I'm g going to not do these in order, but the pigs let you level up those actions, and that is really important because then you can gain obviously more stuff from the other side of each of those action tiles, and that helps to direct you as well.

There's also the deer get you an extra resource, and the owls help with the economy. And then there's one more. >> Yeah, the bears um let you activate another structure. And so if I had a game once where I think I managed to do all of my upgrades and that was quite useful. So that will change game to game depending on which ones you're able to get two of first.

[Music] >> And the other part of income that's interesting as well is your first structure and sometimes other cards will let you move up the income track. And your choice is either to move up the income track or to go all the way back and collect money. And money is very, very tight. So, you often want to be able to take the money.

But the higher up you go, the more money you're going to get. So, you're going to try and kind of stay on there as long as you can. >> Yeah, I do really cuz money is incredibly tight in this game. And I really like that. It's It's not quite pusher luck, but it's kind of in the same family that each time you're deciding, am I am I going to get another one of these in time for me to get that money?

But it's also it is worth pushing it up to get that incremental benefit. Once you get to 10, it just moves up by fives. But it takes you like four moves to get up to that 10 to when you're really making money. And also at the end of the game, you get points depending on how high you are. So, you do want in that last round to end up fairly high on that track if you can, but again, you're going to have to take money.

Like, you're very often going to be moving down that track to get money. >> Yeah. And that's the key way you're going to get money is through that. There are some cards and other ways. And you can also instead of doing an action with your action tile, you can just get the money from that action tile.

So, you're never going to be completely stuck, but it does feel like a wasted turn if you're in a position where you have to do that. [Music] And the other reason that that money track is going to be difficult is the goals because each game you've got these six in-game goals that you're racing to. Whoever finishes in the first gets more points.

And one of those always has to do with that money track, either going back three or four spaces without getting anything. And you really do want to do that because you want those points, but that means that you're going to get 10 or 15 fewer coins over the course of a game. >> And for the in-game goals, there are only six of them, and they are double-sided, but one side's just a little bit easier to get than the other side.

They do get randomly distributed. And that's important because if you're able to get a left and a right on the same row, then you're able to get an additional endgame goal. So, you're probably not going to be able to complete all six of the in-game goals, and you're likely going to be just targeting the ones where you can get a pair.

>> Yeah. Yeah, you really do want to get a pair. But I will say I wish that there were more of the during the game goals because there are only six. there's not as much variation in that and I'm sure that if they have an expansion that's going to be one of the things in there but I do wish that there are you know even maybe like two or three or four more of those.

But what there are more of are those endgame goals and there is just a giant pile of those and you start with one in the game and then you're going to gain more of those either by completing the left right of the in-game goals. We should have thought of a better way to say it than in and end, but we will continue to enunciate as well as we can, but you need to get So, you get them either through the left and right of the in-game goals or by building two houses or by getting to the end of those resource tracks.

All of that stuff's really hard to do. So, you're not going to get a lot of those. >> Yeah. But they can be worth a lot of points. And so, you are going to try and get as many as you can. And then when it comes to endgame scoring, it's not only the endgame goals, it's also the resources. And the resources are interesting because I have assumed when I saw a resource track that they would work like other resources I've seen in other games where you're collecting them, you're spending them.

This isn't the case. You aren't ever spending your resources. It's more just tracks that you're going up that's going to be worth points at the end of the game. So, it just took me a bit to wrap my head around that. that's how it works because it's a little counterintuitive >> and those tracks specifically tie to the cards.

So, it's a little bit it took me a little bit to get my head around this at first that each kind of resource, whatever color that is ties to that color of card and however many stars on these like gophers and star things that you flowers that you move past, you multiply that by the cards and and you also get points based on the cards underneath.

as well. It's like it's not it's not as complicated as I'm making it, but it is a little bit complicated. But that's kind of their job is to score with that little like calculation. >> And there are a couple of bonuses as you go along the track. The biggest one being being able to get an endgame goal if you reach the very end of a track.

And I do think that those resource tracks maybe are a tiny bit of a missed opportunity because getting to that that second bonus, the endgame goal is all the way to the end of the track, which is very hard to do. In four games, only one of us has done it one time. So, you're only really getting one of those bonuses.

And I kind of wish maybe there was another bonus in there just so you could get a bit more of a combo. But it is still really important to move up those because and you don't realize this till after your first game. But how much of the scoring is that little calculation of how far you are up past those stars multiplied by those cards and then also the cards on the bottom like it does score you a good chunk of your points.

So it is really important. >> Yeah. And it can score you a lot if you consider everything as well because it is tied to the color of the cards and the number of stars. So you can really target that where you get a lot of one color card, a lot of that resource, and you make sure to fill all of the stars on that particular track, and that can really pay off.

[Music] >> When I first saw the cover of this game, I actually wasn't too sure if it was a kids game. And when I saw the board as well, I thought maybe it was just kind of like almost like an Animal Crossing game of moving around bridges collecting cards. And once we played it though, I quickly realized that it is not a game targeted for kids.

But there was just something about it that at first misled me. >> Yeah. Yeah. I I totally agree with that. I very much found that I had to actually ask, is is this for kids? Is this an adult game? And it 100% is. This is very much a midweight game. and you get by that very quickly. But there is just something about it that looks a little bit kitty, but do not be fooled by that.

This is this is a a smart game with big decisions and it's got like interesting restrictions in it as well. Also, the components in this, I think, are worth pointing out cuz they're really nice. You got these really like nice chunky wooden bits. Basically, everything's chunky. You got double layer player boards.

All your bits fit really nicely into that player board. and everything's silk screen printed on top. It's a really nice production. >> Yeah, it looks really nice. And I do just generally also like games that are anthropomorphic animals. And so I like this as well. The animals look great. And so as soon as we played our first game, we we realized that we we are the target audience.

And it is an interesting puzzle with different elements of engine building because you are getting different bonuses depending on what types of cards you get. The economy is incredibly tight and an interesting economy too with like how you move up the money track and how much you can move up before you absolutely need to take money.

And so there is a lot that you're considering with a pretty like restricted options that I think make each decision interesting but not paralyzing. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I do think there are a couple little things in here that are kind of slight maybe not negatives but slight trickies. one, I think that resource track could have been used just a little bit more.

Also, I do wish that there are more of those in-game goals that you could compete for because that might switch things up a little bit more. And then the other thing maybe for some folks is going to be the just that it looks a little bit childish, but I am so glad not to build another cathedral. So, so I don't I don't mind that at all.

>> Yeah, I I like the theme. And this is one that pleasantly surprised us. It has a very kind of unique puzzle with a number of restrictions that in like work together really well and I think with like really lovely components. >> And that is it. Have you played Kingdom Crossing? What did you think?

And what are other games based on weird math problems that you've enjoyed? Thank you so much for watching and as usual, please like, subscribe, and hopefully we'll see you next time for another game. [Music]