Kingdomino Drafting and Building Guide | Crown Scoring Rules

Kingdomino scores by multiplying each connected territory’s number of squares by the number of crowns inside it, so a 7 forest territory with 3 crowns is worth 21 points and a 9 lake territory with no crowns is worth nothing. There is no penalty for gaps, no special Mine rule, and the tiebreak is largest territory then a shared win.

The old version of this page told you that Mines score points for every terrain they touch. That rule does not exist in any edition of Kingdomino, and it would have taught you to play the game wrong. Kingdomino has exactly one scoring rule and it applies to all six terrains equally, so here is the real one first, and then the drafting and placement decisions that decide whether you get to use it.

There Is No Special Mine Rule

Kingdomino scores every territory the same way: square count multiplied by crowns. No terrain has an exception. A Mine is a Mine, and it scores the same as a forest or a lake.

The publisher’s own rules give one worked example for forest and one for lake, and the scoring instruction that covers them covers every terrain with no carve-out. If you have read anywhere that a Mine scores for adjacent terrains, that rule is not in the box.

What Mines actually do is more useful than the myth. Mines are rare in the deck and rich in crowns, while grasslands and forests are plentiful and crown-poor. So a Mine is worth planning around, because it is a small patch of terrain carrying a disproportionately large multiplier, not a wildcard that borrows its neighbour’s score.

The one thing a Mine does that no other terrain does is nothing. It has no ability, no bonus and no exception. It is a square with a crown on it that happens to be hard to find.

How Kingdomino Actually Scores

Every square on every domino carries one of six terrains: wheat fields, grasslands, forests, lakes, swamps, or mines. Some squares also carry crowns, and a square can carry one, two, or three of them.

A territory is a group of matching terrain squares connected horizontally or vertically. Diagonals do not count. When the dominoes run out, you score each territory separately by multiplying its square count by its total crowns.

Territory	Squares	Crowns	Points
Forest block	7	3	21
Lake block	9	0	0
Grassland block	3	2	6
Wheat block, split into two unconnected patches	6	2	2 and 2

Two consequences catch new players out. A territory with no crowns scores nothing, no matter how big it is, so nine worthless lakes are worth less than one crowned forest square. And two separate patches of the same terrain score separately, so a single tile of forest stranded on the far side of your kingdom scores on its own rather than joining the main block.

The Draft Is the Whole Game

There is no randomness in Kingdomino beyond the shuffle. Every tile that will enter the game is visible to everyone, and the only thing deciding who gets which one is where your king meeple sits.

At the start of each round, four dominoes are revealed in a line beside the box, ordered by the number printed on their reverse, with the lowest number closest to the box. Claim one by placing your king on it. In a two-player game you claim two, one for each of your two kings.

Then the line is your turn order for the round. The player whose king is on the lowest-numbered domino plays first, the next king plays second, and so on. Your position in this round is the position you get to pick from in the next one, because you choose your next tile by putting your king on the new line during your turn.

This is why a high-numbered domino is a real cost. The numbers run one to forty-eight and the higher ones carry better terrain and more crowns, but claiming one drops you to the back of the next round’s order. Taking the lowest number guarantees you see the best of the next four tiles first.

If you came to Kingdomino from a drafting game that removes tiles from play, the difference matters. In Azul and other drafting games a poor pick is gone forever, which is why the draft there carries weight. In Kingdomino nothing is ever removed from play, so the only cost of a greedy pick is that you draft last. Our tile placement and matching guide covers the shared shape of this family of games.

• Similarities: Both turn a single tile choice into a two-turn decision
• Differences: Kingdomino's cost is pick order next round, Blokus's cost is a permanently wasted square
• Why this game fans will enjoy it: In Kingdomino nothing is removed from play, so the only penalty for a greedy pick is that you draft last.

Placing the Tile

Your turn is two actions in order: add the domino you claimed last round, then claim a new one. Placement follows four printed rules:

• Your kingdom may not exceed 5 by 5 squares.
• To connect a domino to another domino, at least two connecting squares must share a terrain type, one on each domino.
• All four sides of your starting tile are wild, so any terrain can attach to it.
• Once a domino is placed it may not be moved.

That last rule is the one that ends arguments at the table. You cannot pull a tile back to fix a bad shape, which is why the shape of your kingdom is a decision made several turns before you realise you needed it.

If your game needs you to think about where a piece sits relative to a growing board rather than about what a territory multiplies out to, our Carcassonne tile placement guide covers that in depth. For a lighter game where the same placement idea runs on wood tiles, our Qwirkle review is the one we would hand a seven year old.

If your claimed domino cannot legally be placed, it is discarded from the game and scores nothing. You may not choose to discard a domino that has a legal placement, and the rulebook is explicit that a domino which can be placed must be.

Player Counts Change the Deck

The Second Edition states the four-player game as the base case and gives adjustments for the rest. The number of dominoes in play changes, which changes the length of the game more than you would expect.

Players	Dominoes used	Rounds	Kings per player	Notes
2	24	6 turns, two placements each	2	Half the deck is removed before play
3	48	12 rounds	1	The unclaimed fourth tile is discarded each round
4	48	12 rounds	1	The full deck, base case rules

Two-player is a different game from four-player in a way the player count alone does not suggest. You get half the deck but two tiles per turn, so each of you places twelve tiles, the same as a four-player game. What changes is that with two players you see the entire remaining deck between turns, because the line of four is half the table. Drafting becomes much less about hiding information and much more about sequence.

If two players is your usual number, our Patchwork review covers the couples angle, and our best board games for 8 players covers the opposite end where the deck is shared with seven other people.

Ties, Gaps and the Rules People Misremember

The tiebreak is largest territory, then a shared win. That is the Second Edition rule: “In the event of a tie, the player with the largest territory (the most connecting squares of the same terrain) wins. If there is still a tie, the players share the victory.”

Older printings and some rules sites give a three-step version ending in a shared win, with most crowns as the middle step. If your box gives you that, use it. Otherwise the Second Edition is two steps.

Gaps cost you nothing directly. An empty square is not in a territory, so it contributes nothing to any multiplication. There is no penalty anywhere in the scoring for an incomplete grid. The Harmony variant pays you 5 bonus points for a gap-free kingdom, but that is an optional bonus you opt into, not a penalty you avoid.

The starting tile can go anywhere. It is not required to be in the middle of your kingdom. Putting it in the centre is usually a bad idea unless you are deliberately playing for the Middle Kingdom bonus, which pays 10 points for a centred castle. Starting it in a corner costs you nothing at all.

Expansions

Age of Giants

Age of Giants is designed by Bruno Cathala, the same designer as the base game, and published in 2018. It works with Kingdomino or Queendomino, plays 2 to 5, and requires one of them. It is not a standalone game.

It adds 12 dominoes to the existing 48, 17 Challenge Tiles, and Giant meeples. Six of the new dominoes carry a Giant: when you add one, you must cover a crown of your choice with a Giant meeple, and a covered crown does not score. The other six, numbered 49 to 54, carry Giant’s footprints: adding one lets you hand one of your Giants to another player, who must then cover a crown of their own. Both effects do nothing if you have no crowns or no Giants to give, which is the trap in it.

The important change for anyone building a collection: Age of Giants removes the Middle Kingdom and Harmony end-game bonuses entirely. They are replaced by Challenge Tiles, of which you draw 2 before each game. Those tiles are where the big numbers now live, with bonuses such as 5 points per lake tile surrounding your castle and 20 points for a castle in a kingdom corner.

Queendomino

Queendomino is the same tile system with queens instead of kings, published by Blue Orange. Age of Giants is compatible with both, so the expansion is not locked to one of them.

Our House Strategy, Not Official Rules

Everything above is printed in the rulebook or the publisher’s own material. The rest is what we actually do at the table, and it is preference rather than rule.

We take the lowest tile early. With Alex at 7 and Emma at 10 we found that chasing the high tile in round two reliably left one of us staring at a bad line of four. Taking the number one domino for the first three rounds costs almost nothing and buys first pick on the good stuff later.

We keep the kingdom square and do not chase Mines. A Mine is attractive because of the crowns, but travelling across the grid to collect one usually costs more squares than the crowns are worth. We have lost more games to a lopsided kingdom than to any opponent who took our tile.

We count before we place on the last two rounds. The moment the deck is thin enough that we can see it, we place for the multiplication we already have rather than for the one we want. A completed 5x5 with crowns on it beats a slightly better shape that runs out of legal squares.

We do not contest tiles with each other. With two players there is no draft tension to speak of, since we both see everything, so taking the tile the other person wanted gains nothing and wastes a turn. With four players the calculus changes and denial becomes worth it.

Who Should Buy It

Kingdomino is a first game more than it is a tenth. If you have not played it, it is two minutes to teach and it teaches drafting to children who have never drafted. Our Catan Junior review covers the other gateway game families reach for first, and it is the slower route in.

If you are buying on a tight budget, Kingdomino is one of the few strategy games where the retail price and the replay value genuinely line up, which our best board games under $20 with replay value guide sets out. It also fits the audience in our quick games for short attention spans guide, because a 20 minute game that ends on its own is the whole problem that guide solves.

If you have played it, the things worth your money are the Second Edition copy and Age of Giants, and the honest reason to want Age of Giants is the Challenge Tiles rather than the fifth player.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Mine score points for adjacent terrains?

No. Mines have no special ability and no exception in the scoring. Every territory in Kingdomino scores by multiplying its number of squares by its crowns, and that rule covers all six terrains including Mines. Mines are simply rare in the deck and carry a lot of crowns, which makes them valuable rather than powerful.

How many dominoes do you use at three players?

All 48 in the Second Edition, and the unclaimed fourth tile from each round is discarded. Earlier printings used 36 at three players, so if your rules text says 36 you have a First Edition copy and the older count is correct for it.

Is there a penalty for gaps in your kingdom?

No. Scoring only multiplies territory squares by crowns, and an empty square is not part of any territory, so it simply contributes nothing. There is no penalty anywhere in the scoring. The Harmony variant pays 5 bonus points for a gap-free kingdom, but that is an optional bonus rather than a penalty for having gaps.

What is the tiebreak in Kingdomino?

Largest territory wins, where a territory means the largest group of connected matching terrain squares. If players still tie after that, they share the victory. Older printings insert a most-crowns step before the shared win, so a three-player older box will use the longer chain.

Does the starting tile have to go in the centre?

No. There is no restriction on where the starting tile sits in your kingdom, so it can be in a corner, in the middle, or anywhere else. All four of its sides are wild, so any terrain can attach to it wherever it goes. Centring it only matters if you are going for the Middle Kingdom bonus of 10 points.

How many crowns can a square have?

One, two, or three. A square with three crowns multiplies its whole territory by three, which is why crowns matter more than square count. A territory needs at least one crown to score anything at all.

How long does a game take?

Between 15 and 20 minutes on the box and in most play reports, with the designer describing it as about 15 minutes. A two-player game is the shortest because half the deck is removed, and a four-player game is the longest because all 48 dominoes go into play.

Is Age of Giants worth buying?

It is worth buying for the Challenge Tiles rather than the fifth player. It adds 2 to 5 players, 12 dominoes, 17 Challenge Tiles of which you draw 2 per game, and Giant meeples that cover crowns so they stop scoring. It also removes the Middle Kingdom and Harmony bonuses, so check your group plays those before adding it.

The Short Version

Multiply squares by crowns for every territory, count a crownless territory as zero rather than as a waste, and treat Mines as rare high-crown terrain rather than as a wildcard. The drafting line beside the box decides everything else, because your pick order this round is your pick order next round. Gaps cost nothing, the starting tile goes wherever you like, and a tie is largest territory then a shared win.