Kingdomino Duel Dice Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Objective of Kingdomino Duel

The objective of Kingdomino Duel is to create the most valuable kingdom by connecting similar coat of arms.

Kingdomino Duel Setup

Each player takes a gamesheet and a pencil. Turn your gamesheet to the Map side.
Place another gamesheet in the middle of the table. Turn this sheet to the Spellbook side. Write down the player’s names at the top of the sheet.
Set the four dice in the middle of the table.
The oldest player starts the game. They will be player A for the first round. The other player is player B.

Playing Kingdomino Duel

Each round begins with player A rolling the four dice.

The players will then follow these three steps.

Creating Dominoes
Filling in the Map
Filling in the Spellbook

The Dice of Kingdomino Duel

The dice of Kingdomino Duel have seven different symbols.

Six of the symbols are different coat of arms. Each of these coat of arms represent a different family that you will use to help rule your kingdom.

Some coat of arms feature one or two crosses/Xs. These represent high dignitaries of the corresponding family. These are key to scoring at the end of the game.

Cross Symbols in Kingdomino Duel — The dice on the left features one cross symbol. The dice on the right has two cross symbols.

The last symbol is a question mark. This symbol is wild. When you take a dice with a question mark on it, you can choose what coat of arms it will represent.

Creating Dominos

Dice Roll in Kingdomino Duel — For this round these four dice symbols were rolled.

Player A starts this step by choosing one of the four rolled dice. The die they choose remains on the side that was rolled.

Choosing A Die in Kingdomino Duel — Player A has decided to take the die in the bottom left corner. They chose this die as it features two cross symbols.

Player B then chooses the two dice that they would like to take. They will keep these dice on the sides that were rolled.

Choosing Dice — Player B decided to take the two dice featuring the one line symbol as they match. This allows them to immediately create a domain that covers two spaces.

Finally player A takes the fourth dice that neither player chose.

Choosing A Die — As player B didn’t take the checkerboard domino, player A has to take it.

Each player has two dice. They will use these two dice to form a “domino”.

Filling in the Map

After each player has created their domino, it is time to add them to your map. The symbols on the two dice you chose will be placed next to each other somewhere on your map. You can place the two symbols either vertically or horizontally next to one another. They must touch one another though, and that does not include diagonals.

When choosing where to place your domino, you can only place it on empty spaces (spaces where the coat of arms haven’t been filled in). To place your domino on your map you must follow one of the following two connection rules.

Placing Domino on Map in Kingdomino Duel — For their first domino this player chose the two dice at the top of the picture. They added the two symbols next to one another on their map.

Connection Rules

First you can add a domino if one of the two spaces touch the center castle space.

Placing A Domino — For this domino the player placed it where one of the two symbols touched the castle in the middle of the board.

Otherwise you can look at the coat of arms that you have already filled in on your map. You can place a domino if at least one of the domino sides touches the same symbol. The symbol already on your map has to be orthogonally adjacent (up, down, left, right). Diagonals do not count.

If you cannot find a valid placement for your domino, you will not place it on your map.

Drawing Your Domino

Once you have chosen a valid place to place your domino, you will fill in the corresponding coat of arms spaces on the chosen space. If there are crosses next to one or both of the symbols, you will fill in the circles next to the coat of arms.

After adding your new symbols to the map, check the neighboring spaces. If one or both of your new symbols are the same as the adjacent symbols, shade in the line between the two spaces. This will help you better see where you have formed domains in your kingdom.

Filling in the Spellbook

Each player looks at the symbols they added to their map this turn.

Any symbol that did not feature additional crosses, allows you to fill in part of the spellbook. The question mark symbol does not allow you to fill in part of the spellbook.

Find the corresponding symbol(s) on your side of the spellbook. Fill in one of the corresponding squares. Player A will do this first in case both players finish one of the sections at the same time.

Crossing Off Squares on the Spellbook — The left player has the checkerboard symbol that doesn’t have a cross on it. They cross off one of the corresponding spaces on their side of the spellbook. The player on the right crosses off one of the boxes for the one line symbol on the right side.

The first player to cross off all of the squares for one of the spells, claims that spell. The other player cannot obtain that spell during the game. They will draw a line through that section on their side of the spellbook to remind them that they can’t claim the spell.

Claim Spell — The player on the left has crossed off all three squares corresponding to the bottom power. They will claim the spell. The player on the right crosses off the squares on their side to show that they can no longer claim the spell.

Most of the spells can be used once at any time (unless noted below). When you use a spell you will cross off the symbol from the spellbook to note that it has been used. The ability that each spell grants players are as follows:

The Spells

When placing a domino on your map, you can ignore the connection rules (see above).

Using A Spell in Kingdomino Duel — Using this spell, this player has decided to place their current domino in the corner of the map away from their rest of the spaces that they have already filled in.

You can break apart your two dice instead of having to play them next to one another. To add the symbols to your map though, they must follow the connection rules.

Using A Spell — This player wants to break up the two dice they took this turn. They would like to put the two dot symbol next to the castle and the two line symbol next to the other spaces with the same symbol.

During a turn that you are player A, you can immediately choose the two dice that you would like to take.

You can choose one of the two dice that you took and change it to any other side.

Choose a coat of arms. You will score three points for each different domain that features the chosen coat of arms at the end of the game. This ability must be used when you acquire it.

Choose one of the coat of arms from your map. You can add one cross to the chosen coat of arms.

End of Round

At the end of the round the players swap roles for the next round. Player A will become player B and vice versa.

Castle Bonus

Once during the game each player can choose to use their castle bonus.

When you activate your castle bonus, you can choose one of the two dice that you chose during the current round. You can add one cross symbol to the chosen dice. This includes the question mark. This will nullify the ability to fill in a space in the corresponding section of the spellbook.

Castle Bonus in Kingdomino Duel — This player has decided to use their Castle Bonus. They can add an additional cross to either of the two dice they chose this turn when they add it to their map.

Once you have used the ability, color in your castle’s roof to indicate that you used the ability.

End of Kingdomino Duel

Kingdomino Duel can end in one of two ways.

The game ends immediately if one or both players fill in all of the spaces on their map.

End of Game in Kingdomino Duel — This player has filled in all of the spaces on their map. The game will end and enter final scoring.

Otherwise the game will end when neither player is able to add their domino to their map.

The game then proceeds to final scoring.

Scoring in Kingdomino Duel

The objective of Kingdomino Duel is to create different domains that will score you points. A domain is a group of spaces that are connected orthogonally (up, down, left, right) which all have the same symbol/coat of arms. You will create multiple domains on your map throughout the game. You may end up creating two or more domains featuring the same coat of arms if they are not connected to one another. Each of these domains will be scored separately.

To determine your final score you will tally the points that you earned from each domain. To score each domain you will figure out the following.

First count up how many spaces are in the domain. Then count up how many crosses are in the domain. You multiply these two numbers to get the number of points that you will score for the domain. If a domain has no crosses in it, it will score no points.

Add up the points that you scored from each of your domains to get your final score.

If you acquired the wizard power worth three points for each domain of the corresponding coat of arms, calculate how many points you will score from the power. Add this to the total you received from your domains.

The player that scores more points wins the game.

If there is a tie, the player who created the largest domain (the domain featuring the most spaces) wins the game. If there is still a tie, the game ends in a draw.

Scoring Example

Pictured above is a player’s final map at the end of the game. I have outlined all of the domains that this player will score with different colors to make them easier to see.

#1 Green: This domain consists of seven different spaces and five crosses. This domain scores 35 points.

#2 Yellow: There are three spaces and one cross in this domain. The player will score three points from the domain.

#3 Yellow: This domain consists of one space and one cross. It scores one point. Combined with yellow #2, the player scores four total points from the symbol.

#4 Purple: This domain features four spaces and two crosses. The player scores eight points from it.

#6 Blue: This domain has two spaces and two crosses. It scores four points.

#7 Blue: This domains scores two points as it only consists of one space with two crosses on it. Combined with #6 blue, this symbol scores a total of six points.

#8 Red: The player created a domain consisting of five spaces and four crosses. It scores them 20 points.

In addition to creating a number of domains that scored points, this player also created some domains that score zero points. For example along the left side of their map they created a five space domain featuring the two line symbol. Since there were no crosses in the domain though, it does not score any points.

This player scores a total of 73 points.

Kingdomino Duel

Year: 2019 | Publisher: Blue Orange Games | Designer: Bruno Cathala, Ludovic Maublanc | Artist: Cyril Bouquet

Genres: Dice Drafting, Roll and Write, Two Player

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2 | Length of Game: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Light-Moderate | Strategy: Moderate | Luck: Moderate

Components: 4 dice, game sheets, 2 pencils, instructions

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