Dragon vs Kingdom

Dragon vs Kingdom Game Review

I’ve been a hero in games.
I’ve been an adversary as well.

But I can’t recall being both of them at a time!

It’s time to prepare your multiple personalities as you get onboard as a leader to build and protect your kingdom while being a dragon and destroying your friends’ domains!

All aboard Dragon vs Kingdom- a game of ever-changing battlefields and infinite strategies.

About the game

Dragon vs Kingdom is a multiplayer game that can be played by 2 to 5 players. So yes, it’s time to put your friends to use. Gather them around, especially the ones with a knack for games.

The game has been very recently published by No Box Games, and designed by Chris Backe. At a glance, it may look like a roll-and-write, but it’s a play-and-pass game! One of the distinct mechanisms of the game is passing the Map Sheet to the player to your left while receiving a Map Sheet from the player to your right at the end of each turn. The passing of Map Sheets continues till the end of the game. It’s the kind of game mechanism that I’ve never encountered before!

All you need to play Dragon vs Kingdom

For those who fuss about assembling games- Dragon vs Kingdom requires no assembly!

Get your printer and the laminating machine started. Once you have decided how many players will be playing it, print the Map Sheet and Scoreboard Sheet accordingly. Lamination is highly recommended for ensuring its durability. If you are looking for a handy printer and laminator, make sure to check out the ones I use, mentioned at the end of the blog.

With print and lamination sorted out, time to pick markers of distinct colors. It will help differentiate the structures and dragons of each player on the Map Sheets. Finally, you need D6 dice for each player. If you only have one, that’s fine too!

Time for a tutorial video for the game. The challenge of reviewing a fairly new game is locating proper playthrough videos, but I sourced a couple of them for you. If you have less than 20 minutes to spare, then go for the video that Meeple Minded posted on the game. But if you are willing to invest a bit more time learning this game, I highly recommend seeing the playthrough video that shows the game designer himself playing a round of it in a 3-player mode. Both videos are available at the end of this review. 

Dragon vs Kingdom in a nutshell

You are a Dragon. At the same time, you are a Leader. Brace yourself to have two separate mindsets for the game. The same applies for the rest of the players.

Each player will pick a pen/marker/sharpie of a distinct color, and have a D6 dice each. If you only have 1 dice, that’s fine too. Place it in the middle of the players.

In front of you is your scoresheet, which you’ll use to track and finally accumulate all your points.  Other than the scoresheet, you have your Map Sheet. Give a kickass name for your Dragon and write it on your Map Sheet. The sheet will be passed clockwise (left) after the end of each round.

Done? Now the passing begins!

Dragon vs Kingdom

When you have the Map Sheet of your opponents

Leader mode activated! Being a Leader, you can choose to either build (house, tower, or shop) or attack. You can earn points by building structures, or by attacking the dragons, and these earned points will determine your position at the end of the game. Each of these structures has three distinct shapes.

Earning points from structures has a pretty interesting mechanism in this game. You earn 2 points by just placing Towers on the map, while for houses you earn 1 point per tower that’s 1-3 spaces away from it. As for shops, you earn 1 point per house that’s exactly 1 space away. Can you sense the tier of the structures?

What makes this more awesome is it doesn’t matter who drew the tower in the map sheet- if you draw a house 1-3 spaces from it, you earn a point! The same goes for shops as well. So use your opponents’ structures to score some handy points- for they’ll do the same with yours!

Earning points from attacking dragons involves your tower, and rolling of a dice. If your dice roll is:
– equal to the distance between your tower and the dragon: it loses 1 heart, while you gain 3 points
– greater than the distance from your tower and the dragon: it loses 2 hearts, and you gain 6 points!
– less than the distance from your tower and the dragon: whoopsies! You gain nothing. The dragon gets to smirk at you!

On each round, you have the opponent’s sheet,  and you can do 2 actions (3 if it’s a two-player game). You can build or attack. If you are planning to attack in a round, then you must do so before building. So, attack and then build.

When you have the Map Sheet of your own

Dragon mode activated! DRACARYS! It’s time to breathe fire.

When the Map Sheets are passed till you end up at the start of the cycle, with your Map Sheet at your disposal, you unleash the Dragon.

Being a dragon you have 3 actions, out of which you can pick 2:
– move 3 spaces, in any direction
– move one space, and then attack!
– one fine line of breathing fire! The D6 dice will be rolled. If it’s a 1 or 2, you get to damage one space. 3 or 4, you damage two spaces. With 5 or 6 in the dice, you damage 3 spaces! 

The scoresheet shows the points you earn from destroying structures. As for destroying unused spaces, no structures can be built on them anymore. As I say it, it has the curse of the dragon fire!

Watch out for your health though. You have exactly 12 health points or hearts, which can be reduced by your opponents when they attack you from their towers. So be aware of the position of the towers; or even better, destroy them! 

Do yourself a favor and not pass through the fiery chaos that you created. It may look cool, but you end up losing a heart!

When does the game end?

-Scenario A: if one dragon is dead! Aka, if all of its 12 hearts are crossed out.
-Scenario B: when a certain number of structures are destroyed (8 structures for 2-3 players, 9 structures for 3-4 players, and 10 structures for 5 players).

Once the game is over, the players will count each of their points to see who scored the most, to be claimed as the ultimate leader, and fire-breather!

What I liked about the game

The two-faced players!

Playing two different roles in one game is something I have encountered for the first time in print-and-play. And it’s been a unique experience for sure! There’s another side of two-facedness in this game- benefiting other players! No matter how hard you try, you will always end up benefiting other players by the Towers and Houses that you’ve built.

Exponential Escalation

The game starts with Leaders humbly building structures for their Kingdoms, but it escalates in no time. Starting from the first time the players ambush the kingdoms as dragons, there’s no going back. It’s a battle of dragons with Leaders on every Map Sheet, on every turn- and it’s epic!

No waiting time

Dragon vs Kingdom tackles one of the biggest challenges in multiplayer games- having to wait for your turn. You don’t need to scroll your phone, or squeak in a yawn or two; as soon as you pass a Map Sheet to your left, you get a fresh one from the right. 

Unlimited Strategies

Do I want to score points by focusing on building structures? 
Does my plan focus more on attacking dragons?
Is my dragon too close to a tower after the end of an attack?
How do I make the most of the structures built by my friends?
Should I build my structures in a line, or keep them scattered?

I have only shared a few of the many questions that went through my head while playing this game. There are so many strategies to implement in this game, I am sure I will unravel many more over time.

Tweaking of game duration

Oh yes, there are ways of controlling the game duration. On average, the game takes 30 minutes on a 3-player setup, but if you increase the number of players to 5, then the game might be over in 20 minutes or less. Also, the more you play this game, the less the duration will be. Which opens a path for multiple rounds. Yay!

How I played Dragon vs Kingdom

I invited two of my friends over to try the game in the 3-player format. Being BIG fans of Lord of the Rings, we named our dragons after those in the book! What’s interesting is the strategy each of us took- one was busy building structures, while the other was being solely on the attacking mindset. I played a bit safe and did a bit of both! 

Time flew by as we played the game thrice within 80 minutes or so. We got the chance to play it again on another day and had a blast. We got better over time, with more experience. 

A few of our findings

– There’s no one-fixed strategy that you must do in the game, rather presence of mind and the situation of the game should help you shape up the plan.
– The game is quite competitive. The final points for the three of us weren’t far off from each other. So there’s no clean sweep. Hard-earned victory by a narrow margin. Sweet!
– There are scopes to make a comeback. One of my friends won the game after having a horrible start to the game. With a proper plan, it’s possible to make a comeback.

A heads up

Take your time with understanding the rules of the game. Keep the manual around for the first few rounds. It’s okay if it takes you a while to grab a hold of properly counting points on every round. The inertia will only last for a round or two. After that, the game ages like fine wine!

Where to get it from

Dragon vs Kingdom is available on Kickstarter, and all you have to do is back the game, and have a great time playing it on Game Nights!

Recommended Setups

Game Overview

Publisher: No Box Games
Designer: Chris Backe
Artist: Parker Simpson
Number of players:
2 to 5
Difficulty level: Medium
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 to 2 rounds
Game duration: 20 to 30 minutes
Available in: Kickstarter
Theme: Play-and-Pass | Building & Destroying Kingdoms
Number of pages and color: 6 to 12 (color print)
Assembling difficulty level: Super Easy
Lamination: Highly recommended
Additional elements required: Distinct color pens/markers and at least 1 D6 dice.
Time to learn: Within 30 minutes
Travel-friendly: 9/10
Shelving friendly: 10/10
Rating from PnP Time: 9/10

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