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Kingswood, by Henry Audubon (Space Park and Parks), is a 25th Century Games project which is live on Kickstarter, finishing this week and expecting to arrive in February 2020. The game looks beautiful with the artwork provided by Tristan Rossini (3 Laws of Robotics and Rune).
The game is set in the village of Kingswood. In the game you play as a guild leader and move round one of six locations picked from a group of 12. You can visit the blacksmith for your sword, or the tavern to gain your hearts and then go to the academy for spells.
Once you feel ready and have enough resources, you can go to the sixth location, the forest. It is in the forest where you will encounter the monsters. Defeating monsters provide your guild glory and some special, additional benefits.
Playing the Game
On a turn, you choose one of the three adventurer meeples and perform the action available at their location. You then move the adventurer to an adjacent location for free or pay gold to skip to a different location further away. You can perform the action available at the new location before ending your turn by placing the King's guard meeple on the vacated location.
Players take it in turns to move the adventurers around the village before one is brave enough to risk visiting the forest. If you choose to move to the forest, you can choose to fight the face-up monster cards, exhausting the required resources by flipping these cards over from coloured to their grey side.
Once defeated, collect the monster card and the reward provided for your bravery .The first guild to achieve 20 glory points trigger the end game, all players finish the round and glory points are totalled with the victor being the guild leader who has amassed the most glory.
The artwork for Kingswood is quirky and whimsical, fitting the theme perfectly. The iconography on the cards is really clear and easy to understand, which will make this perfect for families. The components in the base game look great but can be upgraded with the deluxe pledge, providing wooden rather than card tokens and metal coins.
Kingswood is a quick game packed full of fantasy fun. It's accessible and easy to learn, with just the right amount of strategy to appeal to a wide group of players; from those new to board gaming to those groups who enjoy deeper games but enjoy a light, fun filler game.
With the ability to change the buildings that make up the village and a wide variety of monsters, there is plenty of replay-ability straight out of the box and there are still stretch goals to be unlocked that will add more cards to the game.
Thoughts and Pledge Kingswood
25th Century have created a hit, from the box art to the beautifully designed cards and the quirky wooden meeples and solid promo coin, they have considered the whole experience you will have when you receive the game, open the box and play it for the first time.
Kingswood is all about fun and with a playtime of 30 minutes and a price that will not break the bank, it's just the right mix of beautiful design, great gameplay and quality components. If it isn't already, make sure Kingswood is on your list and see if you can become the guild leader who can successfully lead the adventurers of Kingswood to battle the monsters in the forest and bask in all the glory.