Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns Expansion

Paladins of the West Kingdom is an excellent worker placement game. It is a fairly complex game that takes around 2 hours to play. It’s certainly not lacking in anything, yet there is an expansion available. Will City of Crowns be its crowning glory, or is it the Shakespearean case of uneasy lies the game that wears a crown? Let’s see what City of Crowns has to offer Paladins aficionados.

We Built this City.

City of Crowns offers a variety of modifications to the base game of Paladins of the West Kingdom, but all of which keep the game recognisable.

First, there is a new attribute to track. This works in the same way as the other 3 and will score points in the same way. It’s a simple addition, but one I do like, as it breaks up the pairing up of red/blue/black actions that experienced Paladins players will be used to employing as a key strategy.

To support the new attribute, there are new Paladin cards included in the game. This introduces a new element to the Paladin selection at the start of each round. Now, instead of playing one of 3, returning one to the top of the deck and consigning the other to the bottom, you draw 4 and additionally have to remove one of them from the game.

I enjoy the extra layer this adds at the start of each round, though, it is another decision and players prone to analysis paralysis may find this an unwanted extra step.

City of Crowns includes an extension to the main board, where players use the muster and entrust/enlist actions. There is also a small extension to the player boards, providing space for players to place workers to activate these new actions.

The new actions are fun and interesting, allowing for further interaction with the main board (muster), getting access to some of the other actions you may not yet have been able to take (entrust) and a way to get big points through set collection (enlist). They are viable ways to contribute towards achieving good scores, but without invalidating any of the actions available in the base game.

Finally, City of Crowns gives players and additional development building piece, which they can place on any space at the start of the game. They may wish to have this coincide with their new private King’s Order objective card…

King of Components?

There are a couple of production niggles with Paladins of the Wast Kingdom: City of Crowns. The new board pieces have more of a gloss finish to them, rather than the more matte look of the boards in the main game. Not a big issue, I would have preferred it to match though.

The card backs for the new King’s Order and King’s Favour cards are a tiny bit different in colouration from those in the original game. It has little impact on gameplay, but is noticeable and became hard to unsee, once I became aware of it.

Most frustratingly, there were issues with some of the graphics in the rulebook. Incorrect cards were depicted at times; the rules were discussing enlist/entrust cards, but depicted muster cards in their place, incorrectly positioned on the board. I figured it out and the correct images are in the official pdf rulebook avoidable online, but I did find this to be a barrier when I was first learning the game.

The rest of the rulebook was well written and clear. Hopefully, this issue with the images has been fixed for later printings of the expansion. I would recommend checking with the online rules when first learning how to play this expansion.

Crowning Glory.

Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns is a difficult expansion for me to rate. It adds further setup and game time to an already lengthy game. Paladins of the West Kingdom was already a pretty heavy worker placement game to begin with and wasn’t lacking anything. You’d never want to teach first time players using the expansion. Despite these factors, I would never choose to play Paladins without the City of Crowns expansion again.

It enhances Paladins of the West Kingdom. It provides more choice, gives me more of what was so great about the original game, without making it feel like it’s moved away from its roots. Fans of Paladins of the West Kingdom, like myself, are catered for in spades. It is fully compatible with the solo mode too.

If Paladins of the West Kingdom is a game you love, I can recommend you picking up Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns without hesitation. You will not be disappointed.

However, if you like the original, but perhaps play it semi regularly as part of your general gameplay rotation, or you find yourself regularly having to teach the game to new players, then perhaps City of Crowns won’t give you such a great return on your investment. None of it ‘fixes’ anything wrong with the base game (because it is great already) and it is very much an enhancement expansion; an additional gameplay gem added to an already exquisite crown.

One could argue that Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns is an example of how expansions should be; it plays up the strengths of the base game and is there for players who feel they want a bit more. If that is you, City of Crowns has you covered and then some.