Quick review of Kingsburg - To Forge a Realm
Last night our gaming group (4 players) played 2 games of Kingsburg - To Forge a Realm. We are all veterans when it comes to playing Kinsburg, so we were all looking forward to trying out the new expansion. Following are my thoughts on each module contained in the expansion.
Module A - 2 extra rows of buildings
The new player mats contain 2 new rows of buildings in addition to the original 5 rows. Both rows are interesting, with the 'Sawmill' row having a fairly obvious engine (trading wood and stone for gold, then trading gold for soldiers and VPs). The 'Improvised Defenses' row was more battle oriented and to be honest, I didn't try using that row at all last night, so I can't say too much about it right now. The only thing I can say is that the benefits of that row weren't as obvious or as valuable to me, hence the reason why I didn't bother with that row.
Overall, I like the fact that there are 2 more rows of buildings to choose from, simply because it adds a bit more variety.
Module B - alternate rows of buildings
In addition to new, expanded player mats, there are also alternate rows of buildings which can be used to replace the rows printed on the mats. There are 7 alternate rows of buildings (2 copies of each), and each one replaces one specific row printed on the player mat. Players randomly select 2 alternate rows at the start of the game and then decide how many (none, 1, or both) to use. This is done on a player-by-player basis meaning one player might use both alternate rows they drew, while another player might use none. The rows are lettered A-G on the player mats and the alternate rows, so you know exactly which row the alternate row replaces.
As for the rows themselves, they are nice! A couple of them, such as the 'Brewery' row, can be very powerful and at first glance, I don't think any of them are weak. The thing I like about this module is again, the variety it adds to the game. Instead of having the exact same mat as all other players, every game, each time you play your mat will look a little different (unless you always choose to use none of course). This means that you can't always play the exact same strategy every time you play (again unless you never use alternate rows), and equally important, each player can't play the same strategy, so the game is pretty much guaranteed to be diverse.
Module C - Governor cards
At the start of the game, each player gets 3 Governor cards dealt face-down to them, from which each player selects 1 to keep and discards the other 2. Once all players have selected their Governor, all are revealed and the game begins. Once again, the beauty of using the Governor cards is that it creates more diversity in the game (notice a trend?). Since each player's Governor is different and the effects they have are unique, every players playing experience in the game is going to be just a bit different than their opponents'. And again, because you only have 3 to choose from, it's unlikely that you'll be able to tailor a strategy to play every game.
I really like the Governor cards. The benefits of some of the Governors are more obvious than others, and a couple of them seem somewhat weaker (ie. the Duke and the Thief), however I think that it might depend on the number of players playing the game, whether or not a particular character is more or less useful. The Duke for instance gets better when there's only 3 players because his power becomes more likely to be useful. However I can't see choosing the Duke in a 4 or 5 player game, unless my other 2 options are not very good either. Overall though, most of the Governor cards have useful abilities which add to the game nicely.
Module D - Event cards
I actually think that they are referred to as Destiny cards in the game, but I don't have the instructions in front of me to verify that right now. Anyways, if you play with this module, then at the start of each of the 5 years, you draw an event card from the deck. The effects of the event are in place for the entire year and all events can be categorized as being either positive for all players, negative for all players, or neutral. However, I would argue that the events that seem neutral, such as 'New Forest', where all players are benefited equally, are more or less beneficial to each player depending on their individual situation at the time. For example, 'New Forest' which can give all players up to 3 wood in the year depending on the die rolls, seems like a total wash because all players receive the exact same reward. However receiving that wood might help one player more so than another at that particular moment in the game, so it's not totally even.
Again, like all of the other modules so far, the benefit to using the event cards is the introduction of more diversity to the game....more chaos. Because the effects of the events are felt by all players, they don't create as much variety in the game itself between the players, as they do from game to game. As I mentioned, certain events might tip the balance for or against a player depending on the timing of the event, but to me, the real attraction to using the events is in the diversity of gameplay from game to game. Sort of like the Occupation and Minor Improvement cards in Agricola, which add a random element to each game to shake things up a bit, so too do the events in this module. The most obvious example of this is the 'King is Sick' event (the exact name escapes me at the moment). If this event happens twice in the same game, the game immediately ends. Theoretically the game could be over at the start of year 2. This might seem dumb to some people, but think about how seeing this event in year 1 might alter your strategy - do you stick to a full-game strategy, or do you start off by building some of those less-useful-but-more-valuable buildings just in case the game ends early? Interesting.
Module E - Soldier tokens
If you use this module, you no longer roll a die during winter to see what the king sends for reinforcements. Instead, each player has 6 tokens numbered 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4 to select from to add their own personal reinforcements. This module, unlike the events, actually takes away a random element and personally I appreciate this. I always felt that the random die roll for reinforcements was too unpredictable, and because of this, my experience in playing this game countless times was that most people stuck to the "safe" strategy of building up their combat, which meant that most games looked and played out the same. Now, because each player can choose the number of reinforcements they want each year, it opens up other possibilities which before might have been too risky to try.
Now for those of you who don't know, you can only use 1 token each year and once used, it's gone for the rest of the game. You can't re-use the same token. Also, at the end of the game, you receive VPs equal to the value of your last, unused token, which leads most people to keep the "4" token in order to score the most points. Some people would immediately say that this just reintroduces a 'scripted' sort of feel to the game again, where all players are following the same path, however my feeling on it is that even though it does seem to make the most sense to keep your "4" token in order to score max points, it might be possible to more than make up for those points by focusing your attention on other, more valuable buildings instead of worrying about your combat at a particular time in the game. It's definitely one of the aspects that I plan on exploring further in future games.
Overall, I feel that this expansion is definitely worth picking up. To me it has breathed some new life into a game that I enjoyed before, but felt was getting stale because every game was playing out pretty much the same as the one before. It has introduced enough variability to the game to shake it up, but not so much that it has fundamentally changed the game into something radically different. It still feels like Kingsburg, just with some new options available to you.
A couple last notes that I haven't mentioned yet:
1. You can mix and match the 5 modules, using only the ones you want, so if you really don't like the Event cards and what they do to the game, don't use them. This is just one more positive element to this expansion - it doesn't force you to change the game in every way, but rather gives you control on what you use and what you don't. And again, this fact adds variety to the game from one play to another because you can change which modules to use each time.
2. There are alternate methods for selecting the alternate rows and Governor cards, involving bidding processes and the like, so if you aren't a fan of random selection, there are official methods to do so otherwise.
This expansion is all about adding variety and variability to the game and in my opinion, every aspect of it has done so, and done it well.
Review by Mister Phreeze (Magnusun)
Source: boardgamegeek.com
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