Kingdom Crossing

• Designers: Marco Canetta and Stefania Niccolini
• Publisher: Pandasaurus / Sorry We Are French
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 45-90 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3RzmP0W
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In a faraway land in the midst of a verdant forest crossed by the Crystal River lies the small kingdom of Brightspring, ruled by the wise Queen Beavery, who is facing a problem: Her four regions are separated by seven bridges, and to divide her time evenly between the subjects of these regions, the kingdom would need an eighth bridge…

Help the Queen build a new bridge! Scour the kingdom, recruit the best artisans, gather construction resources, and create magnificent decorations. Note, however, that you can never use the same bridge more than once in the same day.

Kingdom Crossing is inspired by the problem of the “Seven Bridges of Königsberg”, and gameplay combines engine-building and programming mechanisms, with a solo mode that features an Automa and four difficulty levels.

To set up the game, place the board on the table.  Shuffle each of the ten decks of cards, place one each on a random deck spot on the board and then flip up the top card.  Shuffle the four piles of bird tokens and place a stack on each of the 4 bird spaces. On the tree on the left, place 4 Queen cards, 6 bridge goal cards, and the Favor tiles.

Each player takes a player board, a set of 6 action tiles, and all the other bits.  Resource markers are placed as the start of each corresponding track. Paw markers, houses and Bridge goal markers are stored near the top of the board.  Colored markers are placed on the main board for the score track and the investment track.

Finally, the players draft, in reverse turn order, a set of starting card/Favor of the Queen tile.  This gives players their starting income and actions and also determines where the player starts on the board.  The guild banner on the starting card is tucked under the top of the player board in the matching guild area.  The player also gets a home card which is tucked underneath the bottom of their board. The first player also placed the balloon in the area where he starts the game.

The game is played over four rounds, each with three phases.

In the morning phase, you first take income. There are two different sources.  First, at the top of your board, you collect income from each pair of cards in a guild; each guild has a unique payout.  Second, you take income from all your structures – these are the cards tucked under the bottom of your board.  Then, discard any birds still on cards to the box and place new bird tokens on each card in the region.  The birds are placed face up so you can see the bonus that they offer.  Finally, draw a new Queen card for the top of the tree, discarding the old one if still there.

In the noon phase, players will use one of their action tiles, going clockwise around the board until each has used four tiles – moving the tile from the left of the player board to the right to show that it has been used.  When you use a tile, you can choose to Rest with it, moving it to the right side of your board and gaining coins as shown in the upper right corner.  You can also choose to Work with the tile, moving your worker across the specified number of bridges (you leave a pawprint on each bridge you traverse so that you cannot repeat a bridge this round).  As you place your 6th and 7th pawprint of the round, you will trigger scoring bonuses.  

If you Work, you also have the option of hiring the Balloon – it costs 3 coins if the Balloon is in your region, and 10 coins if not.  You can use it either before or after placing your paw markers, but not in the middle.  As you probably know from the original 7 Bridges of Königsberg puzzle, it is impossible to cross all 7 bridges without teleporting once.

After moving, you must be able to purchase a card in the region you end movement in.  If there is a bird on the card, resolve its bonus and then place it near your board.  If you buy a Character card, pay the cost, resolve the effect and then place it in the appropriate Guild column at the top of your board.  When you make a set of Guild Cards (one of each color), place one of your Houses in a region on the board that does not already have one.  If it is a structure, pay for it, resolve the effect and then tuck it under the bottom of your board. 

One of the cards allows you to visit the Queen – if you work with this card, you do not move but instead take the Queen Card for the round as well as the start player token.  Only one player can visit the Queen each round. 

At the end of the turn, check to see if you meet the criteria for any of the Bridge goals – and if so, place a marker on the leftmost available space and immediately score the VP.  If you fulfill both goals in a row, gain a Favor of the Queen tile, taking either one of the face-up tiles or mystery meat.  These tiles each give you an end-game bonus VP criteria.  (Note you can also gain Favor of the Queen tiles by collecting 10 of a resource type, by placing both of your extra houses, or by activating a specific character card).

In the evening phase, any player who is in a region with one of their Houses gets to collect either one Guild income or one Structure income.  Players then return their work tiles back to the left side of the board, take back their paw prints, and claim any bridge goals that they have now achieved.  This phase is done in turn order to determine the timing for placement on goal bonus spaces.

At the end of the fourth round, the game ends.  Players convert 5 gold into a step on the investment track, and then things are scored to add to their points scored during the game:

• Investment Track – score VP based on final position of marker
• Guilds – for the leftmost 4 guilds, score the product of the number of cards in the guild multiplied by the number of stars crossed on the matching resource track by the marker (the stars are placed on the tracks via the decoration tiles that you acquire during the game)
• Structures – find the weakest resource marker and find the VP value in its region; each Structure card is worth that number of VPs
• Favors of the Queen – score each tile based on its specific criteria

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the most gold left over.

My thoughts on the game

Kingdom Crossing was almost the game that got away from Spiel 2025.  I saw it briefly on my first pass through the halls, and then ran out of baggage space by the time I made it back on Saturday. The game had lots of positive comments about it from my colleagues, so it had always been on my list to check out after the show.  I was really glad to hear that Pandasaurus had selected this one to publish in English, and we got the game to the table soon after it arrived here.

The game uses the same topological map from the Seven Bridges of Königsberg puzzle – essentially, it’s impossible to cross all 7 bridges on this map in a single unbroken path.  This leads to one of the big decisions each round – how you are going to move about the map.  You are incentivized to use 6 or 7 bridges each round with nice bonus point rewards.  You have to plot a careful path to use 6, and you’ll need to use the balloon to make it to the 7th.

Besides the bonus for using most or all of the bridges, you will also have to make sure that you don’t paint yourself into a corner. It is quite possible that you move yourself onto an island and not have any way to get off of it because all the bridges are already marked with your paw print!  Your location is quite important, because you can only interact with cards from whichever location you end your turn on.

Thus, there is a super interesting puzzle each round of how you’re going to move about the four islands as well as where you’re going to try to buy cards.  Of course, the supply of cards constantly changes as the other players in the game will also be buying some on their turns.  The bird bonus tokens are also fairly powerful, and they can, at times, be enough incentive to buy a particular card if only to get the bonus token.

Another layer to the puzzle is that you have a fixed set of action cards to use each turn.  Yes, they can be upgraded, but the number of steps you take which each card does not change with the upgrade.  As you must be able to take the exact number of steps on your chosen action tile, you will also have to manage this aspect as well.

There are plenty of ways to gather points in the game, but my experience has shown that most of them come in the end-game.  Focusing on one or two card suits can pay off greatly if you can move the corresponding resource marker down the track.  The Favors of the Queen can also give you lots of points.   Everyone starts the game with one, and there are ways to earn more by  completing pairs of bridge goals, collecting 10 of a resource type, by placing both of your extra houses, or by activating a specific character card.

There is no direct interaction in the game – once you own a card or gather a resource, there is nothing that your opponents can do to affect it.  Instead, there is plenty of indirect interaction, with a race for buying particular cards and scoring varying points for the bridge goals.  Additionally, once a turn, the turn order can be set for the next round via a Visit to the Queen.

The result of these multiple layers is a nice tight game where every action matters.  You only get sixteen actions in the game, so you need to make them all count.  While you might need to pass on one to get coins (to allow you to do everything else), the high opportunity cost pushes you to figure out how to make money in other ways.  Additionally, if you are able to come up with ways to upgrade your action tiles, each of your future actions will be stronger.  I have yet to see anyone win the game without upgrading most or all of their tiles.

Had this come home with me from Spiel, it would have surely been listed as one of my hits from the show.  As it stands, my new copy is high in the running for hit of the Summer.   It looks like it would be a nice family level game based on the art, but there is a truly satisfying strategy game here disguised by the cute art.  After all, this design team also did Zhuanguo, so you know they have proven design chops for complex games!

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y, John P, Justin B
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3RzmP0W