Game summary
đź‘Ą A game for 1 – 4 spelers
⏳ Play time is around 45 – 90 minutes
🏢 Publisher is Sorry we are French
Introduction
In the heart of a lush forest, divided by the sparkling Crystal River, lies the small kingdom of Brightspring. Queen Beavery faces a challenge: her four regions are separated by seven bridges, and to spend time with all her subjects, an eighth bridge is needed…
It’s up to you to help the Queen! Explore the kingdom, recruit skilled artisans, gather resources, and build magnificent bridges. But be careful – each bridge can only be crossed once per day!
Kingdom Crossing blends clever engine-building with strategic route planning, offering a rich solo experience with multiple difficulty levels, and endless possibilities for scoring in every game.
Let’s get it on the table
Place the main game board and the tree board in the center of the table so that all players can easily reach them. Together, these boards depict the kingdom with all its regions and bridges.
Sort the different cards by placing them together face down. This will create a deck consisting of 10 different types of cards. Shuffle these cards and then randomly place the 10 cards on the designated spaces on the game board, flipping the top card of each stack face up. Next, create stacks of the bird tokens and place them on the game board, one stack in each of the four regions.
Each player chooses a color and receives the corresponding components: a personal player board, six action tiles, all markers in that color, a home card, and four resource markers. Place the appropriate markers on your player board and position the home card in the lower left corner of your player board.
Any starting cards or personal objective cards are now distributed. These give players a unique focus or long term goal from the very beginning. Finally, determine the starting player. All players are now ready to begin the first day and plan their route through the kingdom.
Let’s Play
Kingdom Crossing is played over four rounds (days). Each round consists of three phases:
the morning,
the afternoon, and
the evening.
During these phases, players plan their route through the kingdom, recruit helpers, build up their engine, and work toward constructing the eighth bridge.
The core of the game revolves around movement without reusing bridges, clever action planning, and making optimal use of your action tiles.
Morning phase
Each round begins with the Morning Phase, during which the kingdom comes to life. First, players receive their income from two sources:
Guilds: For every two cards within the same guild, you activate a fixed benefit, such as points, resources, investments, or upgrading an action tile.
Structures: All built structures, including your starting building, activate their effects again.
Next, the birds arrive. In each region, one bird is placed on every card. These birds grant an immediate bonus to the player who selects that card later in the round. Players who claim cards early in the round therefore gain an extra advantage. When playing with two players, all bird tokens showing three or four bird symbols are removed from the game. As a result, not every card will always have a bird token.
Finally, the queen awakens. One Queen card is placed face up. Later in the round, exactly one player may claim this card to gain a bonus and the start player token.
Afternoon Phase
The Afternoon Phase is where the game truly comes to life. During this phase, players take turns playing four action tiles, one per turn. On each turn, you choose one action tile from the left side of your player board and decide whether to use it to rest or to work.
Rest: When you rest, you slide the chosen action tile to the right and immediately gain the coins shown on the tile. Your pawn does not move. Resting is important to accumulate enough money for later actions.
Work: When you work, you activate the chosen action tile and resolve the depicted action. This usually means moving your pawn across one or more bridges. It is important to note that each bridge may only be crossed once per round. Every time you use a bridge, you place a footprint marker on it as a reminder.
After your movement, the following steps always take place, in this fixed order:
Choose a card
You must choose a card from the region where you end your movement. This can be a character or a structure. If you cannot or do not wish to take a card, you should not have chosen this action.
Meet a bird
If there is a bird on the chosen card, you first gain the bird’s bonus and place the bird token next to your player board.
Buy and resolve the card
- Character: You pay the cost, resolve the effect, and place the card in the appropriate guild above your player board.
- Structure: You pay the cost, gain the immediate effect, and slide the card underneath your player board. The structure will then provide income every round.
Claim bridge objectives
If you meet the requirements for one or more bridge objectives, you may now claim them for immediate points.
Special action tiles
Some action tiles deviate from standard movement:
- Tiles that require you to cross two or three bridges
- Tiles that grant additional points, resources, or invest actions
- A special tile that allows you to visit the queen without moving
Action tiles can be upgraded later in the game to provide stronger effects.
Carefully planning which action tiles to use and when is crucial to success. The Afternoon Phase ends once each player has played four action tiles.
Evening phase
During the Evening Phase, you check where your pawn is located. If your pawn ends in a region where you have built a house, you may choose one additional income.
After that, you retrieve all your used action tiles, remove all footprint markers from the bridges, and prepare everything for the next round.
The game ends
After the fourth round, the game ends. Players may first convert their remaining coins into progress on the investment track. Then final scoring takes place, with points awarded for:
- Your position on the investment track
- Guild cards, multiplied by the stars passed on their corresponding resource tracks
- Structures, based on your least advanced resource
- Queen’s Favor tiles
- Victory points already earned during the game
The player with the most victory points wins the game and earns the honor of completing the construction of the kingdom’s final bridge.
Final Conclusion & rating
Weight: 2.93/ 5
Replayability:Â 8
Our rating:Â 7,5 out of 10 dices
This game looks fantastic, features beautiful components, and is a real pleasure to play. Kingdom Crossing is a great game for 1 to 4 players and works well both solo and with multiple players. We noticed that it hardly matters whether you play with two players or with more, as the experience remains strong in all player counts. One thing they did exceptionally well is the quality and use of the components, especially considering the price point of around €40.
The game has very high replayability. This is partly due to the variety of cards and action tiles, but also because your movement through the kingdom changes every game. You are not allowed to cross the same bridge twice, although you can make use of air balloons to adjust your route. Kingdom Crossing is very much a point salad game, offering many different ways to score. You are constantly trying to build up your engine, and once it starts running, the points begin to flow naturally.
For beginner players, the first few games may take a bit longer, but you will quickly notice how enjoyable the game really is. It is not necessarily a game you will put on the table every week, but one you enjoy bringing out from time to time, and that is perfectly fine.
Do not be intimidated by the rulebook. Everything is explained clearly, even if it may seem like a lot at first. The iconography is very clear and the game remains highly readable throughout. Player interaction is limited. Most interaction comes from taking cards another player might have wanted or claiming certain scoring tiles, but this usually happens more unintentionally than deliberately. You will mostly be focused on your own engine and point collection.
Overall, this is a game we have greatly enjoyed and one we are sure we will continue to enjoy in the future.
Thanks to Sorry we are French for this review copy and the possibility to write about it.
