Watch Out for Wayward Wizards (Playthrough of Kingdomino)

King Leopold knew that he could not rule the land forever. It was time to prepare his son, Prince Leopoldo (apparently they were running out of royal names), to take over the throne in a few short years. For reasons unknown to him, his son had grown up spoiled, entitled, and lazy. The king needed some sort of test to see if his son could live up to the task of leading the people and helping the kingdom to flourish. 

After several weeks of thinking and planning, the king called his son into his see him in the throne room. As the prince stood up from his respectful bow, the king laid out the plan before him. Leopoldo would be given a large chunk of land and twelve years to prepare and grow it. If the king was satisfied with the growth of this new kingdom, his son would be given rule over all the king's holdings. The prince bowed quickly and practically raced out of the room to begin his preparations for gaining the kingship.

YEAR ONE

"Things are already going poorly. I knew that the people would need wheat for baking and feeding the animals we would later raise, but we found a surprise when plowing one of our new fields. Turns out there was a sinking swamp just below the surface. Thanks for this little piece of paradise, Pops." - Leo

YEAR TWO

"Things are looking up. We've created a nice little logging centre in the forest beside the castle and were able to prepare a new field bordering it. Not sure what we're going to do with that swamp yet. Maybe we can convince an ogre to come and live there and protect our people? I'll look into it." - Leo

YEAR THREE

"The villagers my father sent with me seem to be very adept at plowing fields and cutting down trees. We haven't spent any time or effort on livestock yet, but we've been able to grow or hunt enough food thus far. My father even allowed us to move trees from his sprawling royal forest to bolster our fledgling one. That was a lot of hard work moving those mature trees here. Not for me, of course, but someone had a tough time of it." - Leo

YEAR FOUR

"In all of the best known myths and legends, finding a mysterious cave yields wonderful treasures and terrifying beasts. While preparing yet another wheat field (how are these people not sick of what? I'M sick of the stuff and I get most of my food secretly imported from my father's kitchens), the workers came across a hidden, underground cavern. When my soldiers went to explore it, what did they find? Nothing. No monsters, no treasure, but so many rocks. Maybe we can use them to fill in the swamp?" - Leo

YEAR FIVE

"No, I seriously don't know what caused the flood. All I know is that I had some masons working on adding an Olympic size swimming pool to the castle and all of a sudden, the northwest corner of the kingdom is flooded. This year we put in a small pond so the farmers could use it for irrigation and the rest of the peasants could use it for washing (lots and lots of washing). My attendants and I will only reserve it every weekday from sun up to sun down for our own personal use." - Leo

YEAR SIX

"More trees and more wheat. If nothing else, these people are consistent. I think it would be really important to add some variety to the kingdom, but, in all honestly, the forests and fields we have are producing quite the bounty. I've been meeting with neighbouring kingdoms to discuss trades and there is definitely some promise there. We just might make this kingdom great! Especially if we do the trade bargaining in my private swimming pond..." - Leo

YEAR SEVEN

"The Yellow Streak. That's what some of the other kingdoms have begun calling us. Not the most impressive nickname I've had, but, honestly, not the worst either. They don't say that to my face, however, when they come from miles around to barter, bargain for, and purchase our magnificence crops. I've even reduced my private swim times to only four days a week so the farmers have more access to water. How generous am I? Ol' Leopold would be so impressed." - Leo

YEAR EIGHT

 "Apparently terrifying ogres aren't the only ones looking for a swamp to live in. Sometimes wayward wizards need a place to perform their experiments and test out their magic. A particularly powerful (and wealthy) one approached me asking if he could rent out our swamp. He needed to expand it a little bit, but promised that he'd pay handsomely and we'd rarely have any peasants go missing, never to be heard from again." - Leo

YEAR NINE

"The Yellow Streak continues to grow. Gross. I'm trying to do some campaigning to get the nickname changed to The Golden Swath. My head architects and artists are working are some giant billboards to advertise the new brand. I'm hoping we can draw more tourists this way." - Leo

YEAR TEN

"Did you know that there are types of magic that can grow an entire forest in 24 hours? Having a wizard living so close to the kingdom is turning out to have its benefits! Yes, we did warn me that the trees could possibly grow legs and move elsewhere, but I hope that if we continue to water them regularly, they'll like it here just fine." - Leo

YEAR ELEVEN

"I'm not sure if the wizard has a twin brother that has joined him in the swamp (and further expanded it) or if it was a cloning spell gone horribly wrong. The bottom line is - twice the wizards equals twice the taxes. We used the income to develop a teeny, tiny plot of land to farm livestock. I think we're either going with miniature sheep or giant gophers. You can make socks and stuff out of their fur, right?" - Leo

YEAR TWELVE

"Some people may blame me for the new swampland next to the castle. I say it's just as likely that the wacky wizards are responsible, due to one of their incantations gone wrong. There is absolutely no proof that the newly constructed, half-Olympic size swimming pool in the castle basement is leaking. You couldn't find a single person, dead or alive, who would confirm that suspicion. It's been twelve long years out here and I think I've grown quite a lot and am ready to take on the mangle of kingship." - Leo

When Prince Leopoldo returned to his father's homeland, he discovered that King Leopold had sold off everything of value from his kingdom three year earlier and had retire to Florida. The people had either moved away or been devoured by wandering monsters. Leopoldo returned to his new homeland and had any mention of these previous lands stricken from the history books.

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Kingdomino is by far my most played game. It's my wife's favourite and just so easy to pick up and play with old and new gamers alike. I recently stumbled across a solo variant called the Crown of Thorns. Thanks to BGG user jungle_boy for developing these He has a second variant called Dwindling Choices which I have not tried yet. Basically, depending on which tile you choose, you are limited in what you can choose on the subsequent rounds (for example if you choose the fourth and highest numbered tile, then you HAVE to take the first and lowest numbered tile on the next round). I've only played two games of this, my first a "learning experience." This second game I had a bit of a better strategy and ended up with a respectable score of 52. It took longer to write this playthrough than it did to play the game - which only lasted about 5 minutes. Probably won't make my top 20 solo list, but it's a nice and quick way to scratch that Kingdomino itch.