Kings & Things


Published 1986 by West End Games (by way of Games Workshop). For 2-4 players, ages 12 and up. This is a pretty entertaining game, and definitely more towards the light-hearted end of the war gaming spectrum (electric penguins??). The materials are pretty cheap (typical punched-out cardboard stuff), but passable. The rules are nicely concise and easy to follow. Newbies will have to read through the entire rule booklet before getting started, but after one quick reading you're ready to roll. The goal is to conquer hexes on the game board with "rag-tag armies" and build forts on them (eventually leading to building a citadel, which wins you the game). The tricky part is that each hex represents a different type of terrain, and each monster type requires a certain terrain type for it to be "operable" (IE, if you don't control any swamps, all of your swampy-type creatres aren't worth much). The game itself goes pretty quickly (an hour or two, tops), especially if you don't beat up on your neighbors right away. The different special monster abilities make for some interesting combat. Overall, a very fun (and hard to find) game and almost worth the ridiculous prices it commands on eBay (generally upwards of $75, depending on condition). Supposedly this game has been picked up by another company and is in the pipeline for re-release. However, as of this writing it is very late and there is no known release date.


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