A coveted seat on King Tritus’ Royal Council has become available and you — a loyal servant of the realm — are the perfect person to take it over. Just think of all the power and prestige such a position would bring! But what’s this? Other would-be royal councilors are also competing for the king's favor? It would appear the only way to take your rightful seat on the Council will be to build the best province you possibly can. It’s a good thing that the king’s advisors are easily influenced…

Z-Man Games is pleased to announce the upcoming release of a new edition of Kingsburg, a game of city building and courtly intrigue for two to five players!

In every game of Kingsburg, you are free to construct your province as you see fit and this definitive edition offers more choices than ever before. Containing the base game, all five modules from the To Forge a Realm expansion, and the brand-new Alternate Advisor Rewards module, you will have more options than ever before!

Whatever decisions you make, the core gameplay that drew so many people to Kingsburg when it was first released in 2007 remains the same. You must outmaneuver your rival governors, exerting your influence over the king’s advisors to gain favors and the resources. After five years, the governor who has built the most prosperous province will take their rightful place on the Royal Council. Use all your wiles to prove your worth and earn the favor of the King!

On the Border

Even in your lofty position as governor, life in the border provinces isn’t easy. With nary a town hall for you to govern from or a statue to your greatness in sight, you'll have your work cut out for you. On top of these inconveniences, an enemy army always seems to invade at the end of each year. With goblins attempting to burn down your settlements and the threat of dragons destroying a whole season’s worth of victory points, you’ll need to find ways to protect your settlement.  

Thankfully, you aren’t entirely alone. Back in the capital, the king and his seventeen advisors are willing to aid you with resources, military intelligence, soldiers, or political clout. But these advisors are also a petty bunch and they’ll only offer their help to one provincial governor per season. You must decide which advisors to appeal to, accepting what resources you can acquire and shrewdly spending them to make the improvements that will set your province apart.

To influence these advisors, you must make use of Kingsburg’s innovative dice system. Each season, each player rolls their dice, then places them on as many as three different advisors numbered one to eighteen. Advisors of higher ranks offer increasingly appealing resources, but each advisor can only be used once. If you play cleverly enough, you can cut off your opponents and leave them holding useless dice.

This system creates encourages player interaction while adding a layer of strategy to the dice rolls. The game encourages you to apply your dice rolls in ways that simultaneously benefit yourself and vex your opponents, giving you the freedom to choose the direction your province takes. Whoever can navigate their way through the crowd of spiteful and self-serving nobles while expanding their province the most efficiently will earn their spot in the King’s inner circle.

Architectural Considerations

Once you’ve dealt with the nobles and gained your resources, the true work of building your province begins. The decision of which buildings to construct is one of managing risk. You could build cautiously, concentrating on sturdy and functional structures that serve a pragmatic purpose, or you can build a city of ornate cathedrals and towering structures that are difficult to defend but offer a high payout of victory points. The wise ruler will find some balance between these two, as they remain mindful of the threats that lurk just outside their nearby borders.

No matter what path you choose, some mixture of goblins, dragons, demons, and other threats will attack at the end of each year. While these invading forces could potentially steal some of your goods, destroy your buildings, or even rob you of victory points, they also present an opportunity for the governors who able to best prepare for their arrival. Claiming victory over an enemy grants you rewards that add an extra incentive to protecting your province.

Take Your Place

Life on the edge of the kingdom is tough. The back-breaking summers are followed by long winters, which in turn bring invasions by enemy armies. But your governorship here is a ladder that you can climb out of obscurity. If you can impress the King with your political agility, he may just reward you with a place at his side. Build your province and take what is yours in this definitive edition of Kingsburg!

Take over your province and plot your way to victory. Kingsburg is scheduled to be released in late 2017. Head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy today, or you can place your pre-order through Z-Man Games here.