Renegade Game Studio RGS02033 Paladins of the West Kingdom, Mixed Colours

Product Information

One thing that some people may not enjoy is the low scoring nature of Paladins of the West Kingdom. It can feel like you have to do a lot to get a few points. Even if you manage to get all your garrison buildings out, you still only get nine points. This can seem like a minor reward for the many parts needed to get those seven garrison buildings out in the first place. Four more meeples are received based on drafting cards - there’s always one more card than the number of players so everyone gets at least some choice. Players then take turns assigning workers to take action on spaces on their board until they run out of resources or decide to pass, with the chance to save up to three workers for the next round. There’s a dizzying amount of options including gathering basic resources like silver and provisions, and more involved developments that require more resources and higher values as you focus on them. The game takes place over the course of seven turns and you’ll earn additional victory points for performing the same actions five to seven times. In the first few playthroughs, I found I had to fight an urge to do a little bit of everything.The problem with this approach is then you end up doing nothing well.In many euro games you are rewarded in a point salad style, with points for doing everything.Not so in Paladins.Here you have to get several buildings out, or actions completed to even get one point. In his great wisdom, the King has sent his finest knights to help aid in our efforts. So ready the horses and sharpen the swords. The Paladins are approaching.

I will accept, you do have to worry less about a space being available than in other worker placement games.Each player has their own board with action spaces on it.The King’s Favour cards do offer contestable spots.However, in the main, players will be making use of action spots on their own board. Instead, Paladins of the West Kingdom requires a focus. I tend to find that for most of the game I am focused on one column of actions alongside gathering resources. It is also important to make sure to develop. This reduces the cost of your actions from three workers down to one. This, in turn, means you can do more actions each turn. I am not saying you can only focus on two main actions throughout the whole of the game. You can focus on a broader range, but I have found this is the best way to score points. Points Scoring

Thoughts

For instance, paying four silver and two workers of any color allows you to use Develop to remove the leftmost workshop from your player board and place it onto one of the action spaces on your player board that are surrounded by dotted lines. This makes those actions cheaper in the future. Additionally, as the workshop is removed, a bonus worker is earned. In fact, all of the spaces that were covered by wooden pieces during setup will reveal some kind of bonus once the space is revealed. If you’ve ever played a game like Terra Mystica or Clans of Caledonia, this mechanic should feel familiar. Garphill Games is the publisher responsible for Works of Wonder and City of Crowns, alongside both the West Kingdom and North Sea trilogies. The game takes place across two main arenas: the central game board and each player’s personal player board.

The workers gained in each of the game’s seven rounds will be used to construct forts, spread faith, interact with outsiders, and wage war (among other things). As the player’s reach widens, so too do their ways of accumulating victory points, which is the ultimate goal. And, boy, are there a lot of ways to get them.This effect feels particularly prominent in Paladins of the West Kingdom, designed by Shem Phillips - creator of the Viking-themed North Sea trilogy (Shipwrights, Raiders, Explorers) to which the West Kingdom series (in which Paladins is the second chapter, after 2018's Architects) is a follow-up - and SJ Macdonald. The board game focuses on players assigning a limited number of meeples to enable increasingly effective actions on future turns. Gathering momentum is crucial, but Paladins has no mechanic to help players catch up when they’re behind, which is particularly galling since it can take hours to learn and play. If you can get over that frustration, the game’s potent mix of flavour and strategy makes for a deeply satisfying experience.