Königsberg was a city in Prussia that straddled the Pregel River. Both banks of the Pregel, as well as two islands in the river, were connected by seven bridges in the 18th century. People wondered, was it possible to tour the city by crossing each bridge once, and only once?
In 1736, mathematician Leonhard Euler proved that, no, it was mathematically impossible, and in doing so, blazed the trail for the modern mathematics of graph theory and topology, both foundational sciences to a lot of things we now take for granted in the modern world.
If that’s all a wee bit highbrow for your game day, allow me to introduce you to Queen Beavery. She wishes to make a tour of her kingdom, crossing each of its seven bridges once, and only once, in order to not show undue favoritism to any one community in her kingdom. Having been educated at the finest of the animal world’s institutions of learning, she’s well aware of Leonhard Euler’s work. She can’t cross the seven bridges of her kingdom only once and do a full tour of the kingdom.
She must have an eighth bridge.
That’s where you, the players, come in. In the game Kingdom Crossing, you gather resources to build the Queen’s bridge, and work with the five guilds of the kingdom to make the process quicker and more efficient.
Every player has six action tiles. You can spend the action tiles to perform the actions on the tile, or you can “rest” and acquire the amount of coins on the tile.
Actions can include moving around the board. Like the Queen, you can only cross each of the seven bridges once, so you need to think strategically about where you want to move so you don’t end up trapped. However, if you are trapped, you have a clever way to escape the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem: a hot air balloon! Alas, flying on the balloon isn’t free; you’ll need to pay for the ride, and it’s more expensive if the balloon isn’t currently on the same bit of land as you are. The more bridges you cross in a round, the more victory points you earn.
You’ll also use coins to hire help from the five different guilds: Foxes, Owls, Bears, Wild Board, and Deer. Each guild gives you different benefits. Foxes are worth victory points, Deer help you acquire resources, Owls will help you invest your coin (so you can either liquidate your investments for a big influx of coin, or maintain your investments for more victory points at the end of the game), and Bears help you construct houses. The most potent guild may be the Wild Boars that allow you to improve your action tiles, allowing you to do more with each action you take. Build the most efficient team for acquiring victory points and you’ll win the game and the Queen’s contract to build the bridge.
Kingdom Crossing is a Eurogame wrapped in a friendly anthropomorphic animal theme. But, as cute as it looks, it is a Eurogame under the hood that combines worker placement with engine building. This means you’ll be using a limited number of workers in particular spots on the board combined with your action tiles to create a cascade of events every time you take an action that will net you lots of coin and bridge-building resources. Pandasaurus’ recommendation of ages 14+ is something you should consider before adding this game to your game-night lineup.
That said, this game has been a huge hit in Europe; Pandasaurus finally bringing Kingdom Crossing to the US is a big win for board gamers. It packs Eurogame crunch in a brisk 90-minute game, and includes solo modes with four levels of difficulty. Talk to the friendly animal lovers at your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® today about adding this cute and challenging board game to your collection.
