Kingdomino Origins Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Kingdomino: Origins, a tile laying game published by Blue Orange Games. In Kingdomino: Origins, players have three different ways to play the game, all based on the mechanics from the original game.

Kingdomino, from Bruno Cathala, has experienced continued interest since its introduction in 2016. It feels like it’s grown into a property like Azul, in that it takes concepts people loved about the original and grows them into new but familiar games.

Kingdomino has gone through a few changes since its inception, and this is the next step. Kingdomino Origins takes us out of the Kingdom and into the Cretaceous with this new experience from Blue Orange Games. There’s an ongoing debate online amongst people who have opinions that this will replace the OG. What do you think?

Kingdomino Origins presents players with three different ways to experience the game that adds versatility and complexity, depending on what sort of game is desired. While each of these options presents something different, what remains familiar from its Kingdomino roots is the process of selecting tiles and matching those lands with others in your Kingdom to gain the most points.

Discovery ModeThis mode brings you into the prehistoric setting and introduces volcanoes and fire to the game. Fire functions the same as crowns did for Kingdomino. Fire occasionally is printed on lands, but volcanoes produce them too. Depending on their size, volcanoes will produce fires that must be placed several tiles away from the volcano. Scoring in this mode is the most like the original Kingdomino.

Totem ModeThis mode keeps the volcanoes you just learned about but adds in resources. Four lands produce a certain type of resource. When the dominoes first come out,