Dragomino Is a Kid-Friendly Version of Kingdomino, With a Twist

Dragomino is the newest entry in the Kingdomino line of games. Designed to be played with a younger audience, it still brings something new to the table.

Published by Blue Orange Games, players are dragons searching for dragon eggs by laying down terrain tile dominos and trying to make matches.

Gameplay

Each player takes a starting domino tile and places it front of themselves. The rest of the domino tiles are shuffled and placed in the box. Four are then drawn and placed in the center of the table. Each half of a domino shows a terrain type. There are six different types of terrain in the game. There are also six different types of egg tokens, each associated with a different type of terrain. There are a different number of eggs of each type, but for each type seven of them show dragons and the remaining ones are eggshells. At the start of the game you place all the eggs facedown and shuffle them so you don’t know which ones have dragons and which are just eggshells.

The player with the mother dragon meeple takes the first turn each round and play continues in clockwise order. On your turn, you start by selecting one of the dominos in the center of the table, and adding it to those in front of yourself. When adding a domino, at least one of its two terrain halves must be placed adjacent to at least one terrain half of a domino already present.

When you have two matching terrains adjacent to each other, you take an egg token that matches that terrain type and flip it face-up, placing it on the two connecting domino halves. If it is a dragon, it will be worth one point at the end of the game. An eggshell is worth zero points, but it does allow you to take the mother dragon meeple. If someone doesn’t take it on a subsequent turn, you will get to go first next round. Also, the player who has the mother dragon at the end of the game earns an extra point.

It is possible to draw multiple eggs on your turn if you manage to connect multiple matching terrain halves with your domino placement.

After each player has taken a turn, any dominos still in the center of the table are discarded and another four are drawn. The game continues until all the dominos in the box have been used, and the player with the most points win.

Review

There is a lot to appreciate about Dragomino. It takes several ideas from Kingdomino, and combines them with simpler tile placement and scoring rules, without being just a watered-down version of the original game. There are new mechanics here that keep the game interesting.

The egg scoring system is quite well designed. The fact that there are higher chances of getting an eggshell with different terrain types, adds an interesting element to the tile choice phase. The volcano terrain has better odds of getting you a dragon, but is also going to be more sought after. Maybe you can make multiple matches with a single desert tile, but your odds of drawing a dragon might still be low. These are fun and engaging choices that keep the game interesting.

There is also a watering hole variant which, when making matches with a tile that shows a watering hole, you draw two eggs, look at both and choose one, placing the other back face-down on the table. This adds an extra element of strategy, as you now have a little bit of information to work with on future turns.

The game is quite short (fifteen minutes) which balances well with the luck of the draw involved with the eggs. Maybe you just had rotten luck and kept drawing eggshells? The game will soon be over and you can try again.

For younger children, it might be a little confusing to have the start player token move around several times during a round, making it harder to keep track of who has already moved and when the round will end. But this is a minor point, and you could grab a second object easily to help track this information if you really needed to.

Aesthetically, the game is top notch. The tiles are thick, sturdy, and glossy. The artwork, though, is where the game truly shines, with unique and adorable pictures for each dragon.

Dragomino is definitely a children’s game that adults are unlikely to play without their kids, but it’s a kid’s game that grown-ups can still have a fun time with and children can also play on their own. It’s a clever combination of Kingdomino and something just a little bit new.

Pros: Component quality, egg mechanics, game time

Cons: Not a game adults are likely to play on their own

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.