A complete game comes with a forty six piece puzzle, forty five character
stands, forty five characters, one felt template, two six-sided dice, one
eight-sided die and rules. My set contained an extra puzzle piece. The
air was filled with laughter as we struggled with the task before us, but the
fun came to a complete stop once we had put the game together and started to
play. The forty six piece puzzle forms a crowned two-headed eagle clutching
an orb and sceptre. Forty five of the pieces have a die roll on them. A
medieval character is placed on each of these pieces.
Each character has a point value from zero to ten. Certain characters give
the players extra options when the opportunities present themselves (That is,
when you roll a lucky number). Jesters are zeroes but you trade them for any
other character on the puzzle. Vendors and merchants are threes and fours,
respectively, and they can force a player to trade with you. The knights are
sixes and they allow you to challenge players to a duel.
A player's turn begins with the player rolling 2d6. If the player rolls one
of the combinations on any of the available puzzle pieces, the character
captures the character on the piece, discards the piece and passes the dice to
the next player. There is a hierarchy of pieces and certain pieces cannot
be discarded until those of lower rank have been taken. If the player fails
to take a piece, the player may try rolling the dice again or, instead, roll
the ``Enchanted Die'', a transparent d8, ad consult the chance table. This
may give the player a free available puzzle piece, force the player to forfeit
a character, take a character, trade characters with another player or
challenge another player in a duel.
Play continues with dice rolling and players taking the occasional calculated
risk until all puzzle pieces are gone except the shield. During the course
of play, players will be forced to surrender characters to the shield. The
first player to roll the exact number of characters on the shield using 2d6
collects those characters. The players' collections are totalled with a
bonus going to the players who managed to collect one of each of the
characters valued one through ten. The player with the most points wins.
The game is not recommended.
There is no skill, no excitement, no atmosphere, no crucial decisions to
make and no theme to relate to. It is, however, interesting looking and
will no doubt be a conversation piece. The conversation should go something
like this: ``What's Eagle Kingdoms?'' ``Oh, a game that I played once
but will never play again.''
Alfonzo Smith