King's Crown Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Objective
• Gameplay
  • 1. First stage: Token Draft
  • 2. Second stage: Crown Placement
    • Crown placement rules
• Game End

Components

• Game Board x 1
• Rulebook x 1
• Screen x 2
• Bag x 1
• Token x 48 (2 colors, numbered 1-24; front and back)
• Crown x 24 (2 colors, 12 each)

Setup

1. Sit across each other and place the Game Board in the middle.
2. Decide who plays which color, then take the according Crowns and Screen.
3. Put all Tokens into the Bag and mix well.
4. Each player secretly takes 2 Tokens out of the bag. Place these Tokens behind your Screen.
5. Choose a starting player and begin.

Objective

You win either if you can get a Bingo or when your opponent cannot play any more Crowns. A Bingo is made as follows:

A Bingo is an unbroken horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of either 4 Crowns with the central field in the middle, or 5 Crowns.

Example of a Bingo: three example boards are shown in the rulebook illustrating Bingo lines of 4 Crowns around the central field and of 5 Crowns.

Gameplay

The game is divided into two stages: in the first stage, players draft the Tokens, and in the second stage, players place their Crowns on the Game Board.

1. First stage: Token Draft

The first player starts. During a turn, players Reveal → Acquire → Conceal. The players take alternating turns.

1. Reveal: Reveal 2 Tokens. There are two ways to reveal:

   • ① Take a random Token out of the Bag and place it face up on the table.
   • ② Take a Token that is lying face-down on the table and turn it face up.

   You can use one way to reveal 2 Tokens, or you can use both ways to reveal 1 Token each. Place the revealed Tokens in a row in front of your Screen.

2. Acquisition: Take 1 Token. You can take any of the Tokens on the table, regardless of whether they are revealed or not. You can also take a random one out of the bag. Acquired Tokens are placed behind your Screen, so only you can see them.

3. Conceal: Turn all Tokens on the table face-down. You may not change their position.

Token Draft is repeated until both players each have 12 Tokens. If both players have 12 Tokens, Token Draft ends and Crown Placement begins.

Example of Token Draft:

① Jame takes 2 Tokens out of the Bag and reveals them. None of the 2 Tokens are what he was looking for, so he takes a random Token out of the Bag and puts it behind his Screen. To end his turn, he conceals the 2 Tokens that he revealed at the beginning.

② Maria reveals 1 Token that she takes out of the Bag, as well as one of the Tokens that lie in front of James' Screen. She takes the Token with the number 16 on it. She conceals the Token that she took from the bag.

2. Second stage: Crown Placement

The first player starts. First, you put the Token you want to play into one of your Crowns. Then you place it according to the Crown placement rules on the Game Board and end your turn.

From here on, both players place their Crowns in alternating turns until the end of the game.

Crown placement rules

1. You can place any Crown in fields that do not have a neighboring Crown. Fields diagonal to each other are not considered to be neighboring fields. However, no Crown can be placed in the center field of the Game Board.

   Placing a Crown in the center field of the Game Board is not allowed. The center field always stays empty. Instead, the center field is considered to already have a Crown of both players on it. The player also wins if they complete one horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line with their Crowns including this center field.

   Example: as depicted in the rulebook, you can win by making a Bingo including the center field.

2. Placing a Crown on an empty field that neighbors a field with a Crown is only possible if the following conditions are met:

   • the Token of the neighboring Crown is the same color as the Crown's Token you want to play, but one number higher or lower,
   • the Token of the neighboring Crown has the same number as the Crown's Token you want to play, but a different color.

   Example: in the red colored fields, you can put Crowns with the Token number 12 or 14 in yellow (it has the same color as the 13 and is a lower or higher number), or the Token number 13 in white (it has a different color but the same number). In all other fields, you can put a Crown with any Token.

   Placement example:

   • ① During the first turn, as any Crown can be placed anywhere, the yellow 12 is placed.
   • ② Either a Crown of the same color with one number higher or lower, or a different color with the same number can be placed in the neighboring field of an already placed Crown. The yellow 11 is placed as a neighbor to the yellow 12.
   • ③ As any Crown can be placed in a field that does not have any neighboring Crowns, the white 21 is placed.
   • ④ Fields diagonal to a Crown are not considered to be neighboring fields. Therefore, open to any Token, the yellow 8 is placed.
   • ⑤ If there is a field neighboring several Crowns, you only need to meet the conditions of one of the Crowns. Therefore, you can place the white 8 as a neighbor to yellow 8.

Game End

If one of the following conditions is met, the game ends. The winner is decided by the ending condition.

1. The game ends immediately if one player scores a Bingo. The player who scored this Bingo is the winner.

2. The game ends immediately if one of the players cannot place a Crown anymore. The player who puts down the last Crown of the game is the winner. It doesn't matter whether this occurs because the player(s) have already placed all of their Crowns or because there are no viable fields for their Crowns anymore. If both players placed all their Crowns, the non-starting player wins, since the starting player cannot place a Crown anymore.

Example: you can place a Crown in the purple field if the Token meets the conditions of the yellow 13 or of the white 1. So, you can place either the yellow 12, yellow 14, or white 13 as a neighbor to the yellow 13, or you can place the white 2 or yellow 1 as a neighbor to the white 1.