Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 60 min
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time: 5-10 min

King’s Forge is a board game of rival blacksmiths competing to earn the king’s favor. But at its heart it is a dice game that combines luck and strategy.

King’s Forge Rules Description:

In order to win the king’s favor you need to craft a certain number of items depending on the number of players. There are always three items available to craft starting with the simpler items. You start the game with five black dice.

There are four different colors of dice and crafting an item requires specific numbers be rolled on specific colored dice. For example the anvil only requires three black dice with twos or higher. But the Swift Sword requires two red fours or better and two black fives or better.

The rounds are split into two phases, the gather phase and the crafting phase. During the gather phase you choose gather cards that get you more dice for future rounds or ones that let you alter the dice during the next crafting phase. Some gather cards force you to return dice to the supply, others just use dice for the round and some are free. You can also go to the docks to gain dice but it is costly and your dice are always returned to the supply.

In the crafting phase you take any dice you did not use on gather cards and roll to try and craft an item on display. It is at this time you may use dice manipulating gather cards. You may craft more than one item on your turn if you have all the necessary dice. But you don’t claim an item until the end of the round. That is because players after you can try to steal an item you have crafted. In order to steal an item they must be able to assign dice to it that equal yours and at least one that has a higher value.

After one player has crafted the specific number of items need to win the round ends and the game is over. If more than one player completes the required number of items, the player with the highest ranking item wins.

A Quick Review of King’s Forge:

King’s Forge is a fun dice game in which you build a pool of dice to try and craft items. It has a nice mix of strategy and luck.

The components for this game are really nice. The art looks great and just having a ton of dice is cool. The board is not necessary but looks good. The rules are easy to follow and well written too.

I like how you are building a pool of dice. You can see the items that you need to craft and can build towards adding the appropriate dice to your pool.

Being able to steal items crafted in the current round adds a nice touch of interactivity. It also keeps the first player from having too much of an advantage.

There is a good bit of luck in just chucking the dice and hoping you can craft something. But many of the gather cards and a few of the dock actions let you manipulate the dice. This keeps crafting from being a total luck fest and forces you to make decisions about what gather cards will be best for your current situation.

King’s Forge is not hard to learn but early mistakes can be hard to recover from. So new players should be aware that early moves matter. And experienced players should help newbies make good decisions when learning.

I really enjoy King’s Forge and the way it handles mitigating luck and building your pool of dice. It plays well with all player counts and does not overstay its welcome. If it sounds like a game you’d enjoy, pick it up or at least try it out.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6