Designed by: Bruno Cathala,Marie Fort,Wilfried Fort
Dragomino is the little sister game of Kingdomino – like its predecessor, this is a domino-inspired game of matching tiles to score. But whereas Kingdomino has a level of complexity, Dragomino is super-simple – a great game for young kids.
The theme of Dragomino is that the players are exploring an island looking for dragon eggs. Each player begins with an identical starting tile showing the desert and snow terrains. Four tiles are laid out face-up on the table and players take turn choosing a tile (if you’re playing with less than four, leftover tiles are discarded)
When you take a tile, you add it to your existing tiles, representing your explored area growing larger. Tiles don’t have to match terrain type, but ideally you want them to: every time two squares of a tile match, you get to take an egg token and place it on them. Flip the egg token over: hopefully it’s a dragon (which counts as a point) but it might be an empty egg (no points, but you get to take the wooden mother dragon piece which means you pick first in the next round). When the supply of tiles is used up, everyone counts up their dragons and compares points to determine the winner (note: the mother dragon counts as point as well).
Note that each of the various terrain types’ egg tokens vary in number, but they each only hide seven baby dragons. So you’re more likely to find a dragon flipping one of the nine red egg tokens (lava!) then the more numerous yellow egg tokens (desert), meaning although the game is very simple, there’s also a seam of strategy running through it. Finally, you can also add in the watering hole rule: if the connection you made contains a watering hole on either side, you get to take two egg tokens, look at them and choose which one to add.
None. The only interaction between players is the passive taking if tiles.
Very low. Turns are fast and the game is brief
There's a very simple immediacy here of simply matching tiles. But you might take an early hit in order to set up a rewarding turn later - it's possible to have a turn where you find several eggs in one stroke...
The tiles always come out randomly, and there's an element of chance in the eggs as well
2-4
Players
4+
Years
5-15
Mins
Sam says
This probably isn't one that adults are going to get their teeth into over a relentless series of face to face battles deep into the night, but as a game predominantly aimed at younger children it's more than sufferable - it's actually rather pleasant. Kingdomino is the cannier title; it's simplicity belies some rather clever things going on, and it's not that inaccessible to young children either. But Dragomino is a great first-step into games: easy, breezy, rewarding, brief, and seeded with a kind of gameplay 101 of pattern recognition, planning, and dealing with dastardly luck when you keep finding empty eggs!