Kingdom Builder: Big Box

Played a couple of times, would like to try it again.

Fell off the rotation years ago, need to try it again.

Won the spiel des jahres in 2012, I find it very enjoyable even if it does skew a little bit random.

Great worker placement game with just enough twists to make an impact.

One of my favorite gateway Euros. Straight-forward mechanics but lots of interesting choices in terms of optimizing the value of the Kingdom Builder cards in play and maximizing flexibility through settlement placement and special ability utilization.

Placing settlements to maximize opportunities on future rounds is key to skillful play. Complaints about the game being scripted are, in my opinion, a reflection of poor play (e.g., placing settlements on the initial turn so that they are touching several different types of terrain). That said, there is the occasional game where the wrong combination of terrain cards early in the game can sink your chances of victory, but these cases are the exception rather than the rule.

I haven't kept up with the additional expansions to this that followed the first Big Box release.

Interesting game but feels like it is missing something.