King’s Court will look nicer than a makeshift board but with King’s Court being more valuable than you would think, you might be better off making your own board. Find 24 markers of two colors and you have everything you need to play the game. You also need some way to mark off a 4X4 grid in the middle. Basically you just need an 8X8 board that you can tilt sideways. The biggest problem I have with the components is that King’s Court is a game where it would be quite easy to make your own copy. The game isn’t much to look at but it serves its’ purpose. The board is pretty generic but the playing pieces are pretty solid. For competitive players though you might need to consider adding a time limit to each turn.Īs far as the components I would say they are solid but unspectacular. If the players aren’t that competitive this isn’t that big of problem. This can lead to analysis paralysis since really competitive players will have to analyze every move to avoid making a move that will lead them to losing a lot of pieces. If you make the wrong move though you can lose a lot of pieces which will make it hard to ever catch up. If you make the right move you can really help yourself. There are a lot of potential moves that can be made on a given turn. The main reason that analysis paralysis can become a problem is that one mistake can lose the game for a player. Having two pieces next to each other can be used as a defensive strategy but it can also be used offensively. Being able to jump over your own pieces gives you a lot of movement options in the game. I think the ability to jump over your own pieces has the biggest impact on analysis paralysis though. With a larger board and more pieces to start the game, there are more potential moves every turn. I think three things add to the potential analysis paralysis problems in the game. While I think King’s Court has a little more strategy than Checkers, I think it can also lead to more analysis paralysis problems. Instead of players trying to avoid each other on the outside of the board, the center section tends to force players to move their pieces towards the middle of the board. Having to keep at least one piece in the middle of the board forces players to be somewhat aggressive as you can’t lose control of the middle of the board to the other player. The idea of the center section of the gameboard does a really good job of preventing players from being too passive.
![board kings tips 2019 board kings tips 2019](https://images.gamewatcherstatic.com/image/file/9/fb/100909/Crusader-Kings-Board-Game-3.jpg)
This is why I really like the one truly unique mechanic in King’s Court. The problem with Checkers is that when there aren’t a lot of pieces on the board it is pretty easy for players to avoid one another if they want to. This is the point where Checkers really starts to drag for me. As there are less pieces on the board, it is harder to set up opportunities to jump the other player’s pieces. With so many jumping opportunities King’s Court is more exciting than Checkers.Īfter all of the carnage at the beginning of the game, the pace of King’s Court changes pretty drastically. In King’s Court it is not impossible to jump five or more pieces in one turn. In Checkers you are lucky to get a double or triple jump. If you play passive you are going to lose the game. King’s Court is a much more aggressive game. Unlike Checkers players don’t sit back waiting for the other player to make a move. This might be what I enjoyed most about King’s Court. At the end of those five or six turns both players will likely have lost over half of their pieces. For five or six turns, players will be constantly jumping over each other. I attribute this to the board being set up where it is really easy to jump each other at the beginning of the game. As soon as players are able to jump each other, the carnage begins. That can’t be said for King’s Court though. Unless players are aggressive, it will usually take several turns before any pieces are jumped. The biggest difference between King’s Court and Checkers is the pace of the game. Instead lets look at how King’s Court plays differently than Checkers. As I am assuming everyone has played Checkers at some point in their lives, I am not going to really address the basic gameplay mechanics of the game. As the two games are so similar, your opinion of Checkers will likely apply to King’s Court as well. The goal of the game is to use your pieces to jump over your opponent’s pieces removing them from the board.
![board kings tips 2019 board kings tips 2019](https://londonweed.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/walesweed-1200x675.jpg)
Movement is exactly the same as Checkers except that all of the pieces start as Kings and can move in any direction. The basic premise and mechanics of King’s Court are exactly the same as Checkers.
![board kings tips 2019 board kings tips 2019](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2e/57/1b/2e571b415fc53aae7c00fa68db2b8e11.jpg)
When I look at King’s Court I basically see Checkers with a couple tweaks. The green player no longer has pieces in the center square of the board.