Animal Kingdoms Review

Animal Kingdoms from Galactic Raptor games is an area control game for 1-5 players. Players are house leaders attempting to gain control of the 5 kingdoms. This is done by playing cards from your hand which represent animals that have pledged their allegiance to you into one of the kingdoms. Each kingdom has a specific criteria as to what can be placed, however. Some may simply require a specific type while others may need to have ones that aren't anywhere else or a number that is nowhere else. When you've played an animal that meets the objective, place one of your cubes on an open spot. After all players have passed, then whoever has the most cubes will win the area. If there is a tie, then you go to war. Players will play a card from their hand. The highest will win the kingdom. Play will continue like this for 3 rounds and whoever has the highest score at the end will be victorious.

The Good: I really liked how the game plays. Having specific needs for each kingdom forces you to constantly change your strategy round by round instead of simply trying to go for the most points on the board. The artwork is also really nice. It's not often you'll find a game that incorporates and Okapi into their work.

The Okay: The game plays pretty quickly, however at 2 players it can play too quickly. When my wife and I played this, we were done in about 20 minutes. That was with some referencing back to the rulebook. With more players, the time will go up and that's a good thing. The game definitely doesn't overstay its welcome.

The Not So Good: The immediate draw to the game is the artwork and the cool animal cards but ultimately, they are there for art and some numbers. The game could have used pretty much any theme that they wanted and it wouldn't have had any sort of effect on it. I would have liked to see different suits (animals) maybe have abilities that they could use to enhance the gameplay even further.

Final Thoughts: Animal Kingdoms is a really nice game. It's a great introduction to area control games since it can be taught in a short period of time. It has a really nice table presence with the artwork and unique board shape. I would absolutely recommend this one if you are looking for a quick to play game with people who may not be well versed in board games. This is definitely going to stay in my collection to play with those exact people.

Thanks to Galactic Raptor for sending me a review copy of the game.