Dragomino

Dragomino (2020) is a matching and collecting tile game similar to Kingdomino but tuned for really young players. You take turns to pick and add a Domino Land card to your growing grid and earn dragon eggs. It works for youngsters with rules that offset missing out on points and no limit to the size and shape of land you build.

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Play proceeds by turning over four domino Land tiles in the middle. Each player picks a tile and then adds it to their growing land. Any new connection they make between matching land lets them pick a Dragon Egg card. This is placed on the join and flipped over to discover if there is a scoring dragon inside or if it's empty.

Unlike traditional dominos, you can build in multiple directions rather than a long line. Unlike Kingdomino you don't need to keep your land in a limited grid size. This enables you to build more strategically, create multiple new matching connections and earn multiple dragon eggs. Another nice touch for young players is that when you get an empty egg the Mum Dragon joins you so you go first next round. After seven rounds, the game ends you count up the dragons and the player who holds the mommy dragon scores 1 additional point.

This simplicity is built upon with some light tactics. Although there are always nine dragons spread throughout each type of land/egg, some lands have fewer eggs and therefore a higher ratio of dragons. This leads to some great learning and strategy. Also, if there is a lake on a tile and you match this with another lake you can take two eggs and choose which one to keep.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Dragomino 24 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated today.