Game Review: Bunny Kingdom by IELLO

Welcome to another blog post by The Modern Gamer -- now with video!  Check out the Titan Bear Gaming YouTube channel for product spotlights, how-to instructionals, and gaming discussions.  The Modern Gamer blog is officially integrating video from here on out, so all of the usual content pieces like game reviews and community spotlights will all include a video component.

This week The Modern Gamer reviews a GenCon smash from IELLO, Bunny Kingdom!  There's a lot to like about this game -- the art is outstanding, the thematic element is funny and creative, and the overall gameplay skillfully walks the line between casual and competitive in a way that many games attempt, but few succeed.  What's more, the game plays to completion in sub 1 hour, making it perfect for a quick play on a weeknight game session.

Rules Basics

At its essence, Bunny Kingdom is a land-grab game.  Each player takes on the role of rival bunny kingdoms attempting to expand their lands by 'just a hare'.  The basic idea of the game is that players compete to claim control of the territories on the game board, and in so doing score points based on the size and 'wealth' of the claimed territories.

In Bunny Kingdom, a collection of touching territory grid squares is referred to as a 'fief', and as a player you want to have as many unique resources and bunny cities inside each fief as you can.  At the end of each round, players score their fiefs based on the product of these two elements. Collecting territories and scoring them makes up the base of Bunny Kingdom's gameplay.

Like most other victory point oriented games, there are also goal cards that players can obtain that give them individual incentives for satisfying the goal cards criteria.  These cards are called Parchment Cards in the game, and give players individual objectives like 'Have the most Cities', or 'Produce 7 or more Fish' which earn them bonus victory points at the end of the game.  These Parchment Cards can really turn the tables, and launch a second or third place player into the game winner if the conditions are met.

Flow of the Game

To help give structure to the land-grab, Bunny Kingdom uses a cool card drafting mechanic to keep players on equal footings, and encourage friendly competition.  Each round starts with each player being dealt a hand of 10 cards, from which the player selects only 2 cards at a time, slowly building their collection of playable cards.  After selecting 2 cards, the players pass the remaining cards to the other players in the circle, giving everyone an opportunity to see which cards are in play, and claim cards of their own.

Once all of the cards have been claimed, the game enters the build phase, where players can play the cards they acquired during the card draft.  Territory cards grant players control of the indicated grid coordinates, so early game tends to be a mad dash for land.  Building cards let players upgrade their controlled territories, either by building new cities or by adding extra resources to their fiefs.  Since there's only one of each territory card in the game, there's practically no competition during the Build phase, so players can happily go to work boosting up their fiefs as they see fit.  It's worth noting that players do not have to play their building cards on the round they receive them, if they feel it strategic to hold onto them.  Parchment cards are not revealed until the very end of the game, allowing players a degree of secrecy in their plans to be the king of all bunnies.

After the players are done building, the round ends and you score the board.  Each controlled fief scores based on the formula above, and players ready themselves for the next round's card draft.  The game ends after 4 rounds are played, and Parchment cards are resolved.  Whoever has the most total victory points is declared the winner, and gets all the carrotcake.

Highlights

I had a blast while playing this game.  The thematic element really spoke to me, and the pop fiction references in the character art made me smile.  I like that the City miniatures are fully modeled plastic minis, and not plain cardboard or placeholder tokens.  I also like that the rabbit figurines used to mark territory are not wood Meeples -- you'll find I have an incurable hatred for meeples as I write more posts for this segment.  

Even better, I love that the game plays in only 45 minutes, and channels friendly competition quite well.  I'm eager to bring this game to my next big family get-together -- I think my pre-teen and teenage family members will take to the game easily.  The shorter run-length and good-natured player interactions really help that.

Lowlights

My biggest lowlight is actually a highlight in disguise -- I wish there was more game board.  Not strictly that the board was bigger, but maybe that there were a couple more basic resource types.  It was pretty easy to find yourself late in the game having claimed a couple territories that only have 1 unique resource and a city strength of 1, making the whole fief worth only 1 total point.  In rounds 3 and 4, its not uncommon to be scoring fiefs for 25-40 points, so these tiny, tiny fiefs really get left behind.

Rating: 5/5 - Play it Today!

I can't say enough good things about Bunny Kingdom, it really tickled my fancy.  I think it's a well executed design with the right amount of attention spent on art and visuals.  A big thumbs-up to IELLO for this one.

Bunny Kingdom normally retails for $50, but you can find Bunny Kingdom in the Titan Bear Gaming store for only $39.99.  Get yours now.

Head on over to YouTube and check out the video for this blog post, as well as the other juicy content we're releasing.  I started a new dedicated show on the channel, The DMs Club, for talking about all things RPGs.  So if RPGs are your cup-of-tea, pull up a chair and let's chat.

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Until next time -- have more fun would ya? It's good for you!