Architects and Paladins of the West Kingdom are both getting new expansions
Viscounts is being left out.
Two titles in the West Kingdom trilogy of board games are seeing brand new expansions coming later this year.
Architects of the West Kingdom: Works of Wonders sees players hiring accomplished builders to erect a series of impressive monuments across the King’s city. (Thanks BoardGameGeek.) These five potential works of patriotic art require an architect of the highest esteem to oversee their construction, with players needing to gather enough influence to obtain support from the kingdom’s princess.
During the expansion, players can choose to hire workers to build the city’s five wonders, whilst ensuring that they gather enough approval from the princess to have her survey the monuments herself. Alternatively, players can decide to gain Profiteer tokens, should they want to seek support from the secretive individual. The expansion will also feature a solo board game mode that includes six possible opponents for players to compete against.
The other series’ expansion set to release in 2021 is Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns. The upcoming board game expansion introduces new elements to both the shared board and individual players’ boards.
City of Crowns sees players trying to acquire support from a collection of nobles - dukes, barons, counts and margraves - in order to defend the kingdom’s city from an incoming invasion. Through negotiation and diplomatic tactics, players can seek the aid of these influential individuals. However, their failure will result in their calls remaining unanswered and the city lacking the support it may need to survive.
Architects of the West Kingdom and Paladins of the West Kingdom are the first two entries in a trilogy of board games - which was completed with the release of Viscounts of the West Kingdom last year - set during the era of the Carolingian Empire, a power that ruled central and western Europe during the Middle Ages.
Architects of the West Kingdom has one to five players becoming renowned royal architects who must gain the admiration of the king by helming the construction of various buildings throughout the city. By gathering the required amount of resources, hiring skilled apprentices and ensuring that their workforce is staying on target, players will be able to gradually create a series of impressive constructions. However, players will also need to make sure that their moral judgements do not hamper their potential for victory points.
Paladins of the West Kingdom is a board game for one to four players that focuses more on military strife, rather than the creation of beautiful constructions. Players must leverage their influence to strengthen the defenses outside the city, creating outposts and fortifications to prevent the invasion of Saracens, Vikings and Byzantine forces. Whichever player manages to collect the most victory points by enlisting the aid of the various paladins patrolling outside the city becomes the winner.
Works of Wonder and City of Crowns were both co-designed by Shem Phillips and SJ Macdonald, who also co-created the original West Kingdom trilogy, with Phillips being the sole designer of the earlier North Sea trilogy of board games - which are centred around Viking history.
Garphill Games is the publisher responsible for Works of Wonder and City of Crowns, alongside both the West Kingdom and North Sea trilogies.
The campaign for Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns is set to be launched tomorrow - February 16th - with the campaign launch date for Architects of the West Kingdom: Works of Wonder yet to be confirmed.