Dragonarium: Ingenious Incubation

The Minister of the Imperial Hatchery has abdicated their role and the ruler of the land is in search of the next Minister. It’s up to you to build the best dragon hatching environment with the best territory tiles, artfully arranging the three elements to breathe life into your dragon eggs. Will you best your opponents and be placed in charge of the empire’s dragonarium?

Dragonarium is a tile placement game designed by Wei Chang and Kuan Chen. This game, gorgeously illustrated by Zingco Kang and Yuan Momoco, was published by Wonderful World Board Games. A game of Dragonarium takes about 30-45 minutes for 1-4 players to play. We recommend players be at least 10 years old.

Setup

The initial tile count depends on the number of players playing Dragonarium. Start with the 26 tiles with a “2” on the back for one or two players. Add the 12 tiles with the “3” on the back for a third player, and the 12 tiles with a “4” on the back if playing a full four player game. Shuffle these together and randomly place six in a line face-up (five in a three player game). This is the “Planning Site”.

Each player takes their own player board, places a random starting tile where indicated, and places the assistant where indicated. Finally, each player takes three Pillar tiles.

The player to last crack an egg goes first!

Gameplay

Play in Dragonarium circles the table clockwise for twelve rounds. Each player takes the following three steps on their turn:

Draft and Place a Territory Tile

First, the active player takes a tile from the collection of face up tiles. Then they place this tile on their board following simple placement rules:

• Tiles must be within the grid of the player board along grid lines (not necessarily adjacent)
• Tiles cannot be stacked on top of squares that have empty element icons
• Tiles cannot be stacked on top of squares with dragons on them
• Tiles must be flat. If a player wants to stack a tile on uneven terrain, they must use Pillar tiles to make it flat

Hatch Dragons

When players cover other tiles with their placement, they earn different rewards. If a player covers another tile with Pillar icons, they collect a Pillar tile for each icon they cover.

If they cover a tile with elements filled with jewels, they hatch a dragon of the egg color! The player removes the gems before placing the tile and then takes a dragon of the appropriate color. They must then place the dragon on top of any square of the board. The dragon adds its color to the color of the square. This also means the player won’t be able to cover this tile again, so place carefully!

Move the Assistant

Finally, the player chooses one of the three element types: fire, water, or air. They count the number of squares in their largest connected domain of that element and moves their assistant clockwise round the edge of the board exactly that number of steps. At each step, the player places one element stone of the chosen element on a tile in that row or column (if possible).

Yellow tile squares are special: These tiles have golden eggs which hatch royal dragons! Players can hatch a royal dragon using any element, but both element stones on the tile must match.

Once every player has taken a turn, replenish the Planning Site with new face-up tiles. The first player moves to the left.

Game End

End the game after depleting the face-down tile supply. For each of the four elements (including the special golden element), multiply the number of connected squares in the largest domain by the height of the highest square in that domain. Remember, a dragon makes a tile count as its color, so tiles can have two colors for the purpose of scoring. Add three points for each golden dragon. Whoever has the most points wins!

Impressions

When I first saw Dragonarium, I thought it reminded me a lot of Kingdomino. And there are a lot of similarities. Players are drafting domino-shaped tiles, placing them in their own board, and trying to create the largest connected area. But that’s about where the similarities end.

For one, Dragonarium is a lot more strategic with the layers of placement between tiles, then gems, then more tiles. In fact, after playing the game I realized reminded me a lot more of the old 2018 Renegade title Gunkimono. And that tracks – Kingdomino is rated for ages 8+ while Gunkimono is rated for ages 10+.

Multi-layered Strategy

For those gamers looking to step it up from Kingdomino but who still appreciate the basic tile laying mechanics of the Blue Orange classic, Dragonarium offers a fascinating multi-layered timing puzzle. Players must overlap tiles to maximize the height of their domains, but only do so after filling the lower tile with gems. Finally, every tile placement triggers movement of the Assistant, so you need to be judicious with the elements you select as the domain size impacts how far the Assistant moves.

It’s a lot of things to keep in your head at one time, making Dragonarium more strategic than it would seem at first blush. However, if you’re able to convince your younger players to appreciate the journey and not just the result at the end, they’ll enjoy the satisfaction of building ever-higher tile stacks and topping them with majestic royal dragons.

A Little Extra

Wonderful World Board Games also included B-side boards with special powers, plus a solo mode to mix up the gameplay. We didn’t end up using any of these, but I always appreciate when publishers provide some flexibility in their rules to mix the game up.

Does it Have to be Dragons?

Finally, I feel obligated to note that the theme is a little pasted onto this game. There’s precious little that is really tied to the idea of dragons that couldn’t be replaced with planting seeds, or sourcing parts for a machine, or something else. And the Assistant, while a neat mechanic that adds understated strategic depth, has nothing tying it back to the plot of the game.

Nevertheless, Dragonarium makes for a great growth step for your less advanced gamers who want to grow their tile-laying chops. It’s well crafted, the graphic design is great, and man, that box really is beautiful to look at.

You can get started hatching your own ward of wyverns by picking up Dragonarium directly from your friendly local game store!

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Wonderful World Board Games provided The Family Gamers with a promotional copy of Dragonarium for this review.