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You’re standing on a muddy wall. To your left, a Saracen raiding party is kicking at the gates. To your right, a suspicious-looking monk is offering you "spiritual guidance" that feels a lot like a bribe. You have two workers left, a handful of silver, and a Paladin who’s about to retire at the end of the round. This is the stress—the beautiful, brain-burning stress—of Paladins of the West Kingdom.
If you've played Architects of the West Kingdom, you might think you know what you're getting into. You don't. While Architects is a breezy, social game about sticking your friends in prison, Paladins is a dense, crunchy, and intensely solitary puzzle. It’s the middle child of Shem Phillips and S.J. Macdonald’s West Kingdom trilogy, and honestly? It’s the one that actually demands you respect it. It doesn't care if you have a plan. It wants to know if you can pivot when that plan falls apart.
What Paladins of the West Kingdom Actually Is
Most modern board games try to do one thing well. This game tries to do everything at once. It’s a worker placement game, but the workers aren't all the same. You’ve got scouts, merchants, fighters, and clerics. You’re also managing three different colored attribute tracks: Faith, Strength, and Influence.
Here’s the kicker. You can’t just ignore one.
To Commission a Monk, you need Faith. But to get that Faith, you might need to Fortify a wall, which requires Strength. But you can’t Fortify unless you have enough Influence. It’s a circular dependency that feels like trying to untangle a knot while wearing oven mitts. It’s frustrating. It’s also incredibly rewarding when the gears finally click into place.
Each round, you pick a Paladin card from your hand. This card is your lifeline. It gives you two specific workers and a temporary boost to your stats. If you’re falling behind on Strength, you pick the knight. If you need to convert some Vikings to your cause, you grab the priest. But you only have that boost for one round. Then they’re gone. Spent.
The "Taxation" Problem and Why Suspicion Matters
In most games, getting money is a boring chore. In Paladins of the West Kingdom, it’s a moral crisis. You can take the "Tax" action to grab quick silver, but doing so forces you to take a Suspicion card. These cards represent the town's growing realization that you might be a bit of a crook.
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Every time the Tax pile runs out, an Inquisition happens. The player with the most Suspicion gets a Debt card. Debt is bad. It’s minus points. It clogs up your engine. But here’s the thing: sometimes you need that money to fund a Garrison. You find yourself bargaining with your own integrity. "I'll just take one more tax coin," you tell yourself. Three rounds later, you're buried in debt and the local constabulary is at your door.
It adds a layer of "push-your-luck" that most heavy Euros lack. You aren't just managing resources; you're managing a reputation. Garphill Games has always been good at this—thematic integration that actually affects how you play—but it feels most pointed here.
Don't Forget the Outsiders
Let's talk about the invaders. You have a row of cards at the bottom of the board representing people who want to burn your city down. You have two choices. You can Attack them, which gives you an immediate reward and sends them to the discard pile. Or, you can Convert them.
Converting is harder. It costs Faith. But if you do it, that card goes under your player board and gives you a permanent end-game scoring bonus.
This is where the strategy splits. Some players go "full military," smashing every Viking that crosses the border for quick resources. Others play the long game, building a multicultural society of converted raiders that pump their score into the stratosphere. Both are viable. Both will make your head ache by round five.
Why the Solo Mode is the Gold Standard
If you're looking for a game to play by yourself on a Tuesday night, this is it. The solo AI (the "Automa") is remarkably simple to run but incredibly difficult to beat. It uses a small deck of cards to simulate an opponent taking spaces and moving up tracks.
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It doesn't "cheat" in the way some AI opponents do; it just operates on a different logic. You don't have to manage a complex flowchart. You just flip a card, see where the AI places its worker, and then curse because it took the one spot you needed to finish your cathedral.
The solo experience highlights the core of the game: efficiency. You have a limited number of actions and a limited amount of time. The AI just acts as a timer, pushing you to be better, faster, and more ruthless.
Common Mistakes New Players Make
I’ve taught this game to a lot of people. Everyone makes the same three mistakes.
First, they ignore the "Develop" action. Developing lets you move a workshop from your board onto an action space. This makes that action cheaper for the rest of the game. If you don't Develop early, you'll run out of workers by the mid-game while everyone else is still taking five actions a turn.
Second, they focus too much on one track. You see a player go all-in on Strength because they want to build walls. Cool. But then they realize they can't recruit any more Townsfolk because their Influence is at zero. You have to leapfrog your stats. A little bit of Strength leads to a little bit of Faith, which leads to a little bit of Influence. It’s a dance.
Third, they fear Debt too much. Debt isn't the end of the world. You can flip Debt cards to their "Satisfied" side, which actually gives you points. Sometimes, taking a Debt to finish a high-scoring Commission is mathematically the right move. Don't be a saint if it costs you the crown.
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The City of Crowns Expansion: Is it Necessary?
A lot of people ask if they should get the City of Crowns expansion immediately. My honest advice? No.
Paladins is already a heavy game. It has a lot of "moving parts." The expansion adds even more: a new board, new actions, and a new resource (Diplomacy). It’s excellent, don't get me wrong. It opens up the board and gives you more ways to win. But if you're just starting, the base game of Paladins of the West Kingdom has enough depth to keep you busy for thirty plays before you ever feel the need to add more.
Actionable Steps for Your First Game
If you’re about to crack open the box, here is how you should approach your first session to avoid getting overwhelmed.
- Organize the workers immediately. Put the different colors in separate bowls. You will be reaching for them constantly, and a messy pile is the enemy of a clear mind.
- Focus on one "Big Action" for the first three rounds. Don't try to Garrison AND Commission AND Fortify. Pick one. Build your stats around it.
- Watch the Paladin's special ability. Every Paladin has a "passive" power. If your Paladin gives you a bonus for Attacking, then you should spend that round Attacking. It sounds obvious, but in the heat of the game, it's easy to forget.
- Keep an eye on the King’s Favors. These are the shared worker placement spots at the top of the board. They get more powerful as the game goes on, but they also get crowded. If you see an opening, take it.
- Accept that you will lose. Your first game will likely be a mess of Debt and missed opportunities. That’s okay. The fun of Paladins isn't in a perfect score; it's in seeing how much you can salvage from the chaos.
This isn't a game for people who want a relaxing night of rolling dice. It’s a game for people who want to feel like a medieval governor trying to keep a crumbling frontier together with nothing but a few monks and a very sharp sword. It's heavy, it's brown, and it's one of the best designed Euro games of the last decade.
To get the most out of your copy, start by playing a two-handed game (playing as two different players) just to see how the tracks interact. Once you understand the "leapfrog" mechanic of Faith, Strength, and Influence, the rest of the game falls into place. Focus on maximizing your Paladin's unique bonuses each turn, and don't be afraid to take a little Suspicion if it means completing a major objective.