King Me! – A New Way to Play Checkers – How to Play

When times were much simpler, a game of checkers was an exciting opportunity for anyone. As one of the most iconic games of all time, it would be hard to find someone who has never played Checkers, at least once. Over time, however, things have drastically changed, and board games have become more in-depth; even older games, like Chess for example, are getting overhauls to make them more appealing to more advanced players. Think here of 3D chess, often seen played on the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory. There haven’t been many iterations on the Checkers game model however, until Ravensburger’s recent release, King Me! Let’s learn how to play.

Setup

Lay the board in the middle of the table, and place the black checker pieces (icon up) on the marked spaces, and the red checker pieces (icon up) on the other side. Shuffle the deck of cards and place them face down on the side of the board with the corresponding deck image. DO NOT deal cards into the blank spaces next to the deck, as this will happen as the game progresses.

Choose which player will go first.

Gameplay

On their turn, players will select two checkers pieces and move them one space diagonally each. A King Checker (more on this later) can move two spaces, instead of the normal one.

After the movement of pieces is complete, flip over the top card from the deck and place in an empty space, sliding the cards already in play one space down “the river,” closer to the scoring spot. If all the spaces are filled, place the card on the end of “the river” onto the deck, shuffle the other cards on spot down, and play the drawn card in the newly opened space.

Finally, if a card is moved onto the scoring spot at the end of “the river,” score the points associated with that card.

Scoring Points

Some of the cards in the deck will have a region on them, which matches a region on the board. When the scoring card is scored, whoever control that region (has the most checkers in that space, King’s count as two, and special king cards give bonuses as well) scores the points based on their colour – collect this card and place it in front of you for scoring at the end of the game.

All cards have a river icon and a number associated with it. Move any checkers occupying a river space along the route indicated by the arrows, the number of spaces indicated on the card.

Obtaining a Crown

In traditional Checkers, players obtain a ‘king’ by moving one of their Checkers across the board to the other players far side – in King Me!, players instead attempt to move their Checker onto a space with a crown. When moving onto a crown space, flip the Checker piece over and affix the crown to the playing piece. Collect the corresponding king card which will provide specific bonuses when attempting to control territories.

Playing Checkers

Much of King Me! follows traditional Checkers rules. Pieces can jump other pieces and if you complete a successful jump – or a series of jumps if the layout allows – those are removed from the game and given to the player who made the jump. These will be worth points at the end of the game.

End of Game

The game ends when there are no more cards left in the face down deck – players count up their points based on the cards they have obtained, the number of checkers they have taken from their opponent, and the number of crowns they control. The winner is the person with the most points.