Preview: Kaikoro

You are in the last city on Earth and approaching your city are five monstrous Kiajus. Defend your city and defeat the Kaiju before they destroy your city. Kaikoro is a multiplayer print and play coming soon to kick starter designed by Alexz Martinez and published by RAWR Games.

When you download the instructions and the game sheet print out a game sheet for each player and grab 3 dice 2 of one color and one of another. Then pass out the pens and get ready to defend your city. The first and most important step is to fill the name of your cit in at the top.

Each turn begins with one of the players rolling all three of the dice. The one die that is a different color is the Target die. This die will assign the Kiajus that the players will attack. On the game sheet there is a red die in between all of the Kaiju. For example if you rolled a 5 you would be attacking either the tentacle monster (Ozzy) or the dragon guy (Wyvera). You may attack them both once or one of them twice. If a six is rolled then you can attack any of the Kaiju. The other two dice are what the players will use as the attack dice. You always use the dice individually to attack and never add them together.

Each of the Kaiju has a different way to damage them. Some are linear and some are more of a game of Sudoku. All of them are interesting and different. As you are marking damage to the Kaiju in various ways you will unlock things like extra power and crystals. but watch out you may cause the Kaiju to run towards if you hit a weak spot. If you are able to hit the heart of the Kaiju then you have defeated it and it will no longer advance toward the city and after this turn you will no longer be able to attack it. The way you score points from the Kaiju is by getting hits they are indicated by the pink diamonds with a number in them. The more you get the higher your score. It might not always be the best play to kill the Kaiju. When you start taking down the Kaiju you mark off the Kaiju movement track and this will make them move faster and do more damage to the city.

It might not always be the best play to kill the Kaiju.

When the Kaiju get to your city they will start to damage it. Any movement is applied to the city's damage track once the Kaiju get to your city. You can block the damage only if you have picked up crystals while fighting the Kaiju. If you picked up power during the fight then you can use one to change the attack die or target die number by one. If you spend two power you may change an attack do to any number 0-7.

This part only makes it harder for the people who are not done yet.

When playing multiplayer and you have defeated all of your Kaiju then you successfully launch your nuclear warhead. This part only makes it harder for the people who are not done yet. They will take 1 city damage every time someone else finished in a turn and the players who are done will move up on on the warhead damage tracker getting them more points. Solo mode works basically the same as multiplayer except for there are no nuclear warheads and you get to use the hero and challenge cards. During a solo game you get one hero and one challenge card. The hero card will make one aspect easier and the challenge card will make one aspect harder.

Having played Kaikoro a few times in rapid succession I can say that its a great combo of hard puzzle and thematic fun at a price that wont break the bank. Defiantly check this one out when it hits Kickstarter soon!

Players: 1-99

Year Published: 2022

Recommended Ages: 10+

Time to Play: 30-60

Transparency Statement

A review copy of Kaikoro was provided to Bert's Tabletop Games by RAWR Games for review purposes .