Model: 189Publisher: Queen GamesPlaying Time: 60 MinutesNumber of Players: 2 - 6Designer: Dirk HennSuggested Minimum Age: 8
Granada at the beginning of the 13th century: the best master builders out of entirely Europe and the Arabic countries want to demonstrate their skills. Engage the most suitable teams of builders and make sure that you always have enough of the right currency. Because no matter whether they are stonemasons from the north or horticulturrists from the south – they all want a proper wage and insist on their "native" currency. Compete against your opponents to build the Alhambra.
Wizardopoly adds: each player starts with a simple fountain and buys a variety of buildings to add onto it, culminating in their very own Palace of Alhambra. But how? The fountain and the buildings to be added take the form of square tiles, several of each of six different types of building (each building type has a different colour to help game play) which are kept in a cloth bag. Also each building tile has a cost on it (ranging from 2 - 13). In addition there is a scoring track, a currency board and a stack of money cards. The currency board shows four currencies (again colour coded to keep things easy) each next to a square. The money cards have a number (1 - 9) and a colour/currency and are each worth the number's amount of that currency. The money card stack also contains two phase cards which determine when two of the rounds of scoring take place.
At the start of the game four building tiles are drawn from the bag and placed on each of the four currency squares on the currency board, and each player is dealt money cards until their total wealth is greater than twenty (i.e. as a total of all currencies). Four extra money cards are placed next to the board. Each player takes turns to buy buildings and add them to their palace, or to take money from the money cards next to the board. To buy a building the player pays the amount shown on the building tile in the currency that the building has been placed next to on the currency board. You'd be amazed how often people (myself included) get this wrong and try to pay in the currency/colour of the building. When you buy a building you don't get any change, however if you pay the exact amount you get to get another go. If you can't or don't want to buy anything you can take a money card from the four available next to the board. So an ideal turn sees you buy one or more buildings for the right money and then get more money for your next turn! At the end of each player's turn the board is replenished with new buildings and money.
When one of the scoring/phase cards is turned over (when replacing money cards) a round of scoring takes place. Each player counts the number of buildings in a particular colour they have and the player with the highest in each colour scores points. A final scoring phase takes place at the end of the game. There are other rules about tilew placing and a wall running through the palace, but I'll let you find these out for yourself!
By talking about colours and numbers and squares I've neglected to mention that Alhambra is a very beautiful game - the buildings are well painted and the currency cards nicely decorated, so the game looks great. The skill in the game is taking the right money cards so that next turn you can buy the correct buildings for the exact money. But, of course, everyone else is trying to do this too! In addition the different types of building aren't all equally useful: Purple buildings score more than Blue, but there are more Purple ones (so making it more difficult to have the most) and they tend to be more expensive. Also, as the game progresses the scores for having the most of one building colour increase, and points are awarded for second place. My children like this game and it's great to see Keiran (my 7 year old) counting out the cost of buildings vs money available on his fingers as he works out his next move!
Alhambra: The Viziers Favour (Expansion 1)£9.49
