F#¢& Alhambra

Alhambra

I've referenced Alhambra several times already, so looks like I should write a review.  Or not.  It's almost as if I am making up the rules as I go along.

Plot:  Build the bestest palace in the city! 

Goal:  It's a game about victory points.  Scoring occurs in three phases.  When the scoring card (semi-randomly placed at about 1/3 and 2/3 through the money deck) count the length of the longest wall in your tableau and score based on the amount of tile colors built.   The picture to the left has what the scoring values are; its a race for the most of a color.  Purple is worth the most because it has the most tiles, harder to get the most.







Mechanics:  It's a two tiered draft system with 3 actions. 

Action 1: Draft money, pick one of 4 money cards.  Money cards are in four colored suits and are numbered from 1 to 9.  You can select multiple money cards, but only so long as the total does not exceed 5.  So a 2-3 or a 1-2-2 is legal, but a 3-3 is illegal.  Selecting money ends your turn.

Action 2: Draft building tiles.  4 tiles are visible at the start of your turn, one corresponding to each suit of money.  They cost between 3 and 13.  If you pay exactly, you get to go again.  Overpaying is allowed, but that ends your turn.  Once tile is bought, that suit stays empty until the next players turn, leading to a maximum of 4 tiles bought per turn.  These tiles have walls, you want to buy tiles that extend your wall.  Wall's limit what you can build, so you want to buy tiles without walls.  Fun!

Action 3:  Rearrange you tableau.  You may take a piece from your tableau and put it in reserve.  Or you may take a piece from your reserve and put it in play.  Or you may do a one for one exact swap from your tableau and reserve.  This action ends your turn.

At turn end, you decide what to do with tiles you bought.  Placing tiles needs to conform to a couple rules.  A central starting token with a fountain starts your board.  Whenever a tile is placed you must be able to walk from that tile back to the fountain, if a wall blocks the path that is an illegal placement.  Second, tiles with adjacent sides must either both have walls or neither have walls, or an inner and outer wall.  (It's hard to describe with words, as the guy with the game what the hell this means.)  Tiles bought may be placed in any order, order your bought them in is irrelevant.

Review:  I really like this game lots.  There's conflicting needs with wall length and room for expansion.  There's give and take with the money draft; getting two small valued money cards make it easier to get an exact change buy, but gives your opponents a better selection when the replacement cards are drawn.   The game does radically change with the amount of players though.  With 3 player picking a money card specifically for an exact change buy works fairly often, in 5 player someone is probably going to poach your tile.  However, I find the color counts much more important in 5 player than in 3, so something to be said for both. 
8/10

Tips:

*Do NOT neglect your wall.  Mike likes to say the player with the longest wall wins, and allowing for some exaggeration for effect, he's right.  If everyone is going for long walls, then the difference is minor, it's probably more accurate to say if you neglect your wall you will not win.

*Exact change is nifty, but so is buying power.  Getting a 7+ money card is generally a better deal than getting multiple smaller valued money. 

*Pay attention to your opponents tiles.  Not saying avoid getting competing tiles, but certainly don't overpay for them.