Alhambra De-stress session 29 Nov '08

Hi people,

Basically I was having my exam stress build up coz of the papers I've been having. Was studying with Bei Shi and Joseph till we got sick to studying then we went for dinner before heading back to my home for a quick game of Alhambra (which turned out to be 'not so quick').

Setup: Alhambra original with 4th Expansion
[Played with Joseph & Bei Shi, 3 player]

For those who don't know what Alhambra is all about, basically its a game where you purchase tiles with the money you have and place them onto your fountain(otherwise known as your alhambra). The tiles have to be placed properly ensuring that walls are properly aligned. Also if you pay with exact amounts, you get to take an extra action, usually to purchase or to collect more money. The expansion can be played with all 4 parts or part of it.

4th Expansion Summary:
Bandits: Every scoring, bandits will attack from a certain direction, so if you don't have a wall there you lose points
Master builder card: It's worth 3 of a currency and allows an extra reshuffle of your Alhambra
Treasure Chests: A new mechanic to gain points, where you can put treasure on your buildings and gain points each scoring.
Marketplace: A special tile that allows the surrouding 8 tiles to give you bonus points if they are of a certain 3 colours.

Review
The game was kinda long as we struggled with the new mechanics, but it paid off as we had a close score at the end of the game. Personally, I feel the 4 parts of the 4th expansion was quite good as it gave a twist to the original game while retaining the original mechanics. The marketplace was the least abused(except for me) as it required you to get it early. Most used was the treasure chests as everyone took a chance to buy one. After playing with this you would probably stick playing with them rather than playing with just the original version by itself.

I enjoyed the using all four mechanics and can't wait to get the other 3 expansions (hopefully cheap at the auction)

Will update more later.

The bandits attack sounds like 'Kingburg' last phase when players fend against monsters. In the event they win, they score resources, but if they failed they stand to lose their most important buildings and each building has a VP that goes away if u lose it. It was a gentle way of putting some excitement into a otherwise family game.

gd luck to the auction, hope u score all the expansions, will like to see if the game works well with ALL expansions.

Hatekeeper wrote:place them onto your fountain(otherwise known as your alhambra)

Just a little correction/clarification on facts. Alhambra is a palace located in Granada, Spain and famous for its many gardens, frescos, fountains and Islamic architecture.

Hence, thematically, you are required to build up the Alhambra in the game by placing those various tiles. The fountain tile that you start with is the Fountain of Lions which is located in right the middle of Alhambra. Personally, I feel that's how the designer successfully merges game with the theme.

Hatekeeper wrote:4th Expansion Summary:
Bandits: Every scoring, bandits will attack from a certain direction, so if you don't have a wall there you lose points
Master builder card: It's worth 3 of a currency and allows an extra reshuffle of your Alhambra
Treasure Chests: A new mechanic to gain points, where you can put treasure on your buildings and gain points each scoring.
Marketplace: A special tile that allows the surrouding 8 tiles to give you bonus points if they are of a certain 3 colours.

Based on this, it seems even more "random" with what might come up, especially for treasure chests. But I don't know how exactly're treasure chests scored so I may be wrong. The bandits is an interesting addition but if you don't know which direction the attack'll come from, then it'll be another instance of "random death".

Whenever I play this game with my friends, wall-building is almost of utmost priority as it just gives a hell lot of points. So, I'd think that the marketplace tile would be a nice boost for our game of Alhambra.

Hey Wei Xun! Thanks for the clarification on the definition of Alhambra

Oh ya, more information on the 4th expansion:

Treasure chests: On the Treasure Board, everyone gets to see the 3 options of 4 treasure chests. Thus a player is able to lookout on the various chests which he/she can buy to store in their Alhambra. Treasure that cannot be stored is passed to the left. If no one can utilize it, it'll be returned to the bag. Treasure on a building cannot be moved once placed. If you wanna reshape your building with a piece on it, i think you gotta return it to the bag(not specifically mentioned)

Bandits: 2 'scout/lookout' cards are opened per scoring round, so that the first two people who purchase buildings with exact amounts (of the specified colours, 1 for each card) are able to get the card and use it (if u want to use this round), so that you can see which direction the bandits are coming from.

Can't wait to try all the expansions together. 6 players at once! anyone up?!

Edit: Sorry! mixed ppl up

eh mark, thats' wei xun replying u. lol.
Jason is eggman.

I am interested in the 6-player experience keep me posted.