Alhambra is a board game with the goal of building the best palace. Game play is fairly straight forward, the primary actions are; pickup coin, buy palace piece, or re-arrange existing palace piece. Each player has their own palace and the goal is to score the most points by having the most palace pieces of a specific designation. There are various rules about how the palace can be constructed which increase the level of complexity. The game is broke up into 2 scoring rounds with a final scoring round when all the palace pieces are in play.
Within 90 minutes we were taught the rules and had a very fulfilling first game. By chance I did win but I assure you that has no bearing on my appreciation for the game *wink*. My only complaint is that it was perhaps too isolated between players. The only direct interaction between players in the game is when players are deciding what palace pieces to buy.
The game reminds me of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects but with less confusion.
In attendance was AM (game leader), RT, CT, and me. It didn’t take long to grasp the finer points of palace construction but unfortunately the first game resulted in several gee-I-won’t-build-like-that-again moments. CT scored big in the end with a wicked long wall. RT was well rounded but stuck with several unusable pieces at the end of the game. AM had a fierce palace with some intricate but useless internal palace walls that tripped him up. My green pieces and modest outside wall were decent scoring each round.
It lacks the fierce competition of a game like risk or the fun frivolous player interactions between turns but it is a decent family game worth playing.