Alhambra (board game)

Alhambra (German: Der Palast von Alhambra, literally "The Palace of Alhambra") is a 2003 tile-based German-style board game designed by Dirk Henn. It was originally published in Germany by Queen Games in a language-interdependent version; an English-specific version was released in North America by the now-defunct Überplay. The game is a Muslim-themed update, set during the construction of the Alhambra palace in 14th century Granada, of the 1998 stock trading board game Stimmt So!, which in turn was an update of the 1992 mafia influence board game Al Capone; the original version was subsequently released as Alhambra: The Card Game. Upon its release, Alhambra won numerous awards, including the Spiel des Jahres award. Its success has led to the release of numerous expansion packs and spin-off games, and is becoming Queen Games' flagship franchise.
The game consists of a deck of "currency cards" of various values in four currencies (suits) and a bag of "building tiles" of various prices, as well as a number of boards (a currency market, a building market, a reserve board for each player and a scoring track). Six of the building tiles are "fountain" tiles; one is given to each player to form the starting point of their palace, or "Alhambra", and the rest of the building tiles are placed in the bag. Each player is then dealt currency cards until the total value of cards in their hand is greater than or equal to twenty. The remaining currency cards are distributed into five piles, and two special scoring cards are inserted into the second and fourth piles. The five piles are then placed in order to form the currency deck. Four currency cards are drawn and placed face up to form the currency market, and four building tiles are drawn and placed face up on the four spaces of the building market. The player with the fewest currency cards in their hand takes the first turn; if tied, the tied player with the lower total value of currency cards in their hand takes the first turn.
Players then take turns, during which they may perform one of the following actions:
At the end of a player's turn, they must add the tiles they purchased this turn to their Alhambra or place them on their reserve board (however, if they purchased multiple tiles on their turn, they do not have to add them in the order they were purchased). Currency cards and Building tiles are then added to any spaces in the Currency market or the Building market.
Some tiles have walls along one or more edges. When players add tiles to their Alhambra, it must be possible to "walk" from the new tile to their starting fountain, i.e. it must be possible to trace a path from the fountain to the new tile while remaining within tiles and without crossing through any walls. It is also not permitted to create "holes" such that all four sides of a gap are closed in.
When the scoring cards are drawn from the Currency deck, or when not enough tiles are left in the bag to completely refill the building market, scoring occurs. The player with the most of a given building card type scores points indicated on the scoring card, according to the building type; in case of a tie, points are divided equally among tying players. More common building types are worth more points, and building types are worth more points in later scoring rounds. Each player also scores one point for each wall segment in their longest wall. In the final scoring round, the player with the most of a given currency type takes the tile of that currency type and may add it to their Alhambra before scoring.
The game contains special rules for two-player games. Two-player games use an imaginary third player called Dirk. Dirk does not use money, he is given a set of buildings automatically. During each scoring, Dirk's buildings are scored like the players', but he gets no points for walls.
Due to the original game's popularity, as of 2013, six expansion packs, termed "extensions," have been designed for Alhambra, each of which adds four "modules" to the game. These modules may be played together or separately and modules may be combined from different expansions. The extensions are designed by both Dirk Henn and Wolfgang Panning and are named for one of its modules. These are, in order of release:
The promotional expansion/module "The Magic Buildings" was also released. It adds 6 magic building tiles to the game. When drawn, these tiles can be placed to score extra points depending on their surrounding tiles. The promotional expansion/module "The Medina Buildings" adds 9 Medina building tiles to the game. During the scoring rounds, they award "negative" points to the player with the fewest of these tiles in his/her Alhambra.
The success of Alhambra has also led Henn to release or re-release some other games under the Alhambra name and Moorish theme:
A video game version was being developed by Vivendi Games for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, but was cancelled due to "unforeseen difficulties".
Upon its release, Alhambra won the Spiel des Jahres the Schweizer Spielepreis for Family Games, the As d'Or, and the Essen Feather for the year of its release, It also placed second in the Deutscher Spiele Preis. The game was also reviewed by Pyramid, with the reviewer praising its components and describing it as a "simple-themed tile-laying and resource management game".