Tile Placement

Granada – many artisans, traders and entire families have settled at the foot of the Sierra Nevada because the Palace of Alhambra promises all people work, contracts and above all prosperity.
(From the publisher's blurb.)

Granada is new member of the Alhambra family with a more challenging character: in this standalone game the players develop the city of Granada next to Sierra Nevada, where the famous Alhambra stands, by buying building tiles to construct the city which will earn the most victory points. Building tiles now have two sides and there are new building types for which the value is set during the game.

Link to Trailer http://www.queen-games.de/index.php?id=2537----2

Play Differences from Alhambra
Alhambra advanced. Play is the same: buy a building tile, take money or remodel. If you buy a tile for the exact amount, you can take another action, same as in Alhambra. The differences: new building types, building values are dynamic, two-sided tiles, and moats instead of walls.

There are 9 building types in Granada. Unlike Alhambra, the buildings do not have a set value. Instead, building value is determined by the count of that type of building in all players' cities times a multiplier. As in Alhambra, there are 3 scoring rounds during which each building type is examined and points awarded for the player with the majority of that type of building. In the first scoring round, A, only the player with the most tiles of a particular building type scores for that building type (1 times the total count). In the second scoring round, B, the top 2 players score (2 times the total count and 1 times the total count respectively), and in the final round, the top 3 score (3x, 2x, and 1x the total count of that building type). Scoring for a "Beginners Game" is a little different.

There are no ties in Granada: points are never divided like in Alhambra. In the case of two players having the same number of tiles of a particular type in their cities, the player with the highest valued tile of that type wins, and the other player takes next place. So, in Granada, it pays to buy the more expensive buildings.

For example: When the A round-scoring card is turned up, Cindy has 2 Schools, Diana has 2, Tim has 1, Tina and Bailey each have 0, for a total of 5 Schools currently in cities. Cindy's highest School is a 10, Diana's is a 7. So, in round A, Cindy would score 1 x 5 = 5 points.

When the B round-scoring card is turned up, the count for Schools is: Cindy 2, Diana 3, Tim 1, Tina and Bailey 0 each for a total of 6 Schools. So, Diana scores 2 x 6 = 12 points and Cindy scores 1 x 6 = 6 points.

In the final round, the School count is Cindy 2, Diana 3, Tim 1, Tina 2, Bailey 0 for a total of 8 Schools in cities. Cindy's highest School is a 10, Tina's is a 4. So, Diana scores 3 x 8 = 24 points, Cindy score 2 x 8 = 16 points and Tina score 1 x 8 = 8 points.

Another difference in Granada is that the tiles are two-sided: on one side an even-numbered building of some type, on the other a different, odd-numbered building valued exactly one higher. The configuration of the buildings on both sides is identical in terms of moat placement or lack thereof on each side. When purchasing a building, a player can immediately place the building, as is, into her city or may flip it to the other side and place it in her supply for later placement during a remodel action.

The Building Market is initially filled with tiles even-side up. The next time the market is filled, the odd side will be placed up, then even, then odd, etc. A handy toggle feature is provided on the board near the Building Market to facilitate this.

The last difference between Alhambra and Granada, moats instead of walls, is really just a difference in artwork. As in Alhambra, during each scoring round, each player scores points for her longest continuous moat, instead of wall, surrounding her city. The rules are the same regarding tile placement: must be able to trace an unbroken path back to the city's center, moat can touch moat, etc. In games I've played, players have often commented that it seems to be harder to build with the moat tiles of Granada than with the wall tiles of Alhambra. Just one more way to make Granada an advanced version of Alhambra?

In Cathedral, each player has a set of pieces of a different color. The pieces are in the shapes of buildings, covering from one to five square units. The first player takes the single neutral Cathedral piece and places it onto the board. Players then alternate placing one of their buildings onto the board until neither player can place another building. Players capture territory by surrounding areas that are occupied by at most one opponent or neutral building. A captured piece is removed and captured territory becomes off-limits to the opponent. The player with the fewest 'square units' of buildings that can't be placed wins.

Strike it rich with this exciting mining-themed board game!

Gold Mine is a unique tile-laying game in which players build a maze of mine tunnels and control miners that traverse the mine collecting gold nuggets. Players race to be the first to collect enough gold to exit the mine and stake a claim. It may sound easy, but the greedy miners have several tricks up their sleeves in order to gain an advantage—including sneaking through secret passages, fighting for gold, and scaring away other miners with bats.

With a different game board every time, a great balance of luck and strategy, and the addition of optional rules, this game is bound to be a family favorite for years to come!

A boardgame based on a computer game (instead of the other way around) and designed by Klaus Teuber, Anno 1503 views the era of colonization strictly from the home country perspective. Two to four players send ships to explore islands scattered about a 5 x 12 square ocean (the more players, the more islands). The settlement of the new lands is, however, strictly abstract.

Each player's turn begins with the roll of one 6-sided die. A "6" is a random event (pirates, fire or good fortune - bad twice as often as lucky, and most likely to damage players who are doing well). On other results, each player gains a commodity from one of his five workshops. The player who rolled may then buy commodities from the bank, sell them to his colonists for gold (no trading among players), or use them in various combinations to recruit new colonists, promote existing ones, or build ships. After that, ships can sail for the unknown lands.

Each island bears on its hidden side an outpost, a treasure or a trade agreement. After being discovered, these items are brought back to the home country (and the ship is removed from play, requiring the player to build a new one in order to keep searching). Outposts increase the productivity of workshops. Treasure yields either gold or free colonist promotions. Trade agreements reduce the gold needed to buy commodities from the bank.

Besides being useful in these ways, outposts, gold and agreements are among the game's victory conditions. A player wins by being to first to attain three out of five objectives, namely, four outposts, 30 gold, three trade agreements, three colonists promoted to the top rank of "merchant" and the construction of four public buildings. The buildings (8 types, each bringing some advantage) cost nothing but don't become available until a player has recruited at least four colonists. After that, each new colonist adds a building (unless they've been preempted by other players; there aren't enough for everyone).

Overall, the game falls squarely into the "simultaneous solitaire" category. Except in the race for islands, the players scarcely interact at all. They do, however, have a great many choices to make in the course of play.

New York has the same game play as Dirk Henn's Spiel des Jahres-winning Alhambra, but with the Spanish architecture being replaced by the skyscrapers of Manhattan. As in the original game, players collect four types of currencies and use those funds to purchase tiles that they assemble into their own mini-metropolis, connecting the paved street edges on the tiles to create a coherent network of roads. The building tiles come in six colors, and players score for their holdings three times during the game, earning points for having the most of a color as well as for their longest road.

Aside from the theme change and the associated new artwork, the gameboard is now larger with spots for both face-down and face-up tiles and a scoretrack that circles the edge of the board instead of zigzagging back and forth.

Re-implements:

Alhambra