Alhambra

Master Builders, Apply Within

In Granada, Spain, one of the most impressive building projects of the Middle Ages has begun: the construction of Alhambra. A palace, fortress, and a small city -- all-in-one -- Alhambra is made up of the world’s most beautiful gardens, pavilions, chambers and towers.The most prominent builders in all of Europe and Arabia want to demonstrate their skills in building Alhambra. Employ the most talented teams of builders to construct your Alhambra. Hire stonemasons from the north and gardeners from the south, who all want a fair wage and insist on being paid with their native currency. With their help, towers can be constructed, gardens designed, pavilions and mezzanines erected, and manors and royal chambers built. Compete against your opponents to build the greatest and most impressive Alhambra.

All players start with a fountain tile as their city-center. From there they can collect money from the money-market, purchase new city tiles to add a variety of buildings and construct an outer wall essential to the citizens' protection, or do a little renovation to make your Alhambra as efficient as possible. Points are awarded several times throughout the game based on who has the greatest number of tiles in certain colors, and all players gain points for the number of continuous wall-segments surrounding their city.

If you've played other tile-laying, economic or city-building games, then Alhambra is a great choice for your next game. It's not terribly complex, but like all good games the strategy you choose largely depends on how well you manage you resources, and how efficient you can be in building up the greatest, most diverse, and safest Alhambra.