Killer Joe
New member
Summary
Alhambra is the latest update to the stock market game Stimmt So!, only it has been completely rethemed with an Arabian theme and has added an additional tile-laying component.
Alhambra has three main components: the currency deck and draw piles, the building tiles and market, and each player has an Alhambra and tile reserve board.
The currency deck is constructed at the beginning of the game by first giving each player their starting money (turn over cards until the sum is equal to or greater than 20 with the player with the lowest sum as the starting player), and then dividing into 5 equal piles, inserting the first scoring card in the second pile and the second scoring card in the fourth pile, and finally restacking the five piles with the fifth stack on the bottom. Four cards are turned over to form the currency draw piles.
The building tiles (all tiles except the 6 Alhambra starting tiles) are mixed and put in the bag. Four tiles are drawn at random and placed in the four spaces on the building market board.
Each player places their reserve board and Alhambra starting tile (fountain) in front of them.
On a player's turn, they can do one of the following actions:
1. Draw one currency card or any number of currency cards that have a total value of 5 or less. Empty slots are refilled for the next player.
2. Buy a tile from the market by playing any number of currency cards whose value equals or exceeds the number on the tile (no change is given) in the appropriate currency for the market that the tile is in on the building market board. Exactly matching the tile value gives the player an additional action. When all turns are finished, the tiles must be added to the Alhambra or placed on the player's reserve board. Tiles played in the Alhambra must have all spaces accessible to the center fountain (not divided by walls), and walls may only be placed against other walls, not against an open side of the tile. When all tiles are placed, new building tiles are drawn to fill the open markets.
3. Alhambra construction. The player may move one tile from the reserve board to the Alhambra, from the Alhambra to the reserve board, or exchange the exact position of one tile in the Alhambra and one in the reserve board.
When the each scoring card appears, the game is immediately paused and the appropriate round is scored. The reserve boards indicate the value scored for the most of each type of building in the Alhambra (tiles on the reserve board don't count), and if two players tie, those rankings are added together and divided by the number of tied players if appropriate. All division of points are rounded down. After scoring buildings, each player then scores the longest wall in their Alhambra, with each wall segment (side of a tile) counting 1 with branches ignored. The third and final scoring is played when there are not enough building tiles available to refill all markets on the building market board. At that point, the player with the highest total value in a currency for unpurchased buildings receives the unpurchased building and may add it to their Alhambra before scoring.
The winner is the player with the highest number of points.
***I bought this game last night and played it with my two children (6 & 9) the 9 yr old liked it but the 6 yr old just wanted to play with the money (jeezsh, what do you think THAT means?). I have been exploring different board games and found this one pretty cool.
Alhambra is the latest update to the stock market game Stimmt So!, only it has been completely rethemed with an Arabian theme and has added an additional tile-laying component.
Alhambra has three main components: the currency deck and draw piles, the building tiles and market, and each player has an Alhambra and tile reserve board.
The currency deck is constructed at the beginning of the game by first giving each player their starting money (turn over cards until the sum is equal to or greater than 20 with the player with the lowest sum as the starting player), and then dividing into 5 equal piles, inserting the first scoring card in the second pile and the second scoring card in the fourth pile, and finally restacking the five piles with the fifth stack on the bottom. Four cards are turned over to form the currency draw piles.
The building tiles (all tiles except the 6 Alhambra starting tiles) are mixed and put in the bag. Four tiles are drawn at random and placed in the four spaces on the building market board.
Each player places their reserve board and Alhambra starting tile (fountain) in front of them.
On a player's turn, they can do one of the following actions:
1. Draw one currency card or any number of currency cards that have a total value of 5 or less. Empty slots are refilled for the next player.
2. Buy a tile from the market by playing any number of currency cards whose value equals or exceeds the number on the tile (no change is given) in the appropriate currency for the market that the tile is in on the building market board. Exactly matching the tile value gives the player an additional action. When all turns are finished, the tiles must be added to the Alhambra or placed on the player's reserve board. Tiles played in the Alhambra must have all spaces accessible to the center fountain (not divided by walls), and walls may only be placed against other walls, not against an open side of the tile. When all tiles are placed, new building tiles are drawn to fill the open markets.
3. Alhambra construction. The player may move one tile from the reserve board to the Alhambra, from the Alhambra to the reserve board, or exchange the exact position of one tile in the Alhambra and one in the reserve board.
When the each scoring card appears, the game is immediately paused and the appropriate round is scored. The reserve boards indicate the value scored for the most of each type of building in the Alhambra (tiles on the reserve board don't count), and if two players tie, those rankings are added together and divided by the number of tied players if appropriate. All division of points are rounded down. After scoring buildings, each player then scores the longest wall in their Alhambra, with each wall segment (side of a tile) counting 1 with branches ignored. The third and final scoring is played when there are not enough building tiles available to refill all markets on the building market board. At that point, the player with the highest total value in a currency for unpurchased buildings receives the unpurchased building and may add it to their Alhambra before scoring.
The winner is the player with the highest number of points.
***I bought this game last night and played it with my two children (6 & 9) the 9 yr old liked it but the 6 yr old just wanted to play with the money (jeezsh, what do you think THAT means?). I have been exploring different board games and found this one pretty cool.