For Christmas Owen got me the game, Alhambra: The Card Game. This week we finally got to play it. I should note that we’ve also played the regular board game of Alhambra. I don’t remember anything about it, so we’ll just stick to the card game.
The card game consists of four different currencies, represented by four colors, and six different types of buildings. There is also a small board that denotes the four currencies. Building cards are placed beside the board so you know which currency is needed to buy what building. Only four buildings are available on any one turn. Also next to the board are four currency cards. The buildings cards and currency cards are refreshed after each player’s turn. On a player’s turn they can either, buy a building or pick up a currency card. To buy a building, a player discards a number of the correct currency cards equal to or greater than the price on the building. If the discarded currency exactly equals the price of the building, you get to take another action. This is very important in the game. You score points at various times during the game by having more buildings in a specific color than your poor, hapless opponents.
So how did our games go? We enjoyed them even though at times it can be frustrating to see an opportunity pass you by because you were one or two short on the currency you needed. And how is it that Ben always had a plethora of currency in his hands AND a ton of buildings on the table? This happened both games. Even though Ben had a lot of buildings, he apparently didn’t have the right buildings to score a win. Mike won the first game with 99 points, Owen was second with 75, and (surprisingly) Ben languished in third place with 69 points. I was a distant last with only 50 points.
Our second game was a little more even all around. After the first scoring, in which I did very well, Owen read the rules and realized we had been setting up the scoring cards wrong in the currency deck. Fingers were pointed at both Ben and I who had read the rules (supposedly.) We decided to continue on with the game.
Ben had even more building cards down this game and ended up winning with 85 points. Mike and I tied for second with 71 points and poor Owen came in last with 61. It’s ok though, Owen gets his revenge in the next game.
We still had time so we played the Monopoly Deal card game. This is a great little card game that you can even play with non-gamer friends. The deck is filled with properties, money, and action cards. The idea is collect three property sets. If you do, you win the game. Just beware of the other players forcing you to pay rent or even taking over one of your property sets. We played two games of this. In the first game, it looked like Mike had the game all sewed up, but never count Owen out. Through some tricky card playing he got his three sets and won. The second game was much faster, but Owen was just as tricky. He had the cards and he knew how to use them. In one turn he went from have one set to having three and winning the game.
Next week, back to Agents of Oblivion.
Chaos Steve