Alhambra combines bidding, building and planning in an unusual and engaging board game. It's the successor of Henn’s earlier stock market game, Stimmt So, but Alhambra has been reworked with a Moorish theme and a tile-layering component. The object of the game is simple: using tiles depicting different building components and with different walls, each player tries to make the best (and biggest) Alhambra possible. Gameplay is simple, rules straightforward, but execution can be very complex. Here's how it works:
The game consists of a deck of currency cards in four suits, representing the different currencies needed to pay different trades people; 54 building tiles showing six different types of buildings with anywhere from zero to three wall segments; a building market; a scoring board; and a starting tile for each player. Each player is given a starting tile that the player’s Alhambra will be built around, and is dealt currency cards adding up to 20 or more. Building tiles are placed in a bag (which should be shaken vigorously) and four tiles are randomly drawn to place in the building market. The two special scoring cards are placed into the currency deck, and you’re ready to play.
Play moves clockwise and during each turn, a player may purchase a building tile from the market, draw a currency card, or rearrange his or her Alhambra. If a player purchases a building tile for exact currency (no change is given) he or she gets a second move that turn, such as drawing currency (one card for a value of five or more, multiple cards equaling five) or rearranging tiles. Easy, right? What makes is more complex is that Alhambra has enough of a balance between luck and strategy to make the game fun for a casual player and challenging for more competitive boardgamers. While the drawing of tiles and money cards is random, a patient and planning player can largely mitigate chance by planning and waiting for the right piece or holding pieces in reserve for later placement.
An early careless placement can haunt the player for the duration of the game; while you can redesign your Alhambra, it’s not so easy as moving tiles around and can be a several turn process, so a thoughtlessly placed wall can leave a player unable to add on to the structure. Make sure to leave room to build out, and remember that you get points for having a continuous wall. Scoring is in three rounds, and in each, points are awarded for having the most of each kind (color) of building and the longest wall.
Alhambra is an international multi-award winner. It won the 2003 Spiel des Jahres; 2005 Vuoden Aikuistenpeli; As d’Or in 2003; and the 2005 Årets Familiespill - Family Game of the Year Norway, among others. If you still have any doubt about the internal appeal of the game, the separate rule sheets in English, German, France, Dutch, Italian and Spanish leave little doubt. (Ed.: The Spiel des Jahres award is the single most prestigious award for boardgames globally.)
Alhambra is for 2-6 players and will take (on average) 45-60 minutes of your time. It is recommended for players age 8 and up, although I suspect that the younger set would become bored very quickly. It will take you about ten minutes to set up, is easy to learn and to play, and will require your concentration to win, so you’ll will want to play before you break out the Talisker or other after dinner beverage. An Xbox Live Arcade version of Alhambra is in development, but don’t wait for it; the pleasure of playing a good board game with friends and family is unmatched, and this is not merely good, but excellent.
Play tone varies with number of players
It might be helpful to add that the timing mechanism in this game is the (finite) set of building tiles available. This means that games with two or three players are longer and lean more heavily towards strategy (not having the state of what's available change dramatically between your turns makes long-term planning more viable).
As you add players, the game becomes shorter and more chaotic, until at the top end Alhambra really isn't all that fun because you have much less control over long-term planning and must really make the best of what's left after four or five other turns have been taken.
Alhambra is probably at its absolute best with three players, which means it occupies a nice niche for those who like boardgames: good three-player games are relatively scarce.
5/6 player fix
As noted, there are issues when you add more players. Fortunately there's an easy fix that makes the game fun again with five or six. It was added as part of one of the (three) expansion sets, but you don't actually need to get that (although all of the expansions have interesting aspects and are worth looking at.)
Basically, each player gets a piece that allows them to buy a tile out of turn for the exact money. They can get the piece back on their own turn by skipping an action. This reduces the crap-shoot element of the game without distorting the essence of it, and makes it fun again, rather than frustrating.
It's worth noting as well that Alhambra was effectively the third published attempt at the same game by the designer; the previous versions (one a Mafia game and one a Stock market game) are fine but this is where it all comes together and just works.