That Alhambra won this year's Spiel des Jahres was not a surprise once it was identified as a top-three finalist. But prior to the voting, I would have had a hard time believing that the game would reach that lofty position. It is not a bad game by any stretch, but it is a direct derivative of the earlier Stimmt So and Al Capone games while adding some nice touches that clearly will appeal to both families and gamers alike.

Instead of buying Aunt Emma's stock certificates, this time players buy tiles showing buildings of six different styles in order to create their own Alhambra. The tiles are purchased in the Stimmt So format, meaning that the proper currency (from four types) must be used and if the player pays the exact price they can continue their turn. Once the 'master turn' is over, meaning that everything purchased is completed, the player must either add the tiles to their Alhambra using specified placement rules or put them into a reserve for later placement.

Also following its original, there are three scoring sessions and in each players score for their relative strength in each of the six building types. In the first scoring, only the lead player scores, in the second the first two score, and in the third the top three score. Only tiles that have been built into your personal Alhambra count for the scoring, so although keeping tiles in reserve can be a good strategy, it is one that must be used wisely else the value of the tiles will be lost.

Building the Alhambra is the new addition to the game, and this adds both a nice strategic element but unfortunately also a lot of down time. Each player begins with a central tile and all tiles laid must connect to this via a series of connected courtyards. The tiles have zero, one, two, or three walls on them and walls score when framing the outside of your city. When scoring happens, each player's longest connected wall scores one point per section, and this can be substantial. Interior walls do not score and they cannot be placed against the courtyard. Thus, choosing tiles to buy requires not only the evaluation of your relative standing by building type, but also how the tile will fit onto your display. This is what makes the down-time happen, as it takes longer for each player to decide what to buy and more importantly they then have to spend time orienting things properly in their display. In Stimmt So, you only need to think about the type of stock and then just stack it with the rest, so it plays much faster.

Money cards are available in the four currency types and in various values. When you take money, you can take any of the cards available. But in a very nice enhancement, you are also allowed to take multiple money cards as long as their total is not greater than five. Anyone who has played Stimmt So knows the frustration of having one's and two's available to you, then the card is refilled with a nine for the next guy. The multiple money card draw makes this much less of a problem.

On a turn, then, players can take money, purchase and place tiles, or change their Alhambra. Buying a building at its exact price gets you the choice of these three actions again, so theoretically you could buy four buildings in a turn and still take money. Tiles placed on the reserve, rather than the display, require an action to recover. The 'change Alhambra' action allows a player to move from the reserve to the Alhambra, remove a previously placed tile to the reserve (most likely for a revised wall strategy), or to exchange a placed tile with one from the reserve. This also adds to the strategy but increases the downtime.

The result is an interesting game that takes too long. All of the mechanics work well and this basic design has evolved well with the placement and building addition. But the downtime is a serous drawback since while your turn is more interesting, everyone else's seems to drag. The Queen/Dirk Henn connection continues to produce good output and Alhambra is a nice addition to their line, but consider yourself warned about the downtime.

This is the second of the two db Spiele games that Queen has republishedthis year. The other one, Carat, kept its original name; this one hasn't. It used to be called Al Capone; now it has the subtitle "Aunt Emma goes to the Stock Exchange" and is about buying shares. The new title means "That's correct" and hence, by extension, "Keep the change". The reason for this is that the settling up procedure for share purchase is somewhat non-standard and one wonders if the London Exchange was aware of it when they recently agreed to link up with Frankfurt.

The game revolves round two decks of cards: one has shares in six companiesand the other money in four currencies--dollars, marks, roubles and yen.At the start of each player's turn, the board has four shares for sale--onein each of New York, Frankfurt, Moscow and Tokyo--and four face-upcurrency cards.

Each player begins with five money cards. Thereafter, when your turn comesround, you have a choice: you either take one of the face-up money cardsor you buy a share. If you buy a share, you must pay for it in the correctcurrency: so, if you want the share on display in Tokyo, you must pay for itin yen. No change is given if your available currency cards oblige you topay over the odds--hence the game's title--but, and this is thecunning bit which helps make the game special, if you can and do pay theexact amount, you get to go again immediately. The share you have justbought is not replaced until the end of your turn, but it still means thatif things really fall well for you, you can buy all four shares on display,then take a currency card and then smirk all in the one go.

The reason why this is cunning is that it means that you don't fall behindif a few turns go by without you buying a share. Building up a big hand ofcurrency and then coming in with the sort of spending rush that the flexibilityconferred by a large hand tends to make possible is a good way of buildingup a portfolio. Good, but also risky because (a) there is no guarantee ofthe shares you want being on offer when you have your big hand and (b) tuckedinto the currency deck are a couple of Wertung cards. These are very roughlyat the one third and two third points of the deck and so you know approximatelywhen they are due, but only very approximately. When they appear, you needto have shares in front of you, not a big hand of currency. With the firstWertung card, the biggest shareholder in each company scores points; with thesecond it is the first two; and at the end, which is when the share deck runsout, it is the first three.

With games of this type, the way the scoring is handled matters a lot andhere it has been skilfully done. They have got the balance between knowingand not knowing the position of the Wertung cards exactly right and thescoring builds in a way that means that it ain't over until it's over.The final scoring round is much more significant to the outcome than thesecond and the second much more significant than the first. So everyone'sinterest in the proceedings is maintained until the end.

I like this one a lot and if you enjoyed Show Manager, I think you will too. There is no overlap between the mechanics of the two games--other than the fact that in both you are collecting cards--but the feel and the luck/skill balance are similar. The two games also share theexcellent graphics of Hartwig & Horst and that adds to the pleasure ofboth.

Compete to construct the biggest and best Alhambra. Everyone gets a starting tile, plus 20 units of each of four kinds of currency. Draw four building tiles to the supply board, and four money cards (valued 1 to 9). Each turn, either take one money card, take several cards of total 5 or less, or buy a building tile for its indicated cost. Each tile is next to a symbol showing the currency in which payment must be made. End a turn by placing any purchased tile, then replenish the tiles and money.

Tiles come in different colors and show up to three wall segments. When they're depleted, play ends. Score for having the most, second-most, or third-most of a color, and for each tile edge belonging to your longest wall. Most points wins. Alhambra, Germany's 2003 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year), is built for discerning gamers everywhere... in any currency!

This game is one of our favorite games to play with 2 players. The pieces are sturdy and the colors on the tiles are gorgeous. Since there are different ways to further your scoring points at the end of the rounds, you can play different strategies with each game. Each game is different and fun. I can imagine it will only get better when we play with 3 or 4 players too -- highly recommended. Also we suggest trying Acquire, Lost Cites, Cartegena, and Ta Yü if anyone is looking for some great 2-player games.

Alhambra is a fun light- to medium-weight game. Each player purchases buildings and adds them to their own palace complex. You get points for having the most of a type of building. You have to have the right kind of currency to get a building. And you have to fit the building into your complex in the right way, a bit like a puzzle.

I put off getting this game for a long time because frankly I thought it was little boring to look at. But finally after reading all the great reviews and realizing it got the 2003 Game of the Year Award, I decided to try it. I’m very glad I did. It’s not boring at all to play, and the artwork is actually nice too.

My wife and I have played this game four times so far, both with 2 and 4 players. Everyone that has played has really liked it. For the 2 player version, you have to use a dummy player, but it works well. I highly recommend this game.