Average Joe reviews are aimed at the average gamer. You know who you are!

Those of us who:
1) Know what ‘Eurogame’ and ‘Ameritrash’ means.
2) Know that enjoying the game is more important than winning.
3) Don’t own more than 50 games.
4) Don’t consider their FLGS a second home (maybe a 3rd or 4th though).
5) Like to read a review without being overloaded with information.


I am fairly new to the game of Alhambra, but after seeing it here and on store shelves - it had been sitting in the corner of my brain as a future purchase. Last month, I got my chance to play this simple... but quite masterful, game.

Wow! I wasn't expecting much after reading the directions, but boy did this game impress me! To tell you the truth, it impressed me even more when I played it a second time. I can't wait to play it again!

This is just a quick review for those of us on BGG that consider ourselves gamers but have less than 50 games in our collection. I won't waste time explaining the game - if you need instructions, that can be found on the Alhambra BGG game page.

Artwork:
Good enough - nothing too fancy... that includes the box art, cards and tiles. Doesn't detract from the game.

Components:
Very good - the tiles are solidly made to last a good long time. Cards are of standard stock, and I can see them getting worn over time. The boards are nice, especially the score board (wish Carcassonne would have something like this).

The Rules:
Very good - easy to understand, not too long, and plenty of examples. Once read, rarely had to refer to manual while playing the first time.

The Game:
Excellent - I was honestly amazed at all the things going on during the game! At first, it appeared like you just bought some buildings and put them in your city. If ONLY things were that simple! You have to figure out your money, what tiles you need, what colors you should be trying to collect, what colors are other players buying that you need to make sure you have more of, how to place them in your city without making things hard on yourself... and quite a few more things! This is not a put-down at all, it is a HIGH compliment for the game. I loved all the dynamics or what was going on - plenty of different strategies to follow, and you could switch strategies in mid-game depending on how things were going.

Downtime:
Next to None - the game moved along very swiftly. There are some brief Analysis Paralysis moments, but even those were not too bad.

Game Length:
Just Right - nobody was getting tired of the game when the finish was approaching. The 3 scoring rounds made it really interesting - especially since you didn't know exactly when the scoring rounds would pop up... I really liked this random mechanic.

Finish:
Very good - for some reason, both games we played we were very equal on scoring throughout the whole game. And the final score reflected that - we were within 7 points of each other. We really could not guess who was winning until the final round of scoring, so the surprise was great. Nobody had the feeling of being way behind, and just waiting for the game to get over.

Pros:
Easy instructions and playability
Good between longer games
Good gateway game

Cons:
Honestly, can't come up with any at the moment!

Overall:
I highly recommend this game - while it isn't a heavy gamer's game, it isn't a overly light game either. I wish I had picked this game up a long time ago, as everyone really loved it.

I give it a 9/10