The Alcazaba-variation is a combination of Alhambra - The Dice Game and the original Alhambra.

To be able to play this variation you need both the basic game and the dice game. From the dice game you use the game board, the marker stones and the dice. In addition you need the building tiles and starting tiles and reserve boards from Alhambra. The bonus chips and the black die from the dice game are not used. The game board has different front and back sides, one for the basic dice game and one for the Alcazaba version.

Alcazaba plays very much like the dice game. There are five rounds and the number of turns the players have per round depends on the number of players. In the beginning of every round six building tiles are placed in the building area on the game board, above the dice area. The players take turns rolling the dice and placing them on the dice area of the game board.

Instead of getting points for the placements on the dice area, the players get building tiles from the building area. Of these tiles the players build their alhambras, according to the rules of the base game.

As in the dice games, there are three scoring rounds (after the first, the third and the fifth game round). In these scoring rounds the players get points for their alhambras as in the base game.

First it seems that this variation is not worth much, but it is actually really nice. Comperad to this it seems the dice game is just about rolling dice and trying to score points, and then score more points for the points. In this version you really get something as a reward for your placement on the dice area. Also, building your alhambra is a bigger challenge than in the basic game since you can't choose as freely which tiles you get.