Game: Alhambra: Thief's Turn

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rober — 2008-08-12T08:52:36+00:00

game overview

Thread: Re: Errata en las reglas en castellano

terKo — 2008-06-17T10:03:25+00:00

Aclaración.

El error es en las reglas oficiales de Queen Games y no en las reglas oficiosas que se pueden descargar desde aquí.

Saludos.

Thread: Errata en las reglas en castellano

hemp — 2008-06-16T21:57:56+00:00

En las reglas en castellano, se indica erróneamente que 6 cartas de muralla han de ser introducidas, en los montones 2, 3 y 4 (dos por montón) al preparar el mazo de cartas de dinero. Deacuerdo con las reglas originales, las 8 (todas) cartas de muralla deben ser introducidas en los montones 2, 3, 4 y 5 (dos por montón) al preparar el mazo de cartas de dinero.

Thread: Re: Alhambra (The Thief's Turn) - A Detailed Review

Luk Van Baelen — 2008-01-11T16:54:33+00:00

My ratings for this set:
#9 The City Walls The right wall at the right time in the right place. Bingo! Everyone seems to like this expansion - mmmh does that mean that everybody is struggling with walls?
#10 The Thieves
#11 The Change
#12 The Street Trader Initally I thought this would have huge impact and the player doing this well would be the clear winner of the game. However it doesn't pan out that way: in the end it hardly makes a big difference on the final score. But a fun expansion and that's why I like it

Looks like we are 100% aligned on this one!

Thread: Re: Alhambra (The Thief's Turn) - A Detailed Review

stormseeker75 — 2008-01-11T14:13:51+00:00

Great review. Very thorough and detailed.

Thread: Alhambra (The Thief's Turn) - A Detailed Review

Neil Thomson — 2008-01-11T11:39:40+00:00

This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.

Summary

Game Type - Board Game (Tile)
Play Time: 80-90 minutes
Number of Players: 2-6
Mechanics – Set Collection, Tile Laying, Resource Management
Difficulty – Pick-up & Play (Can be learnt in under 15 minutes)
Components - Excellent

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Image Courtesy of patrel

This is the third in a series of reviews that will analyse each of the 4 Alhambra expansions. I will outline each expansion on its own merits and then comment on how well it interacts with other expansions in the Alhambra Family.

As each Boxed Expansion for Alhambra includes 4 mini-expansions, I will refer to a box as an Expansion Set and each of the 4 additions within each box as Mini-Expansions. This will hopefully avoid confusion as I discuss each in turn.

At the end of this review is a series of links to help find my other Alhambra Reviews.

#9 - The City Walls

Components - As the namesake of this Expansion Set, The City Walls offers 8 cards and 12 wooden wall pieces. Each of the cards depicts a silhouette of a building tile with a wall on 1 or 2 of the sides. The orientation of the walls relative to the tile is important so a silhouette of a tile’s name and cost is also present at the bottom of each tile. The background of each card features an illustration of City Walls to reinforce the theme of the Mini-Expansion.

The wooden walls are black in colour to match their counterparts on the building tiles and they are similar to the roads in Settlers of Catan, only longer.

All 8 cards feature in the game, with 2 cards being inserted into money piles 2, 3, 4 and 5 before the start of play.

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Image Courtesy of terKo

Impact – City Wall cards enter play once they are drawn from the money deck. Rather than be added to the 4 money cards, they are placed near the marketplace for all players to see, and an additional money card is drawn to replace it.

From now on the players have an additional action – take a City Wall Card. Doing so allows a player to place 1 or 2 walls (outlined by each card) on tiles they control. Walls can be placed on newly purchased tiles, tiles in a player’s Reserve or tiles already in play. The walls must be placed to match the exact orientation of the diagram on the City Wall Card and wooden walls cannot be placed on top of walls already present on a tile.

When placing walls, two rules from the base game must still be adhered to. Internal walls can only exist if they are back to back (double sided) and a path must still be traceable from the tile in question to the fountain (pedestrian rule).

Once a City Wall card is taken, it must be used immediately and the card is discarded after use.

Tiles with wooden city walls on them cannot be redesigned for the remainder of the game.

Any number of City Wall Cards can be ‘in play’ at one time. City Wall Pieces can add to a player’s longest wall for purposes of scoring. City Gates from Expansion Set #2 cannot be built over wooden City Walls.

Strategy – The City Walls is an example of a Mini-Expansion that is all about timing and context. It is not uncommon for these cards to stay on the table for some time before players consider using them. This is because acquiring too many walls early can create an enclosed Alhambra that will require costly redesigning actions to rectify later.

City Walls do come into their own though in the last 3rd of the game and can be excellent in covering gaps to create that 18-20+ longest wall project.

Another great use for city walls is to help purchase tiles from the marketplace that otherwise would not fit into your Alhambra. This is most common when the purchase of a tile and its placement would result in an internal wall that isn’t double sided. By paying the exact amount for a tile and using the bonus action to collect a City Wall Card with a wall on the correct side, options suddenly appear.

Tiles with wooden City Walls cannot be redesigned. For this reason it is unwise to have too many of them, unless you are confident in your initial building plans.

Interaction with other Expansion Sets – The City Walls interact strongly with Expansion Set #2 and in particular the Camps Mini-Expansions. These tiles feature ‘Bastions’ which must connect to a city wall when the tile is placed. Using wooden City Walls is a great way to create the perfect hanging point for Camps, should they not exist naturally.

If a player has Workers Huts from Expansion Set #1 in play, they will need to consider adding additional City Walls carefully as they will block tiles from having a positive effect on Worker’s Huts.

Feelings – This Mini-Expansion is another strong inclusion to the Alhambra Series. I like the way they don’t really affect the flow of the game too early but can have a significant impact in the middle and late game.

The means for acquiring them is also wickedly implemented by the designers as it takes a full action to take a City Wall Card. This creates a nice balance to counter their potentially crucial importance.

Rating –

#10 – The Thieves

Components – This Mini-Expansion offers 12 cards. Each card depicts a thief in a hooded cloak and one of the 4 currencies. There are 3 cards for each currency.

These cards are dealt to each of the players at the beginning of the game. The higher the number of players, the fewer Thief Cards each player receives. The maximum players can receive is 4 and the fewest they can receive is 2. Any unused Thief Cards are not used in the game.

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Image Courtesy of hoojii

Impact – The Thief Cards are played in similar fashion to the Vizier from Expansion Set #1. At the end of any turn (except the one prior to their own), a player can declare they wish to use a Thief Card. If no other player makes a similar announcement, the player can disrupt the normal sequence of play and take any 1 money card of the currency matching that of the Thief Card played. The Thief Card is then discarded and removed from the game.

If one or more players wish to use a Thief Card, or use their Vizier (they both interrupt the normal sequence of play), the 1st player in clockwise order from the last player to have their turn gets precedence.
Money Cards are immediately replaced once taken with a Thief and a player can use multiple Thief Cards at once.

Strategy – The most obvious use of a Thief card is to acquire a money card with a value that will enable the player to pay the exact amount for a desirable tile. A player should however follow the play closely as another player may already have the money available to purchase the desired tile. The use of a Thief Card may simply signal your intentions and see them buy the tile.

The only other consideration is to use a Thief in order to pick up high value money cards or currencies of a particular type that you are short in.

It should also be noted that a Thief Card can be used immediately before the use of a Vizier Token and vice versa (provided it is not your turn next, in which case only the Vizier could be used). The need to do so would have to be compelling but I have seen it used to good effect.

Interaction with other Expansion Sets – There is no real direct linkages that can be made to other Expansion Sets. A Thief Card could certainly be used to acquire a large value money card if you felt that a Character Card was due in the deck (which would start an auction) but this is more guesswork than a direct interaction.

I guess a Thief Card could also be used to acquire a certain money card, which could be used in conjunction later with 1 or more Change Tokens (see below).

Feelings – This is a fairly weak Mini-Expansion but it serves a relatively simple purpose. The saving grace is that it is ‘rule light’ and won’t trouble player’s brain matter at all.

Rating –

#11 – The Change

Components – This Mini-Expansion offers 24 coins and a black, drawstring cloth bag (mmm…cloth bag). There are 6 coins for each of the 4 original currencies and the coins use the 4 distinct colours and patterns to make them visibly obvious.

The coins are all placed in the cloth bag ready for play.

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Image Courtesy of garion

Impact – The Coins Mini-Expansion has been included to help reduce the penalty of overpaying for tiles in the marketplace. Whenever a player overpays, they can draw a Coin from the bag for every two money they pay in excess of the asking price. So paying 8 for a 4 cost tile would earn 2 Coins.

Coins collected can then be used to help buy any purchasable items during the game (tiles, Characters, Camps etc etc). Each Coin is worth 1 of the currency it represents and they can be handy to help pay the exact amount and earn a bonus action.

There is no limit to this exchange rate, so perceivably a player could pay 18 for an 8 cost tile and take 5 Coins.

Coins can also be earned by overpaying using Diamonds and overpaying when buying Character Cards and Camps.

Coins also count towards a player’s money totals at the end of the game when players seek to win tiles left in the marketplace.

When a Coin is used it is returned to the bag to be potentially redrawn again.

Coins are always drawn randomly from the cloth bag.

Strategy – If you are forced to overpay for a tile, make sure you overpay in a multiple of 2 if at all possible. Coins are not a game breaker and they will often be of little use for much of the game. But they can be vital just that once or twice and that can make them invaluable.

Interaction with other Expansion Sets – As stated above, Coins can have a bearing on the Diamonds mini-Expansion (EP #2) and The Character Cards Mini-Expansion (EP #2).

Feelings – This is another light addition to Alhambra and even more straight forward to implement than The Thieves above. I’m a little undecided as to my feelings on this one.

On the one hand I feel it rewards players who don’t manage their money all that well, which is a major part of the base game. On the other hand however, I have been in positions where the money and tile combos just conspire against you and every other player but you manages to pay the exact amount and earn bonus actions.

From this perspective, 'The Coins' addition helps to minimise the pain of having to overpay.

If nothing else this is the easiest Mini-Expansion to set-up. I’ll let you be the judge.

Rating –

#12 – The Street Trader

Components – This Mini-Expansion is the most component heavy of all the Mini-Expansions. It offers 42 wooden Citizen pieces (think mini-meeple) and 6 circular Trader Tiles. There are 7 wooden Citizens in each of the 6 player colours and the Trader Tiles depict an illustration of a traveling trader.

During set-up, each player is given a Trader tile and 6 Citizens, 1 of each colour. Each player must then select 3 of the 6 Citizens in secret and all players reveal their selections simultaneously.

The selected Citizens are then placed on their owner's Trader Tile and that tile must be placed adjacent to each player’s fountain (orthogonally), ready for the start of the game.

The Citizens that were not chosen are returned to the general supply of Citizens (all pieces are used in the game).

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Image Courtesy of terKo

Impact – The aim for each player is to try and place a tile into their Alhambra in the exact location currently held by their Trader Tile. However to gain a benefit, the colour of the tile must match the colour of one of the 3 Citizens on the Trader Tile. If this occurs, the Citizen can be placed on the newly placed building. Supposedly they have bought something from the Street Trader (from a thematic perspective).

A new Citizen must then be selected from the general supply and added to the player’s Trader Tile. This tile can then be moved adjacent to any other tile in the player’s Alhambra (again orthogonally).

Getting Citizens into buildings is of course done in order to score points. In each scoring round a player will earn points based on the number of 'Citizen Sets' they possess within their Alhambra. A set is defined as a group of differently coloured Citizens. The maximum set size is 6 (the number of colours) and this will earn a whopping 21 points! To create multiple sets there must be more than 1 Citizen of a given colour(s) within a player's Alhambra.

For example if a player had 3 red, 2 blue and a white Citizen in their Alhambra – they would have 3 sets. The first set is red, blue white, the 2nd set is red, blue and the final set is a single red.

After scoring, the Citizens stay in place and can be scored again in future rounds.

If a tile is placed in the location of the Trader Tile, but does not match the colour of a Citizen, then no piece may enter the building. The player can however exchange one Citizen for another from the General Supply if they wish, before placing the Trader Tile in a new location.

If a tile containing a Citizen is redesigned out of a player’s Alhambra, the Citizen is returned to the general supply.

Tiles such as Bazaars, Worker’s Huts and Camps can be placed over the Trader Tile but have no bearing on the Citizens.

Strategy – Moving Citizens from your Trader Tile into your buildings is extremely important as the points on offer are just too great to pass up. When selecting your initial 3 Citizens, consider the types of tiles you prefer to acquire (for scoring purposes) and select these.

It may also help to know your opponent’s preferences as avoiding going for the same tiles will help you secure them and increase your chances of getting Citizens into play (less competition for those tiles).

When you have the opportunity to select or exchange Citizens, consider the make-up of tiles already in the marketplace and take notice of the number of Citizens in each colour in the general supply. Taking a colour to ensure you have a chance of scoring a ‘set of 6’ is important and there is also potential to take a colour that will deny your opponents the same opportunity.

Another consideration is to purchase tiles in the marketplace that are needed by other players to get their Citizens into buildings.

Interaction with other Expansion Sets – There is no direct interaction with other Expansion Sets, but the inclusion of The Street Trader will create implications. The more Citizens in your Alhambra, the less flexibility you will have to redesign, on account that Citizens are lost when a tile is removed. If you are using the Bazaars and/or Worker’s Huts, redesigning may be mandatory. As they say, something has to give.

Feelings – This is the most complex and ‘brain taxing’ Mini-Expansion in the 16 available. It certainly adds a tenseness to the game as the points on offer are very important and are likely to help determine the winner.

The only problem I see here is that for such an important game changing addition, there is not enough player control – the luck factor can be too high. This is because once you have your 3 Citizens on your Trader Tile, you are very much at the mercy of what tiles are drawn and added to the marketplace. If the tiles of the wrong colour keep appearing, your Citizens may remain static for some time.

Of course you can exchange them for a colour that is already in the marketplace but if your opponent's have gotten lucky, you tend to feel like the game is slipping away.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this Mini-Expansion, I just question the luck factor that can influence big scoring rounds.

It’s also worth noting that this Mini-Expansion is the most likely to cause a bit of analysis paralysis. This occurs when a player needs to select a new Citizen or is exchanging Citizens. Due to the importance of this decision being a good one, players are prone to counting how many of each tile are in play, to work out the odds of those tiles appearing again, which of course affects their choice of Citizen.

Rating –

The Final Word

This is another good Expansion Set for the Alhambra Series. Given the depth of ‘The Street Trader’ Mini-Expansion, the light ‘Thieves’ and ‘Change’ Mini-Expansions help balance the Set nicely.

Overall however 'The City Walls' sits as the 3rd best Expansion Set in the series in my opinion. ‘The Thieves’ and ‘Change’ are just a little too light for my liking and for many gamers, I think The Street Trader may just be a little too confusing to bother with. I recommend perseverance though as it does feel very rewarding when you get it right.

12 out of 20 feels a little harsh on this Expansion Set but that's how the numbers fell.

Overall Rating - 12 's out of 20 's

Links

Alhambra

Expansion Set #1 - The Vizier's Favour

Expansion Set #2 - The City Gates

Expansion Set #4 - The Treasure Chamber

Alhambra - The Dice Game

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patrel — 2007-10-04T18:07:41+00:00

Alhambra the thiefs turn Queen boxfront

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hoojii — 2007-08-25T13:10:57+00:00

Thieves

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hoojii — 2007-08-25T13:09:30+00:00

Residents lined up.

Thread: Re: Merchant Question

Jonathan Ward — 2007-02-14T09:39:42+00:00

Forget the above. We played it again last night with the above rule from the start and it just did not feel right. The traders were a handicap with only about four apiece being placed all game. We will from now on, when placing more than one building tile in a turn, replenish the trader disc prior to placing the second tile in order to match the trader colour to the tile, and again if placing a third or fourth tile. No limit on how many traders can be placed in a turn.

Thread: Re: Merchant Question

Jonathan Ward — 2007-02-11T09:53:10+00:00

We had the same problem last night with our first play. Initially my wife simply placed her first building on the trader tile and added a trader of the correct colour to it. Next she took a trader from the general stock that matched the colour of the second building she was about to place. Placing it again on the trader tile and adding a trader. NEXT, she redesigned her Alhambra by putting a further building tile on the trader tile and...in other words she put down three traders in one turn.

Shortly afterwards I had the same opportunity when my wife asked, out of curiousity apparently (it would be my turn of course) whether we were interpreting the rules correctly. After some discussion we agreed to this interpretation:

In a turn traders can be added to your Alhambra from your trader tile only. With trader replenishment coming at the end of the turn. Thus you can only place a maximum of three traders per turn and are consequently compelled to use the colours on the tile and not dip into the general stock as before. It was our first go so this may change with more plays...but it did seem to work well last night.

Thread: Re: First impression

mixsea — 2007-01-03T23:53:47+00:00

Thanks for your comments on this Alhambra expansion. I've got it on order and I look forward to trying it out in the near future. Overall, how do you rate this expansion?

Thread: Merchant Question

Zelide — 2006-11-23T19:37:38+00:00

We've come across a situation with the merchant expansion that isn't covered by the rules. What happens when you are able to purchase two or more buildings during your turn due to paying exactly? Are you allowed to place merchants in each building (assuming the colors are correct), or do you only get to place a merchant on one tile per turn regardless of how many buildings are placed?

Thread: Re: Timing of Replenishment?

bobm174 — 2006-11-22T21:43:05+00:00

My understanding is that the cards and buildings are replaced
before a player chooses to use either their Vizier or the Thief cards.

Bob

Thread: Timing of Replenishment?

Ophryon — 2006-11-05T16:01:08+00:00

I have a question about the timing of replenishing the money cards and building tiles back up to 4. Does it technically happen at the end of a player's turn, or at the beginning of the next player's turn?

In the base game, the timing was irrelevant: the replenishment effectively happened "between" one player and the next. Now, however, we have the Vizier and the Thief, who take their special moves before the "next" player goes.

The base game rules say "When your turn is over, play proceeds clockwise to the next player. Before the next player decides what actions to take, any money cards or building tiles which have been removed are replaced with new ones..."

I read this to mean that replenishment happens at the start of a turn, which means the Thief and the Vizier take their Special Move before replenishment, and may not always have 4 items to choose from. Am I interpreting this correctly?

Thread: Re: RGG reprint now on it's way!

laurion — 2006-10-06T14:31:44+00:00

I sure hope so! I preordered this 3 months ago, when it still said late August delivery.... and it's holding up the rest of my order!

Thread: Re: RGG reprint now on it's way!

JeffyJeff — 2006-09-30T22:03:19+00:00

http://riograndegames.com/allgames.html has removed the release date, and changed the font color to RED indicating it's a recent reprint, so it does indeed appear to be "in the pipeline".

Thread: Re: Thief Questions

Bernd — 2006-08-17T21:26:13+00:00

Hi Bob

bobm174 wrote:

Thanks Bernd. One more question: If player A and B in your example both want to play the thief I understand it would go A then B.
But what if A wants to play 3 thiefs and so does B? Would A get
to play all 3 before B can do anything?

Bob

That is a bit confusing, because in my example player B is not allowed to play a thief card.

But anyway, if there are two players both wanting to play a thief - let's call them player C and D - first player C plays all his thief cards he wants to play than player D. But keep attention, after playing one card you have to refill the money cards!

Hope that helps and all the best from germany
Bernd

Thread: Re: Thief Questions

bobm174 — 2006-08-05T06:01:42+00:00

Thanks Bernd. One more question: If player A and B in your example both want to play the thief I understand it would go A then B.
But what if A wants to play 3 thiefs and so does B? Would A get
to play all 3 before B can do anything?

Bob

Thread: Re: Thief Questions

Bernd — 2006-08-04T22:58:09+00:00

bobm174 wrote:
I just read the English translated rules posted on this site.
It says something to the effect that you can use the Thief at the
end of your turn. So unlike the Vizier it does not count as a turn and like the Vizier others can jump in except for person about to take their turn. Right?

Also, it says you can use more then 1 thief card one after another.
Does that apply to all players? In other words would this situation be in accordance to the rules:

Player 1 just took their last action and is ending thier turn. They use 1 thief card. Then player 3 uses 2 turn card. Does that sound legal?

Hi Bob,
let me clearify it this way:
-Thief cards were played between the turns
-You are not allowed to play any thief card just before your own turn
-If there are more than 1 thief card to be played, nearest to next player in game order is the first to play a thief. The others will follow clockwise. For example: Turn order is Player A than B than C than D.
Player A just finished his turn. Player B is not allowed to play a thief. If the other players want to play a thief, player C is first than D than A.
Hope that helps and all the best from germany
Bernd

Thread: Thief Questions

bobm174 — 2006-08-04T19:58:42+00:00

I just read the English translated rules posted on this site.
It says something to the effect that you can use the Thief at the
end of your turn. So unlike the Vizier it does not count as a turn and like the Vizier others can jump in except for person about to take their turn. Right?

Also, it says you can use more then 1 thief card one after another.
Does that apply to all players? In other words would this situation be in accordance to the rules:

Player 1 just took their last action and is ending thier turn. They use 1 thief card. Then player 3 uses 2 thief cards. Does that sound legal?

Bob

Bob

Thread: Re: Comments on Lindsey’s Translation

Lindsey — 2006-02-17T01:36:29+00:00

It looks like you can now leave comments directly for the file, so I’d recommend doing that instead of using this thread.

Thread: RGG reprint now on it's way!

JeffyJeff — 2006-02-04T16:38:53+00:00

http://riograndegames.com/allgames.html now shows release date as May...

Jeff

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garion — 2005-10-18T20:25:41+00:00

coins and bag

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garion — 2005-10-18T20:25:41+00:00

cards, front and back

Thread: Re: Rules translation

Lindsey — 2005-10-10T00:47:19+00:00

At the end of the game, the Men that are placed in buildings are evaluated as follows...
If I read the rules correctly, you get points for residents during each of the three scorings, not just at the end of the game.

Thread: Re: Comments on Lindsey’s Translation

Lindsey — 2005-09-25T06:26:56+00:00

I just noticed a substantial rules mistake in my translation: In the “Traveling Merchant” module, residents are counted during each scoring round, not just at the end of the game.

I’m not sure I like the rule, to tell the truth — Counting the different colors without moving the meeples could be confusing. But that’s how it’s written.

[Edit: I’ve updated the translation to include these changes.]

Thread: Re: Comments on Lindsey’s Translation

Lindsey — 2005-09-17T07:16:29+00:00

There are a couple tweaks to make since I posted the translation. Most importantly, I forgot to list it as a translation into English. Oops. [Edit: The moderator changed the name for me so it now is labeled as an English translation. Thanks!]

And in retrospect, it looks a little odd to call one of the modules “Traveling Salesman,” since that makes me think of computer algorithms. “Traveling Merchant” would give the same meaning without the strange association.

Thread: Comments on Lindsey’s Translation

Lindsey — 2005-09-13T06:26:22+00:00

Hi all,

I just thought it would be a good idea to open a thread to discuss the translation I just posted (“Lindsey’s English Translation”) for Die Stunde der Diebe. I’m looking for any comments you have and any mistakes, spelling goofs, etc. you may have noticed.

Thread: Re: Rules translation

Bernd — 2005-07-01T22:17:34+00:00

Wall cards are set up seperately, if they comes up from the money card pile. If there is a further wall card drawn, this card will also be laid aside, so you can now choose from two wall cards, and so on. This is other than the gate cards in the second expansion.
There could only be one open gate card at a time.
Hope that helps and all the best from germany
Bernd

Thread: Re: Rules translation

terKo — 2005-06-30T05:26:44+00:00

With the Gates: if you extract a Gate, you place it to the side and refill with another card, if it is another Gate, discard. If it is a money card, stop.

Thread: Re: Rules translation

boomtron — 2005-06-29T21:28:49+00:00

Thank you. I understand you very well. But another question, The gate cards from the second expansion, do they get set aside as well? I think that the rules about those, do say to discard duplicates. I appreciate your help.

Lucas

Thread: Re: Rules translation

terKo — 2005-06-29T20:20:34+00:00

Wall Card must be puts to the side and you extract another card to refill the construction yard.

Never the rules says that you should have to eliminate a card of the game for having other equal card in game.

I hope that you understand me, my English is not very good.

A Greeting.

Thread: Re: Rules translation

GeoMan — 2005-06-29T19:45:16+00:00

Can someone post a full English translation here (to avoid any further confusion and rules questions?)

Thread: Re: Rules translation

boomtron — 2005-06-29T15:30:58+00:00

Another question,

When the wall cards are revealed, are they put in the display with the money cards? Or are they set aside seperately? Same goes for the gate cards from the second expansion. There seem to be some conflicting translations. Also, for the walls, if you draw a second one while the first is still there, the second gets discarded. Is this true for wall cards as well? Thanks

Lucas

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LDP1010 — 2005-06-29T13:23:47+00:00

Thread: Re: Rules translation

Bernd — 2005-06-16T22:13:38+00:00

Hello,
first let me thank Carl Johan Ragnarsson for his translation.

But lets now the questions:
With the thief....can you only take the colour of money shown on the thief card?
yep.

With the change expansion, what do you do with spent change tokens? (put them back in the bag?)
yep.

With the flying traders...in the rulebook it looks like when you get a correct colour building, you add the trader piece to the building, move the market, AND add a trader to the market.....is this correct?
yep. And if you move the market after placing a building without adding a figure to the building you may (if you want) exchange one of the figures on your market with a figure of any other color available inthe public supply.

Hope that helps and all the best from germany
Bernd

Thread: Re: Rules translation

Thaur — 2005-06-06T15:14:56+00:00

My German not perfect too... So all under is just my 2 cents.

The thief

At the start of the game, each player receives, with 2 or 3 players 4 theives, with 4 players 3 theives and with 5 players 2 thieves.

...with 5-6 players 2 thieves.

If more players want to play a thief, the player who is first in turn order (notice that the player who is in turn can't play a thief) gets to play his first. [I assume that if one player says "I play a thief", another player who is before him in turn order may play a thief afterwards, meaning the player who originally played a thief has to wait (and can change his decision later if he wants).]

I don't think so. The German rule says "gleichzeitig": at the same time. So I assume there is a problem only if two or more players play out their cards exactly in the same time. More, the German rules says: "Wollen mehrere Spieler gleichzeitig eine bestimmte Geldkarte nehmen" - it means, as I think, "If more then one players want one certain card at the same thime". It means one player plays out a green thief, and one a blue thief, it's not a problem, because they don't interfere each other. But if 2 or 3 players play out 1-1 green thief, and they want the same green money card, there's a problem.

It's quite the same like playing two or more Wesirs at the same time - see the English rules here at BGG.

The flying traders

I'm absolutely not sure, but maybe it's more "the wandering" then "the flying"...

The player receives 1 man of each color, and chooses (without showing to the other players [German: wählt er verdeckt]) 3 of them to place on his tile.

...his tile, and the other 3 is returned to the supply.

Whenever a player places a building on the Market (new building or from reserve), the circle is put to the side. If the color matches one of the men on the Market, he places a man of the corresponding color from his Market on the tile. If the color does not match, he places an extra man of his choice from the supply (or none if it is emptied) on the Market. Only at the end of the turn is the Market replaced on a tile of his choice around the Alhambra.

Whenever a player places a building on the Market (new building or from reserve), the circle is put to the side. If the color matches one of the men on the Market, he may place a man of the corresponding color from his Market on the tile. If so, then he places an extra man of his choice from the supply (or none if it is emptied) on the Market.
If the color does not match, he may place a man of his color from the supply, in exchange one of his man from his Market.

Only at the end of the turn is the Market replaced on a tile of his choice around the Alhambra.
...on a free place... (side to side at least one tile...)

Men may never be placed on Bauhütten (expansion 1) or Feldlager (expansion 2). [I assume here that you still get to add a man to the Market if it is replaced by one of those.]

Yes, I think, but not get to add - it's may change. (You can't have more then 3 tenant (men) on your Market.)

And the questions:

With the thief....can you only take the colour of money shown on the thief card?

Yes.

With the change expansion, what do you do with spent change tokens? (put them back in the bag?)

Yes.

With the flying traders...in the rulebook it looks like when you get a correct colour building, you add the trader piece to the building, move the market, AND add a trader to the market.....is this correct? the original translation made it seem like you just added the matching colour piece to the building tile, but not another to the market.

Yes. With the correct colour, you add the tenant (trader, man, whatever ), put aside the market (just at the end of your turn you place to an other free place), and add a tenant to the market from the supply.

I'm a bit confused here. Regarding the flying traders, every player gets one man of each color, but at scoring time you score for sets of men. How is it possible to have more than one set if you only have 1 guy of each color?

First, there are 7 sets (7 tenant of all colour). So, even with 6 players, there is still one untacted set in the supply.

Then, after you've choosed 3 tenant for your market, you place back the other 3 to the supply.

We presumed that this meant that if you get a blue trader into a building, then you use all of your blue buildings to generate sets and so on. Is that how it's meant to work?

No. As you see in the example (see the Englis translations above), you could have more the one tenants of a color. There could be more then one - heck, even 7 - tenant of one color in the supply, so there is your chance.

Thaur

Thread: Re: Rules translation

Odat — 2005-06-06T02:52:14+00:00

I'm a bit confused here. Regarding the flying traders, every player gets one man of each color, but at scoring time you score for sets of men. How is it possible to have more than one set if you only have 1 guy of each color?

We presumed that this meant that if you get a blue trader into a building, then you use all of your blue buildings to generate sets and so on. Is that how it's meant to work?

Thanks for the hard work in doing the translation!

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LDP1010 — 2005-06-04T14:59:13+00:00

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terKo — 2005-06-01T18:47:16+00:00

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terKo — 2005-06-01T18:47:16+00:00

Thread: Re: Rules translation

Mystic1027 — 2005-05-16T12:43:52+00:00

Thanks for posting up these translations...dunno what we'd ever do without them......we were playing this last night and came up with a couple questions that weren't quite clear from the translation.

With the thief....can you only take the colour of money shown on the thief card?

With the change expansion, what do you do with spent change tokens? (put them back in the bag?)

With the flying traders...in the rulebook it looks like when you get a correct colour building, you add the trader piece to the building, move the market, AND add a trader to the market.....is this correct? the original translation made it seem like you just added the matching colour piece to the building tile, but not another to the market.

Thread: Re:Rules translation

LDP1010 — 2005-04-11T16:06:05+00:00

minismurf (#470751),
Thanks! Nice to you to take time to do this!

Thread: Rules translation

minismurf — 2005-04-10T08:37:19+00:00

Here is a rules translation, which was not always done on a word-by-word basis, but tries to explain the rules. My German is not perfect, so questions or clarifications are welcome.

The expansion consists of 4 modules, which are combined at will with the base game and the previous expansions.

Change

The "change" coins are put in the cloth bag. Whenever a player purchases a building (character or other special expansion buildings included) he will receive 1 coin of change (worth 1) for each 2 units he overpays (including if he pays in multiple currencies, or with diamonds). He draws these coins at random from the bag, and display them openly in front of him. (The coins are used exactly as a card of value 1 of the corresponding color.)

- If the bag is empty, you do not receive your change.
- It is allowed to pay extra to get extra change.
- At the end of the game, change counts to see who has the most in each currency.

The thief

At the start of the game, each player receives, with 2 or 3 players 4 theives, with 4 players 3 theives and with 5 players 2 thieves. A player uses the thief to steal a single money card (never multiple cards as in regular drafting) out of his turn. The player may not use the thief immediately before his own turn. The thief played is discarded for the rest of the game. A player may play multiple thiefs at the same time.

If more players want to play a thief, the player who is first in turn order (notice that the player who is in turn can't play a thief) gets to play his first. [I assume that if one player says "I play a thief", another player who is before him in turn order may play a thief afterwards, meaning the player who originally played a thief has to wait (and can change his decision later if he wants).]

Thief + Wesir: If 2 players want to play the thief and wesir respectively, only their turn order decides who gets to play first [assuming here that if one player plays the wesir, the player later in turn order has no time to play the thief]. A player may also play a thief and wesir in succession. The player in turn may only play the wesir.

Walls

The 8 wall cards are shuffled in, 2 each in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th pile.

Whenever a wall card is drawn, it is placed beside the playing area, and a player may use a regular turn [or part of the turn if he first buys something with even money] to take a wall card, and then use it immdiately (and discard the card). When he uses it, he adds 1 or 2walls to an Alhambra tile (including possibly the starting tile) according to the card (orientation is of course important). It is not important if the tile is in the reserve, newly purchased, or in the Alhambra for purposes of adding walls [assuming here that a wall once placed can never be removed]. The additional walls count as regular walls when evaluating the length of the city wall in scoring.

A wall card can be placed on any tile as long as it conforms to the building rules and as long as no walls are "over-built", either your own walls or the walls you have already built with other wall cards on that tile.

A City gate (expansion 2) may only be built on originally drawn walls.

The flying traders

The flying trader card (Circle shape, here referred to as Market) is played at the start of the game on one of the sides of your starting tile. The player receives 1 man of each color, and chooses (without showing to the other players [German: wählt er verdeckt]) 3 of them to place on his tile.

Whenever a player places a building on the Market (new building or from reserve), the circle is put to the side. If the color matches one of the men on the Market, he places a man of the corresponding color from his Market on the tile. If the color does not match, he places an extra man of his choice from the supply (or none if it is emptied) on the Market. Only at the end of the turn is the Market replaced on a tile of his choice around the Alhambra.

At the end of the game, the Men that are placed in buildings are evaluated as follows: For each set of 1,2,3,4,5,6 different colors, a player gets 1,3,6,10,15,21 points respectively. [The player will divide all his men in buildings in sets, starting with the largest possible one, scoring for each set. Example: 3 red, 2 white, 2, green and 1 blue men can be divided in 3 sets, the first of 4 different colors, the 2nd with 3 different colors, and the 3rd with only 1 color. Thus it scores 10 + 6 + 1 = 17 points.]

Several men of a color may be on the Market, but a player can only add 1 of them to his building. When the colors of the men on the Market and the building do not match, no man is placed on the building. If a building with a man is removed or over-built, the man is returned to the general supply. The only building rule the Market must conform to is that it must be placed side to side with the Alhambra.

Men may never be placed on Bauhütten (expansion 1) or Feldlager (expansion 2). [I assume here that you still get to add a man to the Market if it is replaced by one of those.]

Thread: First impression

minismurf — 2005-04-02T23:47:44+00:00

Played this game today, using all 4 modules: impressions are as follows...

All 4 modules work well, but, as some of the modules detract quite a bit from the building majorities, it is easy that the game instead just turns to the players focusing on building as big a city as possible.

1. The "square" (circle) - my favorite, adds a Carcassonnesque feel to Alhambra, and quite a bit of points. More Carcassonnesque feel would be nice in the game, perhaps if the monetary system was the same, but the tiles more in style of O Zoo le mio!

2. The thief - nice and logical, steal a coin when you like out of turn. Each player gets a number of them at the start.

3. The wall - add extra walls with cards that are drawn during the course of the game, as a new option. I would like to have seen more city planning than just the wall in teh first place, so this doesn't do much for me. But it did help me create a 20 point wall until the 2nd scoring, and 25 at the end, without compromising much with my possibilities.

4. Change when you pay too much (1 coin of change, that is visible to all players) for each 2 units you pay extra. As it is so rarely advisable to pay extra, it seems like this expansion has the least effect, while it may sometimes encourage people to pay a bit extra.