Game: El Grande

Thread: Re: New players—base game or Intrigue and King?

Gelete — 2008-05-12T07:23:22+00:00

I strongly recommend you to use first the base game, is impossible to select a good deck of cards without knowing the basis of the game. I have been teaching my game group for 6 basic El Grande games and, at last, I will intriduce KI in the next one, now they know the meaning of the cards.

Thread: Re: New players—base game or Intrigue and King?

chaddyboy_2000 — 2008-05-12T05:49:28+00:00

I'd probably just teach the game whatever way you like playing the best. Years ago, I was taught the game with King & Intrigant, which I now pretty much consider the standard way to play the game since I like it so much better. I think both the basic game and K&I are pretty intuitive, so neither is really more difficult to teach than the other.

EDIT - I'd definitely play with the 18 divisible by 10 cards rather than all the cards where players have to decide which cards to discard. The full 31 cards would certainly be overwhelming for newbies.

Thread: Re: New players—base game or Intrigue and King?

schlappy — 2008-05-12T03:49:22+00:00

While I firmly believe that El Grande is a MUCH better game with the K&I expansion, I agree with the above poster's reasons for recommending that you start with the base game -- at least *once*

If nothing else, it will allow for that wonderful "AH HA!" moment the first time you try K&I.

:)

Good luck -- I believe you'll really enjoy El Grande either way.

Thread: Re: New players—base game or Intrigue and King?

agent easy — 2008-05-12T03:11:01+00:00

in my opinion, the base game is the better game. El grande is a great game, there is no need to jump into the expansions anytime soon. Get to know it before you start exploring those ( and I would suggest several games, not just one or two). The biggest problem with the expansion, particularly for novices, is that you have to make all the action card decisions you would normally make throughout the game before it even starts (and without the benefit of any sort of context to base your decision on). And then, a good chunk of those decisions you made get thrown out the window as you play.

Thread: Re: New players—base game or Intrigue and King?

ColtsFan76 — 2008-05-12T01:57:59+00:00

I agree with Pauly. Playing the base game a couple times in just about any game - newbies or not - should be the preferred method.

Thread: Re: New players—base game or Intrigue and King?

ipgyst — 2008-05-12T01:46:46+00:00

I think you're about 1,000,000 times better off using the base game. Even if you pre-selected the cards for the n00bs, that would still be a more complex game than vanilla El Grande. After a couple games, then give 'em all 31 cards and let 'em sweat.

Thread: New players—base game or Intrigue and King?

ERPriest — 2008-05-12T01:26:33+00:00

I have the Decennial Edition and am getting ready to play El Grande for only the second time, and we will likely have other new players as well.

I have been reading various opinions about whether or not to use the Intrigue and King expansion with newcomers. Quite a few people have commented that the expansion, though better, requires some understanding of the base game to make the best choices when discarding the action cards and that is probably better to start with the base game with new players.

Firstly, is this true? If not, is there an optimal way for newcomers to choose which cards to use and which to discard when they do not entirely understand the cards themselves? And why not use all 31 of the cards, or at least the 18 “divisible by 10” cards if starting with new players? It would seem that this would not affect the gameplay itself, and would make it easier for newcomers, like me, to learn the strengths and uses of the different action cards.

Thanks in advance for any insights.