Grading the Alhambra Expansions (4)

 

Street Trader

An interesting module where you have one of each color meeple that matches the 6 colored buildings in the game. You place 3 on a disc and move it North, South, East or West of your Alhambra. Once you place a matching building on that side you may grab another meeple and move the disc somewhere else around your board. At the End of the game you get VP equal to the amount of meeples you were able to place on your board. 

This expansion is a Meh

We were all able to accomplish it with relative ease. I looked to see if I was playing it wrong but it appears we weren't. Yes it does impact where you put buildings but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't shake up the game enough to be put in every game you play. 

Treasure Chamber

Randomly place 4 chests on each square. Pay exactly 8 of any cash to grab the chests and place them on your board which colors match the buildings. Max 1 per tile. Score VP every round for whoever has the most. 

This is a MUST

I was surprised by this one. Reading the rules I didn't get the point of it. But just like in the game, the VP become greater each round when eventually, everyone is trying to grab as many chest as they can! I also love that any chests you can't place are discarded. So you want to pay for the area which carries the most chests you can place. Plus, it's always nice to have the option to buy something else when you don't want, or don't have the right color cash for other tiles on the board. This module surprised me!

Master Builders

Shuffle these into the deck and when played you can either use it as cash OR switch tiles in your Alhambra. 

This is a PASS

I get the concept. Make it easier to move your tiles around during the game but NO ONE ever used it for that reason. It just wasn't worth it to anyone enough to do it. Plus, later expansions come with similar options which are more appealing, so this one wasn't a cool as it sounded.

Invaders

Shuffle four cards and place them to the side. During a scoring round, reveal the card to see where the Invaders are attacking. Any missing walls in that area count for -VP each round...and that number increases as the game goes on. Building the first of a color can also win you a Scout card, which will let you peek at one card during the game in order to better prepare for the invasion. 

This is a Meh

I like how you can lose VP during the game. It's not enough to badly damager someone's chances but I didn't feel like it was enough of a threat to bother with round after round, so we weren't ever worried. Maybe if you double the negative points each round it would make a difference but as it is....it's just ok. 

See you tomorrow folks!