Naturelich Games

Queen Games has released another game in their Alhambra product line. Die Gärten der Alhambra is a standalone game with only minor similarities to the Spiel des Jahres 2003 Der Palast von Alhambra (Germany's Game of the Year 2003). I am definitely a fan of the original Alhambra and have played the game along with the first expansion quite often.

The sequel, however, is a little bit difficult and confusing. The Alhambra theme seems to be a bit artifical - maybe just a sales trick? If it was, it worked for me.

What the original Alhambra offered in terms of contents and game design, I find lacking in the sequel. The game consists of just a few loveless cards with buildings or trees (in different colors) on them. The gameplay is quite easy to comprehend: The board is pre-populated with buildlings (of different values 1-5 on square cards) turned upside down. Each player puts a plant card down every turn. On each plant card, there's four colors (i.e. one for each player) with different amounts. If a building card is entirely surrounded by plant cards, it is turned upside and the points are scored by the player with the most plants surrounding the building. The score equals the card value times the number of colors adjacent to it. There are some additional rules and variations, which I will not explain now. In short: the tricky piece is to do what's best for your own benefits and worst for the opponents. This sounds like a simple principal and it is. However, the number of possibilities is enormous. This game is difficult to master at an adequate level: my brain does not have the calculative power to evaluate all the alternatives. So, it comes down to intuition and luck.

I am sure it's not that bad after I give it more time, but I would have expected more from the Alhambra line. I shall play and try the next expansion before buying it.