El Grande

Infobox_Game
subject_name=El Grande
image_link=
image_caption=Players attempt to gain control of medieval Spain through manipulating the balance of power in the various provinces, as well as at the Royal Court.
designer=Wolfgang Kramer
Richard Ulrich
publisher=Hans im Glück
Rio Grande Games
999 Games
players= 2–5
ages=12 and up
setup_time= 5 minutes
playing_time= 90 minutes
complexity=Medium
strategy=High
random_chance= none
skills= Strategy
footnotes =

"El Grande" is a German-style board game for 2-5 players, designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich, and published in 1995 by Hans im Glück in German, by Rio Grande Games in English, and by 999 Games in Dutch. The game board represents renaissance-era Spain where the nobility (the Grandes) fight for control of the nine regions. "El Grande" was awarded the Spiel des Jahres prize in 1996.

Gameplay

The game is played in nine rounds. Three of these (rounds 3, 6, and 9) are scoring rounds, when player scores are counted according to their positions within the various regions. When the game is played with two players, it can be rather fast-paced. If five players participate, the game becomes very complex and challenging, as it becomes almost impossible to "do the mathematics" on the regions, and players team up and compete to keep others from winning, or to score more points for themselves.

Decision making

There are no dice in the game, and players have an ample choice of cards to use in determining turn order. Thus the game is all about agonizing decisions. Often the path to scoring more points is clear, but sometimes it can be wiser to prevent opponents from scoring.

The role of Luck

Since the game is played without dice, the role of luck is rather minimal. The original game has a number of cards that are turned up each turn as a random generator (where each player gets to pick one of the cards) to determine turn order; the expansion set, "Intrigue & the King", eliminates this aspect and instead gives each player a hand of identical cards (numbered 1-13) at the beginning of the game; each player may use each card only once in a given game.

The main challenge of the game is keeping track of the many factors that determine the balance of power in the regions and the score track.

External links

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###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
before = The Settlers of Catan
title = Spiel des Jahres
years = 1996
after = Mississippi Queen