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El Grande Big Box


90m - 90m

2 - 5 Players

Ages 12+
This mechanic requires you to place a bid, usually monetary, on items in an auction of goods in order to enhance your position in the game. These goods allow players future actions or improve a position. The auction consists of taking turns placing bids on a given item until one winner is established, allowing the winner to take control of the item being bid on. Usually there is a game rule that helps drop the price of the items being bid on if no players are interested in the item at its current price.
Auction/Bidding
Card drafting games are games in which players pick cards from a limited subset, such as a common pool, to gain some advantage (immediate or longterm) or to assemble hands of cards that are used to meet objectives within the game.
Card Drafting
Hand management games are games with cards in them that reward players for playing the cards in certain sequences or groups. The optimal sequence/grouping may vary, depending on board position, cards held and cards played by opponents. Managing your hand means gaining the most value out of available cards under given circumstances. Cards often have multiple uses in the game, further obfuscating an "optimal" sequence.
Hand Management
Games that use the Memory mechanic require players to recall previous game events or information in order to reach an objective.
Memory
The simultaneous action selection mechanic lets players secretly choose their actions. After they are revealed, the actions resolve following the rule-set of the game.
Simultaneous Action Selection

85.00€

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Board Game Geek Reviews


  1. 7.2 out of 10

    Game Time: 60-120 Mins Players: 2-5 Area control game with hidden agendas and a hand of resource cards that effect initiative.

  2. 8.5 out of 10

    Deserves its classic status! Not too complex, nor too many rules. Area control with deck management. Really enjoy the Castile mechanic. Easy to teach. Plays ok at 2p, but much better with higher player counts.

  3. 8 out of 10

    The "Granddaddy of Euro cube pushers." I adore area control/influence games, and I find that the subtle strategy in the game is a nice touch. Not hard to learn (I teach it in about 5 minutes), but the strategy takes a couple games to completely unfold. Another plus to me; you play against other players, this is as much meta-game as it is raw strategy IMHO. I understand the criticism that the cards make it random to some degree, but there are ways to mitigate that through use of expansions. A plus is that this has all of the K&I cards compared to the Decennial edition, but the downside is the box is almost twice as big... Lots of folks (read; most in my experience) play this at 4 and 5p. I get that, the turn order allocation and board are interesting with lots of people. You can manipulate folks into doing your dirty work, etc. 2p though shouldn't be sneezed at (not my fav player count, but very playable). The differences are that 2p requires much more fanatical attention to the board than turn order. Where as in 4 or 5p, you can't be everywhere, let alone defend everywhere, at 2p, you basically have a shot at just about anywhere and I've found I can win various districts with just 1 dude. K&I cards help 2p.

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In El Grande, players take on the roles of Grandes in medieval Spain. The king’s power is flagging, and these powerful lords are vying for control of the various regions. To that end, you draft caballeros (knights in the form of meeples) into your court and subsequently move them onto the board to help seize control of regions. After every third round, the regions are scored, and after the ninth round, the player with the most points is the winner.

In each of the nine rounds, you select one of your 13 power cards to determine turn order as well as the number of caballeros you get to move from the provinces (general supply) into your court (personal supply).

A turn then consists of selecting one of five action cards which allow variations to the rules and additional scoring opportunities in addition to determining how many caballeros to move from your court to one or more of the regions on the board (or into the castillo—a secretive tower). Normally, you may only place your caballeros into regions adjacent to the one containing the king’s pawn. The one hard and fast rule in El Grande is that nothing may move into or out of the king’s region. One of the five action cards that is always available each round allows you to move the king to a new region. The other four action cards vary from round to round.

The goal is to have a majority of caballeros in as many regions (and the castillo) as possible during a scoring round. Following the scoring of the castillo, you place any meeples you had stashed there into the region you had secretly indicated on your region dial. Each region is then scored individually according to a table printed in that region. Two-point bonuses are awarded for having sole majority in the region containing your Grande (large meeple) and in the region containing the king.

El Grande Big Box, the 20th anniversary edition of El Grande, includes all previously published expansions: Grand Inquisitor & Colonies, Grandissimo, King & Intrigant, King & Intrigant: Players’ Edition and King & Intrigant: Special Cards as well as something currently known only as the "Anniversary Extension".

Ages

12+
Players

2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, 5 Players
Play Time

90m – 90m
Designer

Richard Ulrich, Wolfgang Kramer
Mechanics

Area Majority / Influence, Auction/Bidding, Area Movement, Card Drafting, Hand Management, Memory, Simultaneous Action Selection
Theme

Renaissance
Publisher

999 Games, Devir, Filosofia Éditions, Hans im Glück, Swan Panasia Co., Ltd., Z-Man Games, Inc., Giochi Uniti, Korea Boardgames co., Ltd.
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