El Grande

[Titus]

A review of a classic

This is hopefully the first in a series of reviews of classic games I will be posting to drum up interest especially among those who are relatively new to the hobby. I know there are so many games coming out these days and the newer titles tend to garner most of the attention. But I’d like to spotlight some of the older titles as many of them have stood the test of time and remain some of the best board games to this day.

I’ll kick this off with one of my very first euro games, El Grande.

Overview of gameplay

El Grande is an area majority control game for 2-5 players designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich, the same team who later brought us Princes of Florence.

In this game, you play the role of a ‘grande’ (a lord), represented by a large colored cube, attempting to gain influence in the nine regions of medieval Spain. You do this by deploying your caballeros (knights), represented by small cubes, to the various regions. Each region has victory point values for the player with the most, second most, and third most caballeros in the region. There is also a special region, the castillo (castle), which is a tall, opaque, wooden tower with an opening at the top. Whenever you can place caballeros on to the board, you can instead choose to drop them into the castillo.

At the start of the game, you are dealt a random region card and place your grande and two caballeros there. One caballero is used as a scoring marker on the victory point track around the edges of the board. You then place seven caballeros onto your region card in front of you. This is your court. The rest of the cubes are placed to one side. These caballeros are in the provinces.

The king piece is also placed in a random region. No caballeros or any other game piece can enter the king’s region at any time. However, the king usually moves around during the game.

At the center of the gameplay are the players’ power cards and the action cards. There are five stacks of action cards. Each is shuffled and the top card is turned face up. The face up action cards are the only ones available for the current turn. Each action card allows a special action depicted on the card. Examples of special actions are: move a number of caballeros on the board from one region to another; immediately gain victory points for a specific region; move your grande. Each card also indicates a number of caballeros (from one to five) that you can take from your court and place on the board (or the castillo). Once an action card is chosen and played, it’s no longer available.

Turn order at the beginning of each turn is determined through playing power cards. Each player has a set of 13 power cards, each numbered from 1 to 13. Each card also indicates a number of caballeros that you can take from the provinces and move to your court. The players take turns playing power cards and no value can be duplicated once played. Then, from highest power card to lowest, players choose and execute action cards. Once you play a specific power card, it’s no longer available for the rest of the game.

The game consists of nine turns and a scoring round occurs at the end of turns three, six, and nine. During a scoring round, the number of caballeros in the castillo is revealed and points are awarded like it was a regular region. Then players, if they had any caballeros in the castillo, secretly choose a region where all of these caballeros will go. Then each region is scored. At the end of the game, the player with the most victory points wins.

My take

El Grande is a classic example of a euro game that has simple rules but strategic and tactical depth. Actually, because choices are limited by what action cards are available for the turn, I would argue that the game is more tactical than strategic. Familiarity with the cards also helps, which comes with experience.

However, since you’re only limited to five choices per turn, there isn’t much planning. In a five-player game, this can get ugly as you can end up with the last unchosen card. For this reason, I believe the game is best with four players. I’ve read that the expansions add a lot of depth to the game but I never got any of them. One expansion, and you can try this as a variant, I think involved opening all or some of the action cards so you can choose from more than just five per turn.

Back when I only had a handful of games, I played El Grande a lot with my wife and her siblings. I enjoyed it then but I haven’t played it since acquiring many more games. My taste in euro games has evolved over time. I once felt sick of them because I mostly saw the same mechanics (majority control and auctions were the worst offenders) and I grew tired of pasted-on themes and lack of player interaction in many euros.

Admittedly, El Grande is a game which I look on with nostalgia and great admiration for its elegant design. But ultimately it’s no longer my cup of tea. It’s pretty much themeless and narrow in its scope as an almost pure majority control game, though this means it has high player interaction. The victory point values for the regions are fixed and there are a limited set of action cards, so you can easily tire of the game if you play it a lot. I highly recommend getting the expansions if you want to maximize El Grande’s depth and longevity.

As an aside, in the realm of area majority control, I favor a later Wolfgang Kramer design: Mexica. In that game, you actually build the areas that you try to control, an additional layer that makes it more interesting for me. (See my review of Mexica here: http://www.tabletopwars.com/bb/index.php/topic,4023.0.html)

That being said, if you like majority control games and don’t mind the pasted-on theme, El Grande is a good middleweight game.

I rate it a 6 out of 10.


Pros: Elegant game design; very easy to learn; interesting tactical choices; high player interaction

Cons: Pasted-on theme; limited depth without expansions

[ChineezPnoy]

Thnx 4d review Titus.
Dats 1 of d late-90's  games dat I didn't get 4 some reason.

Look 4ward to ur review of Mexica soon?
Jst wenever 

As an aside, in the realm of area majority control, I favor a later Wolfgang Kramer design: Mexica. In that game, you actually build the areas that you try to control, an additional layer that makes it more interesting for me.

[Brel]

Thanks Titus for letting us play your copy of El Grande at the previous OGM!  Anabel likes the game and I think it was ok.  I feel "El Grande" is the type of game where players only appreciate it more after a few plays.  So I'll probably open up my copy. 

It has been said that a lot of game designers consider "El Grande" as their inspiration.  Now I know why that is. 

[Titus]

I'm glad you, Anabel, and Martin like the game, Brel. I'm always happy to introduce players to good games. As I said, even though I don't personally enjoy El Grande, I admire its design and understand its appeal.

This joins Settlers of Catan, Princes of Florence, and Carcassonne as highly regarded games I just don't like. So I'm putting my copy up for sale and giving first dibs to ChineezPnoy and Martin.

Also, I highly recommend that you try Mexica and Tikal, also by Wolfgang Kramer and also using area majority control, but which I much prefer over El Grande. Tikal is an exploration game where you control a team of explorers uncovering lost temples and treasures in the jungles of Guatemala. Mexica is a city-building game where you compete to build and control the districts of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. I'll post writeups of both these games soon.

[Brel]

I had the game TIKAL before.  I like the game components and mechanics but the analysis-paralysis issue and the dislike of the game by my gaming group made me trade it away.  The game looks cool though especially those temples and jungle tiles spread on the table.  Mexica sounds interesting. 

[Titus]

I had the game TIKAL before.  I like the game components and mechanics but the analysis-paralysis issue and the dislike of the game by my gaming group made me trade it away.  The game looks cool though especially those temples and jungle tiles spread on the table.  Mexica sounds interesting. 

Oh, too bad. I really like Tikal. My only problem with it is the game length, and yes, it's prone to analysis-paralysis but this is a player problem. I think it's best with three players who don't try to maximize every single action point. And the game looks really nice at the end. Mexica looks even more gorgeous because of the colorful buildings.

[ChineezPnoy]

Does any1 know som1 selling this game in an "almost brand new condition"?
Else, I would like to hear Martin's offer to Titus & see if its worth out-bidding him for it.

Hey Martin, u there?
Start ur offer @ 1K ha ;o)

As I said, even though I don't personally enjoy El Grande, I admire its design and understand its appeal.

This joins Settlers of Catan, Princes of Florence, and Carcassonne as highly regarded games I just don't like. So I'm putting my copy up for sale and giving first dibs to ChineezPnoy and Martin.

[Brel]

Oh, too bad. I really like Tikal. My only problem with it is the game length, and yes, it's prone to analysis-paralysis but this is a player problem. I think it's best with three players who don't try to maximize every single action point. And the game looks really nice at the end. Mexica looks even more gorgeous because of the colorful buildings.

I feel that a game that is prone to analysis-paralysis (AP) is really not just a player problem.  I think it's both.  But some games are just more prone to AP than others.  A majority of serious players especially newbies (not all) will have a hard time making quick choices in a game of Tikal as there are various factors to consider hence this also contributes to the game length.  But that does not mean it is not a very good game as Tikal is also considered by many as one of the classics. 

[Titus]

I feel that a game that is prone to analysis-paralysis (AP) is really not just a player problem.  I think it's both.  But some games are just more prone to AP than others.  A majority of serious players especially newbies (not all) will have a hard time making quick choices in a game of Tikal as there are various factors to consider hence this also contributes to the game length.  But that does not mean it is not a very good game as Tikal is also considered by many as one of the classics. 

Agreed. I meant to say that AP is primarily a player problem, but yes, sometimes the game overwhelms you with too many choices (case in point: Die Macher). In Tikal, it's aggravated by the fact that you can't plan ahead when it's not your turn. However, I also think that the decisions in Tikal are not that hard so AP should not be a big problem with experience. I wish there was an easy way to shorten the game though.

Anyway, off topic na tayo! This discussion is making me want to play Tikal again, maybe at one of the upcoming OGMs. Hehe.

[Marqz]

Does any1 know som1 selling this game in an "almost brand new condition"?
Else, I would like to hear Martin's offer to Titus & see if its worth out-bidding him for it.

Hey Martin, u there?
Start ur offer @ 1K ha ;o)

Actually, I'm eyeing on Tsuro.  I was actually canvassing El Grande.  However, I have other games in mind that I also wanted to get.  At least, I was able to play El Grande and got the feel of it, even if it was a "shortened" game that was played (about 1.5 hours, I think).  I may get it eventually, but not now.  At any rate, whoever gets it, be inspired.

Btw... P1,000 for El Grande?  Shouldn't that start at P2,000 at least? Incidentally, how much is Titus selling it for...? Just curious... really...

Martin