Image Courtesy of myadestesThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
Summary
Game Type - Tile Laying Game
Play Time: 80-90 minutes
Number of Players: 2-6
Mechanics – Set Collection, Tile Laying, Resource Management
Difficulty – Pick-up & Play (Can be learnt in under 15 minutes)
Components - Excellent
Release - 2006
Designer - <PERSON> -(All things Alhambra, Colonia, Eketorp, Granada, High Tide, Immortals, Metro, Neptun, New York, The Rose King, Shogun, Show Manager, Speculation, Wallenstein)
This is the fourth in a series of reviews that will analyse each of the 5 Alhambra expansions. I will outline each expansion on its own merits and then comment on how well it interacts with other expansions in the Alhambra Family.
As each Boxed Expansion for Alhambra includes 4 mini-expansions, I will refer to a box as an Expansion Set and each of the 4 additions within each box as Mini-Expansions. This will hopefully avoid confusion as I discuss each in turn.
At the end of this review is a series of links to help find my other Alhambra Reviews.
#13 – The Treasure Chamber
Components - As the namesake of this Expansion Set, The Treasure Chamber offers 3 separate high quality components. First is the Treasure Chamber mini-board. It is slightly shorter and narrower than the Reserve Boards from the base game, and the artwork depicts a set of stairs that lead to 3 separate Treasure Chambers. Each Chamber contains the number 8 and in the bottom left hand corner is a small score chart. I will explain the score chart and 8 values later.
Next are the treasure chests. There are 42 chests in all (7 of each colour used in Alhambra) and these are made from wood and are a good size.
Finally this expansion provides a cloth bag in which treasure chests can be drawn from.
All 42 Treasure Chests are placed in the tile bag at the start of play and 4 Chests are drawn at random and placed in each of the 3 Treasure Chambers.
Impact –
Image Courtesy of <PERSON> Treasure Chamber offers the players a new option each turn – the acquisition of Treasure Chests. To purchase Chests, at least 8 money must be paid, hence the 8 value in each Chamber on the board. 581
This cost can be paid with any combination of money cards and more than 8 can be paid too, however no change is given. Master Builders from Mini-Expansion #2 in this Set can also be used to pay.
The goal in acquiring Treasure Chests is to have more than anyone else in order to score points during scoring rounds. The scoring track outlines points for all 3 rounds and like the scoring for buildings, only the player with the most Chests will score points in Round 1, whereas the top 3 Chest owners will score points in Round 3. Round 1 offers 7 points to the leader, whilst the same lofty position will earn 22 points in Round 3. That’s some decent scoring eh?
The colour of the Treasure Chests has no bearing on scoring, instead they influence selection and placement. Once a player pays the required amount, they can take any 4 Treasure Chests from a single Chamber. However each Chest must be placed on a tile of a matching colour within a player’s Alhambra. If a player cannot place one or more of the Chests in their Alhambra, they are passed to the next player and added to tiles in their Alhambra if they are able. The Chests pass to all players in this fashion and if no player can find a place for a Chest, it is returned to the cloth bag.
Once the placement of Treasure Chests is complete, 4 new Chests must be drawn at random to refill the empty Chamber.
If there are not enough Chests in the cloth bag to refill a Chamber to 4, the Chamber remains empty and no Chests are drawn.
Paying exactly 8 to acquire a set of Chests does not earn a player an extra action.
If a tile containing a Chest is removed (redesigned) the Chest is returned to the cloth bag.
Chests cannot be placed on Worker’s Huts from Expansion Set #1.
Chests cannot be placed on tiles on a player’s Reserve Board. They can be added to newly placed tile into a player’s Alhambra on the current turn.
Allocating points in the case of a tie is the same for Treasure Chests as it is for scoring building tiles. 84