El Grande: Decennial Edition

Players act as powerful nobles in late medieval Spain, drafting and deploying caballeros (colored cubes) to seize control of a map of regions while avoiding the king's area of influence. Each round a power card sets turn order and how many caballeros enter a player's court; players then choose action cards that modify placement rules, move caballeros from court to regions or the secretive castillo, and sometimes relocate the king. Regions are scored after every third round, and cubes hidden in the castillo are revealed and assigned during scoring. The objective is to hold majorities in as many regions (and the castillo) as possible; several expansions and optional modules are included or supported.

Players: 2–5 best 5
Playing time: 90 min
Age: 12+
Complexity: 2.9 / 5

7.2 on LudoyaPoliticalArea Majority / InfluenceVariable Player PowersHand Management

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About the game

Design: Wolfgang Kramer
Richard Ulrich
Art: Doris Matthäus

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Full stats in Ludoya

20
Plays logged: 30
Players: 1h 33m
Average play: 13
In collections: 1
On wishlists

7.2/10

from 9 Ludoya reviews

Evan7.2
This game is completely perfect with 5 players. The elegance of the way action cards determine the order of actions is both intuitive and elegant. Every mechanic in this game ties into the greater workings. There's nothing unnecessary. The combination of known information, such as the action cards available and your current cube levels in the various board provinces creates a fantastic tension with the unknown information of who is in the Castillo, and which cards your opponents have used or are saving. I personally had to get the Decennial Edition, which comes with most if not all the expansions folded in. It was the completest in me, but El Grande base is so satisfying that each time it comes out we talk about trying an expansion but end up just playing the base game.

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