El Grande Board Game

In the award-winning game El Grande, players assume the roles of Grandes in mediaeval Spain. The king's authority is waning, and these powerful lords compete for control of the various areas. To that goal, you draft caballeros (knights in the shape of coloured cubes) into your court and then move them into the board to assist seize control of areas. The regions are scored after each third round, and the player with the most points at the end of the ninth round wins.

In each of the nine rounds, you choose one of your 13 power cards to decide turn order and the amount of caballeros you can move from the provinces (general supply) to your court (personal supply).

A turn then consists of selecting one of five action cards that enable for rule changes and additional scoring chances, as well as deciding how many caballeros to travel from your court to one or more of the areas on the board (or into the castillo, a mysterious tower). Normally, you can only position your caballeros in territories next to the one with the king pawn. The only clear and fast regulation in El Grande is that nothing may enter or exit the king's region. One of the five action cards given every round allows you to relocate the king to a different region. The remaining four action cards vary from round to round.

The objective is to have a caballero majority in as many regions (including the castillo) as feasible during a scoring round. After scoring the castillo, you insert any cubes you had stowed there into the region you had secretly selected on your region dial. Each region is then rated independently based on a table printed within that region. Two-point bonuses are provided for having sole control of the zone containing your Grande (big cube) and the region containing the king.