Continue if you are looking for games like Alhambra and are curious about what similar games to play next. Alahambra blends many economical game mechanics to create a wonderful city building game. You have your own Alhambra that you need to fill with rooms that you draft from available tiles and against other players.
To determine this list we broke down Alhambra to what it is. This game is an icon, it is a card drafting, tile laying, set collection, build something from nothing game. If you are looking for something similar, you have come to the right place. We took all this into consideration and came up with this list of the 5 board games like Alhambra.
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#05 | Carcassonne
The bottom spot on the list of games like Alhambra goes to what would happen if you boiled Alahambra down to its simplest basic mechanic. That is Carcassonne, a tile placing and resource management game. Though simple, it is strategically deep.
Carcassonne has players draw and place a tile with a piece of southern French landscape on it. The tile might feature a city, a road, a cloister, grassland or some combination thereof, and it must be placed adjacent to tiles that have already been played, in such a way that cities are connected to cities, roads to roads, etcetera. Then the player decides if they want to use their limited resources to claim it. For 2 – 5 players, games last about 40 minutes.
FOR MORE: Carcassonne Page | How To Play Carcassonne | Carcassonne Review | Games Like Carcassonne | Buy Carcassonne on Amazon
#04 | Suburbia
Following the theme of city building through tiles, tiles that are fought over economically brings us to the next title on the list of games like Alhambra, Suburbia. The theme is about a modern city as opposed to an ancient one, but many of the same principles are present throughout. The tile building mechanic, in particular, is something special that is kind of along the line of the Alhambra system.
You must plan, build, and develop a small town into a major metropolis. Use hex-shaped building tiles to add residential, commercial, civic, and industrial areas, as well as special points of interest that provide benefits and take advantage of the resources of nearby towns. Your goal is to have your borough thrive and end up with a greater population than any of your opponents. For 1 – 4 players, games last about 90 minutes.
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#03 | Lisboa
Lisboa is like Alhambra because they are both card drafting, hand management, tile placing games about building a city through economic and political means. They both even deal with a much older time. This was a slam dunk title for the list of games like Alhambra and a wonderful alternative.
Lisboa is a game about the reconstruction of Lisboa after the great earthquake of 1755. You are tasked with rebuilding and will work with the architects to build Lisbon anew, with the Marquis to develop commerce and with the King to open all the buildings. You have a blank canvas and it is up to you to fill it with the right tiles to restore Lisbon to glory. For 1 – 4 players, games run about 1 – 2 hours.
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#02 | New York
If you are looking for the exact same game, not similar the same, just with a new theme then you are in luck. There are two of those in existence, New York and Granada. The former being about the industrious city and the latter being the same time as Alahambra but just in a slightly different area. Both have their pros but the edge goes to New York. If you truly are looking for the most similar game this entry to the list of games like Alhambra would be it. It is SO similar, however, that you might as well play Alhambra.
Here you collect four types of currencies and use those to purchase tiles that assemble into their own mini-metropolis, connecting the paved street edges on the tiles to create a coherent network of roads. The building tiles come in six colors, and players score for their holdings three times during the game, earning points for having the most of a color as well as for their longest road. For 2 – 6 players games last 45 – 60 minutes.
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#01 | The Castles of Mad King Ludwig
The top spot on the list of games like Alhambra goes to the other tile bid drafting and city building behemoth in the field, The Castles of Mad Ludwig. Just like Alhambra, this game takes the simple concepts of set collection and pattern building and turning them into complex and thematic morsels of gameplay.
In The Castles of Mad King Ludwig, you are tasked with building an amazing, extravagant castle for King Ludwig II of Bavaria…one room at a time. You see, the King loves castles, having built Neuschwanstein (the castle that inspired the Disney theme park castles) and others, but now he’s commissioned you to build the biggest, best castle ever. For 1 – 4 players, games last about 90 minutes each.
