An interesting decision must be made when playing the Power Card. The higher the number value on the card, the lower the number of Caballeros it allows a player to recruit. Thus, the decision has to be made if you would rather go early in the round and get an early choice of Action Cards or would you rather have more pieces to recruit into stock? I just love these agonizing little decisions that must be made!

The 'Action Card' provides two actions:

This, of course, poses another dilemma when choosing the card. Usually, the more potent Action Cards allow placement of fewer Caballeros. Does one go for a more powerful card, or a lesser one to allow placement of more pieces? Another agonizing decision!

In placing their pieces on the board, players are usually restricted to provinces which border the King's location. Once per turn, the King may move, altering the provinces eligible for placement of pieces. The ultimate objective is to build up majorities in as many provinces as possible, and to be second or third in the others.

Players can also place pieces in the Castle. At the end of every third round, these pieces are redistributed to a province which was secretly dialed on the player's Decision Disk. Thus, a player can alter the status of a province before majority status is tallied.

At the end of every third round, after the Castle pieces have been redistributed, each province is scored. Points are scored for having a majority, secondary or tertiary status in most provinces. Bonuses are also given for having the majority of pieces in the King's province as well as your own home province. A running tally is kept and at the end of nine rounds, the player with the most points is the victor.

The game plays rather quickly - usually about two hours with five players. The rules are very simple and the English translation is very good. Although the cards are printed in German, they are easy to decipher with the translations and the clear pictures describing the special actions printed on the cards. And as mentioned earlier, there is now a full English edition available, published by Rio Grande Games.

The board and cards are gorgeous -- very colorful with nice artwork. I'm also fond of the pieces -- wooden blocks (a la Diplomacy). So not only is it fun to play, it also makes a nice appearance. This is in keeping with most of the recent German games I've played.

In each round, players must make several key, and agonizing, decisions, while at the same time keeping an eye on the population of each province on the board. Decisions must be made as to what Power Card to play, which Action Card to select, where to place one's pieces, etc. Every three rounds, a tally is done, allowing each player to take stock of the leadership situation and adjust accordingly. Usually, no one player can dominate and everyone is in the hunt entering the final rounds.

Let's see -- a reasonably easy game, beautiful components, lots of strategic decisions to make, special actions to alter the rules, very competitive throughout, playable in two hours or less and loads of FUN. Gee, in my book, that would make any game a winner. And El Grande is that -- a winner.