The Great

In El Grande players take on the role of Grandees in medieval Spain. The king's power falters and powerful lords vie for control of the different regions. To do this, you must recruit knights (knights in the form of colored cubes) for your court and then move them around the board to help them take control of the regions. After every third round, the regions are scored, and after the ninth round, the player with the most points is the winner.

In each of the nine rounds, you choose one of your 13 power cards to determine the turn order, as well as the number of knights 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 allow for rule variations and additional scoring opportunities, as well as determining how many knights to move from your court to one or more of the board regions (or to the castle, a tower secret). Normally, you can only place your knights in regions adjacent to the one containing the king pawn. The only rigid rule in the Great One is that nothing can enter or leave the king's region. One of the five action cards that are always available each round allows you to move the king to a new region. The other four action cards vary from round to round.

The goal is to have a majority of knights in as many regions (and the castle) as possible during a scoring round. After scoring the castle, you place the cubes you had hidden there in the region you had secretly indicated on your region dial. Each region is then scored individually based on a table printed in that region. Two point bonuses are awarded for having an absolute majority in the region containing your Grande (large cube) and in the region containing the king.