Preparation, Action cards, Playing the game

Setup El Grande as described in the rules for El Grande, making the following changes:

•Grandissimo adds two stacks of action cards to the basic game. The 7th stack is much like the 5th stack in that it contains just one card that is reused each round. The 6th stack may contain as many as 19 cards or as few as 11. Play with those you prefer or vary the mix to add more spice to the game.

•Remove the card for the 7th stack (the Queen and court jester card) from the cards provided with this expansion. Shuffle the remaining cards and place them next to the King's card; these are the 6th stack of action cards. Place the card for the 7th stack (the queen and court jester card) face-up next to the 6th stack.

•Place the Portugal scoreboard on the game board in the place

provided in Portugal on the map.

•Place the prison, Queen, court jester, Grand Inquisitor, and 2 ship tokens next to the board. Place the ship in any empty ocean area on the board.

•Draw a region card and place the two black Caballeros in the region indicated.

Preparation:

After the selection of the players’ and the King’s starting regions is complete, using the rules from the basic game, each player uses their secret disk to choose a region. These are revealed simultaneously and each player places one of his Caballeros in the region he specified. If the King’s region is specified, the Caballero remains in the player’s court.

The King’s card and the intrigue card are placed next to the board. Use the Caballero summary card to determine which of the five Caballero cards will be used. This is determined by the number of players. Place the indicated Caballero cards next to the board.

Next each player chooses 13 action cards from his 31 to be used in the game. After making their selections, the players put their unused cards face down in the box. They will not be used in this game. You may want to limit the possible cards to just the 18 that are evenly divisible by 10 for the first few games.

The action cards:

The value determines player turn order.

Playing the game

The game sequence in Grandissimo is the same as in the base game, except that there are two extra action stacks for players to choose from. As in the basic game, at the end of each round the unused action cards are discarded and new ones are drawn from each stack. The King and the Queen/jester cards return each round.

The ship and jail symbols

Intrigue

Execute the intrigue action.

The Caballero card:

The maximum number of Caballeros the player may move from the provinces to his court.

The card’s special action.

Move 1 Caballero from your court to a region adjacent to the King or into the Castillo.

Ship and jail symbols are printed on some cards in the 6th stack. When a player selects such a card, he may execute the action described for that symbol in addition to the other two actions allowed for the card.

Ship: When a player selects a card with the ship symbol, he may take one of the ship tokens and place it in his court. He may not take a second if he already has one. If both ship tokens are in other players' courts, the player decides which one to take. When a player has a ship token in his court on his turn, he may place Caballeros on the ship on the board instead of the normal regions they would be placed in. The position of the King is not relevant to the placing of Caballeros on the ship. When a player has Caballeros on the ship at the beginning of his turn, he may move them to any coastal region, including Portugal, as long is the King is not in that region. Players do not score for Caballeros on the ship.

The maximum number of Caballeros the player may move from his court to the board.

Playing the game:

As in the original game, Intrigue & the King is played over nine rounds with general scoring after the 3rd, 6th, and 9th rounds. Each round consists of the following:

•Move the round marker forward on the round track.

•Players play action cards. In the first round, the players choose a starting player. In subsequent rounds, the starting player is the player who played the lowest valued card in the previous round. Cards are played face-up in clockwise order and no player may play a card that duplicates a card played this round.