Carat (board game)
Encyclopedia
Carat is an abstract tile laying
German style
board game
designed by Dirk Henn
and published in 1993 by Queen Games
and db Spiele. In 2004, after the success of Alhambra
, Queen Games released an updated version of the game with an Arabian
theme called Die Gärten der Alhambra.
s, tiled
such that each square is surrounded by four octagons. Players first take turns to place square tiles on the squares to set up the game. They then place octagonal tiles around the squares. Each square tile is worth a number of victory points, and each octagonal tile contains a number of each player's influence markers. When a square tile is surrounded by octagonal tiles, each player totals the number of influence markers around that tile. The player with the highest unique number of influence markers scores the victory points for that square tile - so if two players tie for first place, the third player will win the victory points. When all tiles are placed, the player with the most victory points is the winner.
Tile-based game
A tile-based game is a game that uses tiles as one of the fundamental elements of play. Traditional tile-based games use small tiles as playing pieces for gambling or entertainment games...
German style
German-style board game
German-style board games, frequently referred to in gaming circles as Euro Games or Euro-style, are a broad class of tabletop games that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times, indirect player interaction and abstract physical components...
board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
designed by Dirk Henn
Dirk Henn
Dirk Henn is a German-style board game designer who was born in Bendorf, GermanyDirk Henn is best known for his game Alhambra, which won the Spiel des Jahres and placed 2nd in the Deutscher Spiele Preis in 2003....
and published in 1993 by Queen Games
Queen Games
Queen Games is a German publisher of tabletop games, based in Troisdorf and founded in 1992 by head Rajive Gupta, which specialises primarily in German-style, family-level games but has also published smaller numbers of both simpler, children's games and more complex, gamers' games.They have shown...
and db Spiele. In 2004, after the success of Alhambra
Alhambra (board game)
Alhambra The Palace of the Alhambra") is a 2003 tile-based German-style board game designed by Dirk Henn. It was originally published in Germany by Queen Games in a language-interdependent version; an English-specific version was released in North America by the now-defunct Überplay...
, Queen Games released an updated version of the game with an Arabian
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
theme called Die Gärten der Alhambra.
Gameplay
The game board consists of regular octagons and squareSquare (geometry)
In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. This means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles...
s, tiled
Truncated square tiling
In geometry, the truncated square tiling is a semiregular tiling of the Euclidean plane. There is one square and two octagons on each vertex. This is the only edge-to-edge tiling by regular convex polygons which contains an octagon...
such that each square is surrounded by four octagons. Players first take turns to place square tiles on the squares to set up the game. They then place octagonal tiles around the squares. Each square tile is worth a number of victory points, and each octagonal tile contains a number of each player's influence markers. When a square tile is surrounded by octagonal tiles, each player totals the number of influence markers around that tile. The player with the highest unique number of influence markers scores the victory points for that square tile - so if two players tie for first place, the third player will win the victory points. When all tiles are placed, the player with the most victory points is the winner.