Gaming taught me about Jose Garcia

In 1812, the French forces who had been occupying the Alhambra placed bombs in order to destroy the palace before abandoning it. Jose Garcia, an injured member of the Corps of the Invalids, managed to defuse enough of the bombs to save most of the Alhambra. (Napoleon’s forced did blow up eight of the towers) 

According to Wikipedia, the Alhambra complex is 35 acres so José Garcia’s actions had to have been the track and field event from Hell.

Jose Garcia Saves the Alhambra is a Print and Play, Roll and Move game that originated from the Postcards from the Front design contest. You use a six-sided die to determine the movement of a Jose Garcia pawn over a simplified map of the Alhambra. You automatically defuse a bomb by moving onto its space but that ends your turn.

You use a limited deck of playing cards as timers for the bombs. Each turn, you deal a card to each bomb still functional. If a bomb’s total is eight or more, it goes off. You can use Jacks to reset the counts.

I had initially thought that any bomb going off ended the game but it just reduces your score. That said, it’s very easy for bombs go off. To the point that the game is pretty much entirely a luck fest.

Honestly, I didn’t think much of Jose Garcia Saves the Alhambra as a game. However, I had never heard of Jose Garcia and his architectural heroics before the game and that was a fun little history lesson. 

So, well worth my time.