First outing for one of David's Christmas presents, Taj Mahal. This is another Reiner Knizia game in typical Eurogame strategy style. There are twelve turns as the players visit twelve different provinces of India. The heart of the game is card-based bidding (poker-like) to try and be the player with the most elephants, or princesses etc, which allow the winner of each type to take the commodities or build palaces in the province. But you only pick up one or two cards each turn, so card escalation can damage all those who engage in it. The clever bit is that the winning doesn't happen when there is only one person left - at any time, a player can choose to stop playing additional cards and at that point, can score for any of the card types that he is currently winning on.
There are lots of different ways to score influence points and so many different strategies. Orhan sat out the first few turns which let him pick up an extra card and his choice of two from the face up pile every go; in the rest of the game, he could then pretty much win whenever he chose because no-one else could match him in cards. David built lots of palaces in various provinces, earning points for connecting them as his influence spread across the land. Stuart went for a little of everything and managed to hold on to the valuable "+2 influence per turn" bonus card for most of the game. James also tried a variety and took a good early lead, but after a card showdown with David that he lost, he never really regained his momentum.
As with other Rio Grande games, this looks stunning, and as with other Knizia games, it's very clever and fun. Definitely one to play again. We think different numbers of players would lead to different strategies too. Final scores: Stuart 56, Orhan 51, David 43 and James 41.
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