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Grand Austria Hotel
#69BGG8.0RATING
Updated Sep 12
2–4
PLAYERS
60–120
MINUTES
2
BEST WITH
3.2
HEAVY
ERRATA2
Emperor tile B4 removes unoccupied rooms, not occupied onesdesigner
- RULING
- "The B tile removes 2 unoccupied rooms... The C tile removes 2 occupied rooms." The B-group Emperor tile whose penalty is "lose 7 VP or remove 2 rooms from the highest possible row(s)" always removes **unoccupied** rooms; only the C-group tile resolved at the final Emperor Scoring removes occupied ones. Tile art and rulebook text disagree in both printings — the designer's ruling overrides both. Reconfirmed in thread 2866072 (2022-05-17): "It's impossible to remove an occupied room during the game because we wanted to avoid the case you are now discussing."
AUTHOR: Virginio_Gigli (Virginio Gigli, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(19 replies, 2 thumbs)DATE: 2018-07-04Assistant Manager (32) and Conference Manager (26): the card text is correct, not the rulebookdesigner
- RULING
- "both cardtext are correct!" Where the rulebook appendix and the printed Staff card disagree on these two cards, the card wins: Assistant Manager scores 2 VP per Staff card played (not 4), and Conference Manager requires paying 1 krone to avoid the "0" Emperor-track penalty.
AUTHOR: MagoBaol (Simone Luciani, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(3 replies, 6 thumbs)DATE: 2015-11-18
DESIGNER CLARIFICATIONS5
Additional actions may be taken at any point in your turn, including before taking a guestdesigner
- CONTEXT
- The turn summary lists "take a guest" and "take a die" ahead of additional actions, which reads as a fixed sequence.
- RULING
- "You can perform additional actions in each moment also before taking a guest (for example you can use a staff card, to complete a guest's order, move him from your caffè to a room and take another guest card)."
AUTHOR: Virginio_Gigli (Virginio Gigli, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(30 replies, 11 thumbs)DATE: 2017-02-12Guest rewards are optionaldesigner
- RULING
- "It isn't mandatory to use the guest reward. It's optional." This matters most in the final round, when a reward such as "take another guest card" would cost you points.
AUTHOR: Virginio_Gigli (Virginio Gigli, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(4 replies, 21 thumbs)DATE: 2015-11-07You must already hold the krone when you take the diedesigner
- CONTEXT
- Whether money earned later in the same turn can pay the 1 krone that adds a die to the chosen Action space.
- RULING
- "No, you must have the Krone when you take the die. You can't use the Krone taken when the die action is finished!" Confirmed independently by Simone Luciani in thread 1478401 (2018-01-16): "You can perfom the action when you take the dice, not later, so you must have the krone before you take the dice."
AUTHOR: Virginio_Gigli (Virginio Gigli, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(12 replies, 15 thumbs)DATE: 2015-11-07Which Staff effects work when an Emperor tile lets you play a Staff card for freedesigner
- CONTEXT
- The C-group Emperor tile "play a Staff card from your hand at no cost" resolves during an Emperor Scoring, outside anyone's turn.
- RULING
- "The istant effect of the one-time Staff cards is triggered also it the card is played by the effect of this Emperor tile. Of course the Game end effects are useful. The once per round can't be used because, during the Emperor scoring, all players' turns are finished and this kind of effect may be performed only during own turn. For the same reason you can't complete a Guest's order in this phase (because you have no time to move them to a Room). The Staff cards with permanent effects aren't useful if played by the effect of this Emperor tile."
AUTHOR: Virginio_Gigli (Virginio Gigli, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(15 replies)DATE: 2020-02-25Dishes and drinks gained during an Emperor Scoring cannot be spent until your next turndesigner
- CONTEXT
- Some Emperor tiles hand out dishes and drinks at the end of rounds 3, 5 and 7.
- RULING
- Yes, you have to wait for your next turn. Items received during an Emperor Scoring can be placed on guest orders, but completing an order and moving that guest into a room are turn actions and cannot be taken until your next turn.
AUTHOR: Virginio_Gigli (Virginio Gigli, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(30 replies, 11 thumbs)DATE: 2017-02-12
Q&A9
Kitchen Hand (17) and the paid extra die stackdesigner
- QUESTION
- Kitchen Hand lets you take a "6" die at no cost and counts one extra die on Action space "6". If there are 3 dice on the space, can you also pay 1 krone to resolve the action as if there were 5?
- ANSWER
- Yes. Kitchen Hand's extra die and the once-per-turn paid extra die are separate bonuses and both apply.
AUTHOR: MagoBaol (Simone Luciani, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(12 replies, 4 thumbs)DATE: 2015-10-13Bootblack (15) triggers when you use the "6" action to take the "4" actiondesigner
- QUESTION
- Does Bootblack's bonus apply when you take a die showing "6" and use Action 6 to carry out the "4" action?
- ANSWER
- Yes. The Staff card triggers on the action carried out, not on the printed value of the die you take.
AUTHOR: MagoBaol (Simone Luciani, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(4 replies, 4 thumbs)DATE: 2015-10-12Staff Manager (22) activates only after the "3" action is finishedpublisherdesigner
- QUESTION
- With Staff Manager in play, can you hire a Staff card (e.g. Florist, which makes yellow rooms free) before resolving the "3" action, so the newly hired card modifies that action?
- ANSWER
- No. "Since you take a die only after you completed the action, you cannot play the Florist before preparing the rooms. The Staff Manager explicitly says that you can hire staff after taking a die from an action space." Virginio Gigli concurred in the same thread (2020-02-25). Note that Lookout later reversed this for the Deluxe/reprint rulebook — Ponton, thread 2368025 (2020-11-08): "With the upcoming reprint... we'll make it so Staff Manager can, in fact, activate before the action is taken." The ruling above is the one that matches the 2015–2016 rulebook.
AUTHOR: Ponton (Grzegorz Kobiela, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(19 replies)DATE: 2020-01-13E. Gizia (97) grants a full extra turn, minus the diepublisher
- QUESTION
- What exactly does E. Gizia's reward include — just the die action, or a whole turn? Do Staff cards that trigger on taking a specific die still work?
- ANSWER
- "E. Gizia grants you a whole extra turn, with all of its normals steps (Guest, Die Action, Additional Actions). The only difference to a normal turn is, you don't take a die. All Staff that affect Die Actions trigger on the action not the actual taking of the die. Ergo, they do work with the E. Gizia bonus turn." This describes the original (2015–2016) rulebook; the Deluxe edition reprints E. Gizia with a different cost and a narrower effect.
AUTHOR: Ponton (Grzegorz Kobiela, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(16 replies, 2 thumbs)DATE: 2020-04-15Using E. Gizia on the "6" action still costs 1 kronepublisher
- QUESTION
- If you use E. Gizia's reward to resolve the action on Action space "6", do you still pay the 1 krone that Action 6 normally costs?
- ANSWER
- "Yes, you must pay 1 krone."
AUTHOR: Ponton (Grzegorz Kobiela, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies, 1 thumb)DATE: 2026-02-17Several players passing in the same round share one re-rolled poolpublisher
- QUESTION
- If two players pass in the same round, is a die removed once per re-roll, or once per player who passed?
- ANSWER
- Once per re-roll. After everyone who did not pass has finished, the passer with the lowest visible Turn Order number removes a single die and re-rolls the rest, and every player still holding an uncovered number plays from that same pool. Only if someone passes again does another die get removed and the remaining dice re-rolled. Confirmed by Hanno Girke in thread 1451576 (2015-10-12, 8 thumbs) with a worked four-player example.
AUTHOR: Soeren_Lookout (Sören Paukstadt, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(12 replies, 1 thumb)DATE: 2017-01-12Passing early does not force you to pass on your later turnpublisher
- QUESTION
- If you pass on the first of your two numbers, must you also pass on the second?
- ANSWER
- No. "You could theoretically take a dice at that point (maybe since the action of Player3 has uncovered a new guest in the line-up that you really need to have). Passing in the early spot doesn't mean you have to pass on the later spot."
AUTHOR: Hanno (Hanno Girke, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(7 replies, 1 thumb)DATE: 2018-04-21You may take a die and decline its actionpublisher
- QUESTION
- Can you take a die purely to trigger a Staff bonus or to block an opponent, without carrying out the associated action?
- ANSWER
- "Yes, you can take a die and ignore the associated action."
AUTHOR: Ponton (Grzegorz Kobiela, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(7 replies, 3 thumbs)DATE: 2022-08-29The guest market only advances when a guest is actually takenpublisher
- QUESTION
- If nobody takes a guest, does the rightmost guest still slide off and get replaced, refreshing the row?
- ANSWER
- No. "If no guests are taken, there is nowhere to slide them. Official response, btw." The five face-up guests can therefore stay frozen indefinitely; there is no automatic refresh.
AUTHOR: Ponton (Grzegorz Kobiela, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(21 replies, 2 thumbs)DATE: 2020-03-04
EDGE CASES2
Victory Points can go negative; krones cannotpublisher
- SITUATION
- An Emperor Scoring penalty, or another player's effect, costs a player more Victory Points than they currently have.
- RULING
- "You can go negative. Even in the base game alone, it's theoretically possible to go negative during the first Emperor scoring if you don't score any or little points and don't meet the required 3 steps." Money is different — the Money track cannot drop below zero.
AUTHOR: Ponton (Grzegorz Kobiela, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies, 1 thumb)DATE: 2021-08-28A Politics card objective, once claimed, is never lostpublisher
- SITUATION
- A player places a disk on a Politics card for "two fully occupied columns", then loses occupied rooms to an Emperor track penalty and no longer meets the requirement.
- RULING
- "Official answer: You cannot lose an objective you've previously completed." The disk and its Victory Points stay.
AUTHOR: Ponton (Grzegorz Kobiela, Lookout Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(4 replies, 2 thumbs)DATE: 2026-05-07
Last researched: 2026-09-08
CATEGORIES
Economic
MECHANICS
Action DraftingContractsDice RollingEnd Game BonusesHand ManagementSet CollectionTurn Order: ProgressiveVariable Set-up
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An opponent's settlement blocks your road network — your road cannot be built through or past an occupied intersection.
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Null cards deal 0 damage regardless of base value or any bonuses applied.
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