Game Review – Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg
Number of Players	2 - 4
Play Time	45 minutes
Ages	10 years and up

I am reviewing Saint Petersburg this time.  The theme of Saint Petersburg is that the players are part of Czar Peter’s court and are trying to create the strongest faction by constructing buildings in Saint Petersburg and getting aristocrats into their sphere of influence.

Each round of the game consists of a number of turns where the players purchase cards that represent the various things that they need.  During the turn the players have the option to do one of four actions:  purchase a card for the tableau, take a card from the tableau into their reserve, purchase a card from their reserve, or passing.  Players will take these actions multiple times during a turn.  They may pass and then do something else if play gets back around to them later.  Play continues until every player as passed as their action and play gets around to the first player that passed during that go around the table.

The first turn of a turn is when the Craftsmen or green cards are up for purchase.  These cards provide the players their primary income. 

The second turn the Buildings or blue card come out into the positions that are open on the board after the green turn.  The blue cards are the mostly victory point generators. 

The third turn is where the Aristocrat or orange cards make their appearance.  Again the orange cards are placed into positions that opened up during the previous turn.  The orange cards usually have a combination of money and victory points on them.  In addition they provide bonus victory points at the end of the game based on the number of unique orange cards a player has.

The fourth turn is where the special cards for each of the other types of cards come out in any spot that are available for them.  They do not have their own color.  They will be blue, green or orange.  When purchased they replace cards of the same type that they are.  If a player does not have a card of the color of special card then they may not purchase the replacement card.  This is the only round that there is no payout.

Play then goes into the next round where the four turns are completed again.  This continues until one of the decks of cards is depleted when the board is being replenished which is usually six to seven rounds.

There are two viable strategies that I am aware of the blue strategy and the orange strategy.  The blue strategy is centered on getting buildings in the blue turn as early as possible and as often as possible.  The trick is to be mindful of your cash because if you are not getting any orange cards during the orange turn, you will not have the income boost that you will need to get more green cards during the green turn.  You need to get a decisive lead in victory points during the play of the game in order to win using the blue strategy or someone using the orange strategy can beat you.

The orange strategy is probably the easiest one to win with, but has the problem of being the more popular strategy.  The orange strategy consists of getting as many unique orange cards during the play of the game along with specific blue cards that can get you advantages during the game.  If you get victory points while the game is played they are bonus points.  The goal is to have the most unique orange cards at the end of the game and use the orange card bonus to propel you to victory. 

You run into trouble if you are competing with more than one other player while trying the orange strategy because there usually are not enough orange cards available in a turn to be able to get the points needed to win using the strategy easily.

Saint Petersburg is one of those games that every serious board game player should play at least one.  There are warnings that go with that statement.  Try to play with a group of players that are around the same experience level as you.  If you have a player that has played the game a lot more than the rest of the group be prepared for them to beat the rest of you badly.  In those sort of cases occur when I try a new game out there is a greater chance that I will have a bad experience with a game and not be as willing to play it again whether it is a good game or not.

Money is also very tight in Saint Petersburg.  You will never have enough money to do what you want on any given turn.  Make sure you save money for the turns you need to purchase cards in, usually the green, special card and either the blue or orange turn depending on which strategy you are using.  Ignore the cards that you do not need.  You will need the money later.

Saint Petersburg is a great game for board gamers that are looking for games that are more advanced than the introductory games that I have recommended in the past.  It does have the virtue of having a simple rules set, but do not let that trick you.  It can be unforgiving.  If you make a mistake at the wrong time it could blow your whole game.  The real play time for Saint Petersburg is around an hour so that even if you start losing badly you will not be stuck in the game for a couple of hours hating every minute of it.

I recommend Saint Petersburg for players that are ready to try something that is outside of the comfort zone of Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride but are not looking for the long commitment time it takes to play Agricola.