Rowan Tree and Red Thread

After a weekend of baking and potty training, I was well ready for some diverting gaming on Sunday night. Three friends turned up, though Sam bowed out, blaming a cold and fever, so we had the numbers for a 4-hander of Saint Petersburg, a new game to our group, recently arrived and part of Alex's collection. (The 9+ month wait for it and other games from Boulder Games is another story. Suffice to say that Ireland and Iran have different international short forms, and one shouldn't mix them up when posting from the US to Ireland.)


Saint Petersburg is an interesting game of repeated rounds of stashing, buying, and reaping the benefits of four different sorts of cards. The four decks are Workers, Buildings, Aristocrats and Trade/Merchant cards. The object of the game is to get the most victory points, which come from certain cards once you have them in play. In essence, you start with the Workers, deal 8 and go round in turns, buying cards, which go directly into play, or stashing cards in your hand (max size = 3) for later. If you're not buying a card or stashing one, you can pay to one one into play from your hand, or you can pass. If everyone passes consecutively, the round ends, you tally the scores and money gained from your cards in play and move onto the next deck, the Buildings. Enough cards from the Buildings deck are dealt out to the display to make the total number of cards out up to 8, and the same buying or stashing thing goes on. Similarly for the Aristocrats and the Trade cards. After that, rinse and repeat the whole sequence until one of the decks is exhausted.

The various cards are clever, with certain upgrades coming from the trade deck that allow you to build on and improve cards you've previously invested in. Not all cards are equal however. You need Workers to generate cash, particularly early in the game, but they're worth nothing in victory points, unless improved with an upgrade, and not a lot even then. The Buildings are good, but expensive, and two of found ourselves stalling in last night's game due to early investment in buildings when we probably should have waited. The Aristocrats are a mixed bunch, but are worth more the more of them you have, as there's a bonus score at the end of the game based on the number of different aristocrats you have in play.

In all, I think I'd give it another go. There's a bit of luck in the order of the draw in each round, mitigated a little by having the order of play for each phase change as play progresses. Nonetheless, I keenly remember that I was screwed out of many point in the last phase of the last round simply because I got to go last that particular time. Sigh. Nonetheless, a fun game, but probably too long (at about 2 hours or more) for the depth of strategic play required.

Shannon Appelcline (shannon_a) has a comprehensive review here if you want more depth, and some pretty pictures.