San Juan, Canal Grande, Lost Cities
September 20th, 2005Over the last two weeks, I have separately met and played games with two ex-pat Kiwis from the BoardGameGeek. I wonder what the chances are of that?
San Juan
I played this once before at BSW, but this was my first face-to-face game. Christo was a good teacher. At first glance, I suspect this is a better two-player game than with more. Like others have said, why play this when you can play Puerto Rico instead?
I love the cleverness of spending cards to activate others. Are there any other games that use this mechanic?
My only concern is that this might be the sort of game that you can play on autopilot once you learn the optimum strategies. Is this true? If so, I will have to stay away from strategy articles, or it will be ruined for me.
I am playing War of the Ring with Christo on Thursday. I can’t wait.
Canal Grande
I am unsure about this. We played with Bruno Faidutti’s variant, using two extra cards in each colour, which I prefer. Southernman was a much tougher opponent than Vanessa, which made it much more fun. It is not top drawer, as the decisions feel easy and the graphics are fugly. I still prefer San Marco by a wide margin. Having said that it is good enough to play occasionally and it will stay out of my attic for a while.
Lost Cities
There is not much to add to what countless others have said before. It is a classic and the best light two-player card game I have tried. I took a gruesome thrashing.
I hope I can meet up with Southernman again before too long. He was a really nice guy. It is great to have a game playing friend near my family’s cottage
September 21st, 2005 at 06:16
“Like others have said, why play this when you can play Puerto Rico instead?”
Because San Juan takes less space, plays faster, is more fun, requires less setup time, is welcome variety after dozens of Puerto Rico games… The reasons are numerous. I don’t see San Juan as Puerto Rico lite, but as a separate game, that’s just about as much fun to play as it’s big brother. Sure, they share theme and mechanics, but they feel quite different to play, at least to me.
Well, come to think of it, both are about creating a machine that produces wealth. However, creating cashflow (and pointflow) in Puerto Rico is so much different from producing a steady flow of cards in San Juan that the games have a different feel to them.
“My only concern is that this might be the sort of game that you can play on autopilot once you learn the optimum strategies. Is this true?”
No, I don’t think so. Because of the cards, you’ll always have to adjust to what you see. I operate few basic strategies: City Hall, Guild Hall and Triumphal Arch. Which one I choose, depends on what I get. I’ve become a bit stuck in Puerto Rico, where I always aim at the Guild Hall, but here the different strategies come up more often, and that’s something I really like. You can’t choose the cards you get, so you can’t choose your strategy, so going on an autopilot isn’t really an option.
September 21st, 2005 at 07:54
I agree with Mikko. At least I almost agree with him because I enjoy San Juan more than Puerto Rico. Much less fiddly and the card draw makes for for more interesting/different decisions to be made. I’ve played 100+ games two player now and we eventually decided that the Guild Hall was a little too strong. We now play 2pts for the first of each type of production building but only 1 pt for the second.
September 21st, 2005 at 11:01
Thanks guys. I am glad my pessimistic impressions are untrue.
I am as interested in San Juan as I was about Blue Moon. Just like London buses, you wait for an elegant, innovative two player card game for ages and two come along at once…
September 21st, 2005 at 12:22
Mikko and Michael have it exactly right – you can have some ideas of what you will do, but you have to make the most of what you get dealt. I like Michael’s scoring variant, but then neither of us even saw a Guild Hall in the game we played!
September 21st, 2005 at 14:14
Ermm. I saw one, but I bought something else with it…
September 29th, 2005 at 21:06
Mentioned to fellonmyhead about my excursion out to Woolstone and he could be interested to come along next time you are out meeting the peasants ..... just a bit more notice next time.