Sunday, September 11, 2005

St Pete Has Been Redeemed

Thank you Mikko for solving my big St Pete problem.

I just finished a 2 player game with my wife using the correct rules. Until now, after every phase I had been tossing out the second row and moving the cards down. This made a very high turnover in cards. The correct rule seems to be to toss out the last row only after every round.

What a difference. I had a ton more cash, which meant that buying buildings now became a possibility instead of a complete waste of cash. And the buildings didn't run out so darn quickly.

Instead, I have another little inelegance: in the second round when neither of us could buy any cards, we passed. And then NO aristocrats and NO traders came out that round. Eh. Is this normal? It seemed a little silly. I assume that this is less likely in a three or four player game. Maybe, if this becomes a regular thing in two players, each player could be allowed to choose a card on the table to discard if the table is full at the end of a phase. Will have to play more.

I still think that all cards should score one more time at the end of the game so as to make the last buys worthwhile. Again, a little inelegance, but not a major flaw.

In any case, the game just got a whole lot better.

Yehuda

2 comments:

Chris Brooks said...

I looked at your first post a bit puzzled, assuming you must be playing something wrong but not being able to discern what it was. I'm glad you found your way - this is good little game.

It isn't at all unusual to see minimal or no purchases in the 2nd or 3rd turn - cash is tight and the income arc is just starting to take off. Sometimes, it makes sense to buy a cheap building just to allow a single aristocrat to come out if you will have first pick in that round. Worst case you can pull him into your hand.

iguanaDitty said...

I think it's pretty critical to force people to hold cards in their hand if they want to get aristocrat/upgrade draws. Otherwise the game loses some of the few choices it has.