St. Petersburg' by Michael Tummelhofer.
A hasty call from Kendall to Dicken at 6.30 sees 'St Petersburg' sneaking up on the rails as tonight's main course. It was to have been a game test of one of the latest 'Top Secret' games from Ragnar Brothers, but Kendall knows rule changes are needed and he's not sure which bits to tinker with. It will have to serve as dessert.
A ring at the door at 8.00 p.m. and no, it's not someone canvassing for votes - is anybody out there? It's Paul. No Liz tonight. Tim (Kendall's son) immediately spots a novice pool player and challenges him to a quick game before Dicken's arrival.
Dicken arrives and heads for the computer room to check out 'Nero'. Kendall's hard disk had crashed irretrievably and the Ragnars have learned (relatively quickly) that backing up the entire hard drive is probably a good thing. Paul continues to watch Tim potting the balls.
And so to the game. 'St Petersburg' has cropped up in a couple of the Ragnar bash reports, but full justice needs to be done to this excellent game. The rules are relatively simple, especially if the detail is left out of the explaining. Paul experiences this as first Kendall and then Dicken give him an airy sketch before plunging him into the first round. Paul remains cool.
Four rather strange wooden bits determine who goes first in each of the four rounds of each turn. Two of them, the onion dome and the head are obviously appropriate for representing the Buildings and Aristocrats respectively; but what of the chair (Workers) and the square (Trade cards)? Something left over from a previous production, perhaps? More to the point, Kendall notices that he will be going last in the first round (Workers) and immediately lodges a protest whilst threatening to moan all evening. Dicken magnanimously changes places.
Kendall's point is that going first when choosing Workers is good, but going last is disastrous. Each Worker (and players are advised strongly that they should take the two available at the start) generates 3 Roubles at the end of the Worker round, each turn. Kendall takes the cheapest workers (9 Roubles) , Dicken takes the most expensive (15 Roubles). As players only start with 25 Roubles, Dicken will have to play catch up this round and next (when he will be second to Paul). By the third turn Dicken will be first, but then other revenue sources will be available.
Dicken remains cool. The next round is Buildings. Paul immediately makes a decisive and innovative move, buying the most expensive building available (Theatre) which will be worth 6 victory points per turn until the end of the game. He has no more money. Dicken's and Kendall's erections are less impressive (steady out there! - ed.).
So to the Aristocrat round, which (as Kendall pointed out to Paul) is where the game is generally won and lost. Aristocrats (like Buildings) generate victory points and money as the game progresses, but their main impact comes in the final count-up when then will generate points, increasing incrementally for each Aristocrat owned. Dicken and Kendall are both able to afford their first nobles, who in turn bring in a small income.
The final round of each turn sees players choosing from the available Trade cards. This a composite deck made up of superior Workers, Buildings and Aristocrats. These can only be played by replacing an appropriate card and paying the difference in cost. No-one can afford these at present, but as players are able to hold three cards in their hand, some do disappear.
Kendall drifts between phone calls from Spiller, saying 'Goodnight' to his off-spring and passing round the cheese and biscuits.
Previous games had seen a major cock-up on the rules front regarding how many cards are drawn from each deck and where they move to. Suffice to say that a maximum of eight cards can be face-up at any time, some of which will be on the bottom row (cards remaining from last turn) and costing 1 Rouble less. Despite their best intentions, Kendall and Dicken still manage to forget how to move cards from top to bottom row and end up losing a few Buildings early on - but that's so much water under the bridge.
The game progresses serenely on. Never quite enough money to do all that one would like, but plenty of options available. A player's place in the turn makes quite a difference, as does the number of cards to be turned over in each of the rounds. Generally speaking, it has been the Workers pack that runs out first, and that is the case tonight. At which point the current turn is the last.
Kendall is loaded with money (45 Roubles per turn from his Workers), but Paul is well out in the lead courtesy of his Theatre. Dicken manfully brings up the rear. Critically Dicken poo-poos the two Observatories that are on offer from the Buildings and Kendall gleefully snaps up both. Paul doesn't realise their potential impact. Instead of cashing in the 1 victory point for each, Kendall is able to draw two cards from the Aristocrat deck, adding them to his teeming ranks.
Kendall wins with 92 points ('It was the Aristocrats what done it!'), Paul second with 68, Dicken third with 62. Dicken agrees that some tweeking is needed (variable amounts of money for players at the start of the game?).
(In retrospect I seem to remember a rule about not using the same card (Observatory) twice in a turn - or is that another game? - ed.)
9.50 p.m. and Paul has to be up at 6.00 a.m. - although he lets it be known that he could be taking a redundancy to try his hand at social work. Dicken urges him to 'come over to the dark side'.Just time for a quick dart at 'the game whose name cannot be mentioned'.
Somewhat surprisingly, the tinkering turn out to be a major success and the game is immediately tighter and more tense, yet more flexible and less mechanical.
Fingers itching? You'll have to wait.
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