Black and White
First, let us take an X-ray of the game and go over the supporting structure that keeps everything together: the rules. Those familiar with the rules or simply don't care can skip to the diagnosis.
The game of Saint Petersburg is divided into rounds, each further divided into 4 phases, with players taking alternating turns (from now on referred to as actions) during each phase.
On each action, a player may 1)take a card from the board into his hand, 2)buy a card directly from the board, 3)buy a card from his hand, or 4)pass. To buy a card, a player must pay the required rubles. A players hand size (the cards he holds without buying) is limited to 3.
When all players have passed consecutively, the current phase ends. Note that a player may pass and take another action in the same phase if someone else took a non-passing action between the player's turns. When the phase ends, use cards from the next phase to fill the board up to 8 cards. Also, except for the trade phase, victory points and rubles are paid out at the end of each phase.
The phases in each round are, in order, worker, building, aristocrat, and trade. The starting player changes in each phase (though turn order remains the same. You will always go after and before the same respective players). There are four wooden markers, one corresponding to each phase. The markers are distributed randomly to each player. The player holding the marker starts for that respective phase. In a two player game, each player gets two markers. In a three player game, the distribution is 1-1-2 markers. In a four player game, each player gets one marker.
At the end of each round (or equivalently the end of each trade phase), all cards that were turned up during the round are discounted by 1 ruble in the next one, and all cards that were already on discount is removed. In other words, when a card turns up it is worth its full price for the remaining of that round, is discounted for the entire duration of the next round, and is discarded before the round after that starts. The phase markers are passed to the next player, such that different players will start in the different phases from one round to the next.
That's the general flow of the game. So what do the cards do, and what is the goal of the game? The goal of the game is to score victory points. The cards help you do that by providing VPs, rubles, or some special powers. To rehash: VPs are for scoring, rubles are for buying cards, and powers are powers--we'll get to these later.
A note about buying cards, is that for each card of the same type you've already bought, you get a 1 ruble discount. In other words, if you already bought 2 lumberjacks (full price = 3 rubles), the next lumberjack will cost you only 3 - 2 = 1 ruble. However, a card can be discounted to a minimum cost of 1 ruble. You can't get a card for free.
worker phase, green cards
These cards provide income. At the end of each worker phase, the green cards pay rubles to the player who bought them. More specifically, they all pay out 3 rubles, and cost from 3 to 8 rubles to purchase.
building phase, blue cards
These cards provide VPs. At the end of each building phase, the blue cards pay VPs to the player who bought them. The cost range from 5 to twenty something, with the cheaper ones giving less VP.
A Potemkin Village costs 2 rubles to build but counts as 6 for upgrades. Essentially it gives a discount of 4 for upgrading blue buildings. There is only one Potemkin Village in the entire game.
A warehouse increases the player's hand limit from 3 to 4 cards. There is only one warehouse in the entire game.
An observatory may be used to draw a card from a deck of the player's choice (each deck corresponding to cards from each of the four phases). The player may then decide to take this observed card into his hand or purchase it outright. There are a total of two observatories in the deck.
A pub allows players to purchase VPs with rubles at the end of each building phase. Each VP cost 2 rubles, and a maximimum of 5 VPs may be bought per pub owned per building phase. There are a total of two pubs in the deck.
aristocrat phase, red cards
These cards provide a mix of income and VP at the end of each aristocrat phase. They cost from 4 (pays 1 ruble) to 18 (pays 6 rubles and 3 VPs).
trade phase, special cards
These cards can be used to upgrade existing cards (that are already bought and paid for). The replaced card is discarded and the new special card takes its place. The player must pay the difference in cost between the replaced and replacing card. If the new card costs less, the player must still pay at least 1 ruble.
Special green cards are worker specific. Each special green card can be used with only a specific type of worker. For example, the weaving mill may only replace the shepherd. The weaving mill costs 8 rubles and pays 6 rubles, the shepherd costs 5 rubles and pays 3 rubles. So upgrading costs 3 rubles, and increases one's ruble income by 3 during the worker phase. Special green cards provide additional income, VP, or a combination of the two. There are two that respectively give a 1 ruble discount for each building and aristocrat purchase.
Any special blue cards may be used on any blue building. Special blue buildings provide additional VP and ruble. One building, the theater, provides one ruble for each aristocrat already purchased.
Any special red cards may be used on any red aristocrat. Special aristocrats provide VP, ruble, or a combination of the two. One special aristocrat, the tax collector, provides one ruble for each worker already purchased.
Last thing to note is that there are only one card for each type of blue and red special cards, Czaar (normal green worker that can be used with any green upgrades), goldsmith (aristocrat discount, worker upgrade), carpenter (building dicount, worker upgrade), Potemkin Village and warehouse. The other cards all have duplicates.
When one of the four decks is exhausted (usually the blue building cards), the current round is the final round, and the game ends after this round's trade phase. At the game's end, every 10 rubles count as 1 VP, and every unpurchased card in a player's hand counts as -5 VP. Players also score VPs for each unique aristocrat purchased. The first unique aristocrat is worth 1 VP, the second 2VP, the third 3vP, and so on until the tenth one. The eleventh, twelfth or thereafter unique aristocrat don't score any additional points.
Add these points to the ones accumulated throughout the game for your final score. Important: player with the highest score wins. The player with the lowest score is the biggest loser.
Diagnosis
Saint Petersburg is a cold, calculating, and methodical game. It is formulaic; it is clinical. How clinical? Comparable to the computer game Free Cell that comes with Windows.
There are games where one can have general strategies, but the application of which is not always simple and obvious. This is not the case in Saint Petersburg, where one doesn't so much think and analyze as he computes and executes. Playing Saint Petersburg basically amounts to carrying out a series of tactical tricks, tediously, meticulously, mechanically, repetitively. Read: follow a programmed formula a la auto-pilot. More like doing addition and multiplication in one's head than solving an unique, creative problem.
However, while the application of the tactics may be trivial, the learning and developing of these is anything but. In fact, learning these tactics is quite difficult, especially if one is not particularly observant and quick to note patterns and trends in a game. I think at least half the fun and reward from playing Saint Petersburg is the learning and developing of one's tactics (for future games) instead of the actual (mechanical) implementation of them.
So in a sense, Saint Petersburg is both easy and hard. It's easy "to play", but hard to become better without guidance. And despite all that I said, Saint Petersburg isn't a bad game. It's just that type of a game which gameplay is more mechanical and compulsively playable. Some prefer this types of games. And personally I found the game to be challenging and fun to learn--the type of game that is shitloads of fun when one keeps losing and don't know what the hell happened, but loses its charm as one masters the tricks and starts winning. Currently my win percentage at BrettSpielWelt is ~43% after 500+ plays. Granted that is still below 50% but it is also quite a long way from losing ~90 out of my first 100 plays; and the journey has definitely lost some of its lustre and charm as I am learning less and less and repeating old tricks more and more.
Healthy Strategy
for two player games
There are basically two things going on in Saint Petersburg: hand management and income management. There are two reasons to buy/take a card into your hand: because you actually want to buy it, or to open up a slot for the upcoming phase. These cards can be categorized into those that can be purchased immediately/soon, and those that cannot and takes up a hand space until it does get purchased.
Let us look at income management first.
At the beginning of the game, you want to build up your income. This means buying as many workers as you can in the green phase. This is true until the penultimate round, in which, for the purpose of increasing income, you want to buy only workers that cost 3 or less (or maybe 4 and 5 also, if you are willing to be 1/2 ruble short in the penultimate round and gain 2/1 ruble in the last round).
Do not buy VP generating buildings in the first two rounds. Early on, it is better to buy low cost buildings. This allows you to save cash for workers and aristocrats that can build up your income. Also, because there are a higher number of low cost buildings, you can build them at a higher and higher discount as the game goes on (if you build the same type). In the late game, if you don't already have high count of low cost buildings, it is better to buy high cost buildings if you can afford them, because they give a higher rate of VP/cost prior to discounts.
Aristocrats are bought for VPs. Yes, they also generate income, but they hardly pay for themselve, or at best not much more. Green cards pay for themselves in a round or two, red cards need three or four. The main reason to buy arisocrats is for the arisocrat scoring. In general, buy the more expensive ones first. One explanation often offered is that they pay for themselves sooner. A 10 cost aristocrat earns 3 ruble per round (~3 round for breaking even), whereas a 4 cost aristocrat earns 1 ruble (4 round for breaking even). I don't see it that way, because I don't buy aristocrats to generate income. If I did, I wouldn't buy any. I buy aristocrats for points, and want to spend them in such a way to get back as much income as possible. Because of the way aristocrats are scored, ideally I want to have one each of aristocrats that cost 4, 7, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 rubles. This means that in the end, I will need to buy all of them anyways, and spend the same amount of cash. So why not buy the more expensive ones first that pays more rubles? Another reason is that expensive aristocrats are rarer, so I want to grab these first.
Now let us look at hand management. To do that, we need to know which cards we actually want.
Early game, all green cards are good. This means that if you are going first next green phase, you want an odd number of new green cards to show up. Depending on how much ruble you have going into the phase, you may be able to buy 1, 2, 3, or 4 workers, in which case you'll want 1, 3, 5, or 7 new worker cards to show up (assuming the opponent has cash to buy all the other workers).
Buildings are (almost) never short. You don't really need to open up slots for this phase.
Aristocrats, as long as you have less than ten of them, are always good. Similar to worker phase, you want to open up as many slots for yourself as you can afford.
Special trade cards can be risky. Some are very good, some are marginally good, and some are worthless. The theater is worthless 99% of the time. High income special buildings are good only in early game; the opposite is true for high VP special buildings. Almost all special aristocrats are great, except for the 24 cost one that is expensive to pay for and bad to take early game (because it'll eat up a hand space for the remainder of the game). Special green cards can be great if you have more cash than you can spend for the upcoming worker phase. If the influx of green workers is already more than you can afford then it may actually be cheaper to buy those instead. Because not all trade cards are good, if you are going first in the trade phase don't open up a third slot hoping to get two good cards, because chances are the third trade card will be shit.
A phenomenon that one must absolutely be prepared for in the two player game, is the usual big influx of green workers in the third round. This is because all the leftover cards (mostly blue) from the first round is discarded at the end of the second, leaving many open slots for the green phase in the third round. You want to save enough cash for this.
Now the distribution of the markers will have an impact on the player's tactics--particularly the distribution of the aristocrat and trade markers. A player may start with an aristocrat, a trade, both or neither marker/s. All these have its own special nuances to deal with. Let us go over the holding the trade and building marker on first round.
1.Green
Buy all the workers that you can, starting from the cheapest one.
1.Blue
Unless a Potemkin Village, warehouse, or observatory is available, pass on first turn. The reason is if you open up one slot for the upcoming red phase where your opponent goes first, he'll just pass and force you to take another blue card into your hand to open up an aristocrat card for yourself. Basically, what will happen is that he'll take a blue card into his hand to open up a red card for himself, and you'll do the same after him. He may choose to take another blue card into his to open up another aristocrat for himself.
Now you need to look as far ahead as the next green phase. If 3 slots are opened up for the next red phase, that means the opponent will get 2 and you 1, which is alright. That opens up 3 slots for the trade phase, and you'll grab 1 or 2 special cards, depending on how good they are. They may all be good, or all bad. If all 3 trade cards are taken, that means you'll get 2 workers in round two and the opponent 1. So unless the 3rd trade card is really bad, you'll want to take that into your had to give yourself an extra worker.
1.Red
You go second: the rule of thumb is to buy the most expensive arisotcrat available. However, there are times you may want to buy the cheapest one to give yourself a huge cash lead over your opponent. This may stuff your opponent's hand if he didn't buy the second expensive aristocrat. Or if he did, mey may have enough ruble for only 1 worker in round 2, so you can open up 3 slots for that phase even when you are going second.
1.Special
Take the cards that are good. If opening up an additional slot is desirable, consider taking another card (doesn't have to be special, can be blue) that isn't too bad and can be purchased and cleared from the hand quickly.
2.Green
Buy all the workers as cash allows, starting from the cheapest one.
2.Blue
Depends on the players' hand size and cash. You want to save enough cash to buy as many workers as possible in round 3. If you don't have enough cash/hand space, don't open up any slot even if you are going first in the red phase.
2.Red
No red cards are turned up. If your opponent is also short on cash and hand space, he'll also not open up any slot even though he's going first in the trade phase. Note that if you had spent cash/hand space to get that one aristocrat, your opponent can now get a trade card by doing nothing.
2.Special
Not much to be done here.
3.Green
Buy all the green workers as cash allows, starting from the cheapest.
So that's the basic jist of the game. There are always exceptions, such as when the opponent has the weaving mill, you may want to buy the only shepherd available first even if there's a cheaper worker out there. And a bunch of tricks like that. Also, one can detail all the opening rundowns for each combination of marker distribution (I only did it for one), and they are all different, each with their own little intricacies and nuisances.
And there are many finer details, but those are the broad general concepts. I will conclude this section with a discussion on the non-VP normal buildings. In order of preference:
Warehouse: best building in my opinion. "Always" grab this.
Potemkin Village: great. The 4 ruble discount can be the difference between being able to afford a special blue building one round earlier or not, which gives an early boost in VP/ruble and opens up a hand space.
Observatory: good but can be countered by opening lots of space for upcoming red/special phase. If you stuff your hand with observed cards, you'll leave the turned up cards for your opponent. So if the opponent opens up more slots than you can grab, consider not observing. Personally I mostly observe the trade deck.
Pub: I see them more as cheap ways to open up slots for the next phase than as potentials for earning VPs. A 11 blue building bought on the penultimate round will give better return for VPs (6). A pub plus 10 rubles also cost 11 rubles total and nets you 5 VPs or maybe 4 VPs if it ends up costing one VP for ruble scoring at game's end. One thing about pub though is that holding two of them is an incentive to make the game last longer (more rounds), because a shorter game one often can't even afford to buy VPs: he needs to save enough to buy the aristocrats. But in long games where aristocrat count is easily maxed out to ten and there is no shortage of cash, one can purchase the maximum number of VPs from the pub with no hesitation.
There are other factors to consider on whether one wants to end the game early or late, but I won't detail those for now. Maybe I'll update this strategy section at a future date. I will note that players who beat me seem to be doing by using blue VP buildings more effectively, while matching or losing slightly in unique aristocrat count.
There are some very good strategy articles on this site, but beware that some strategy tips given are more accurate than others. Some have been corrected in the replies by other users so look at these as well.
Random Notes
Personally, I slightly prefer the two players game to the three or four players game. These game types are different and differenct tactics apply--just as how different phase markers will change the dynamics in a two player game.
There is luck in this game but over a course of several games it will usually be clear who is the better player. Some claim the early mistress or judge to be broken, but then so can the warehouse, risk of trade cards, observing good cards everyturn, etc. It's just part of the game and it has never bothered me. In fact there being more than one "broken" card/situations actually evens things out.
Last edited on 2007-12-28 16:49:02 CST (Total Number of Edits: 4)
Posted Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:57 am
