Thread: Two-player with Rich

MerricB — 2008-05-17T01:24:26+00:00

San Juan is a game that I find improves the more I play it; I hope Rich will find the same, but he's still in the learning stages. We were playing this game while waiting for Randy to arrive after his early work commitments, and it proved diverting.

Rich moved into an early (and cheap) production strategy and built a Sugar Mill, discarding only one card to build it. My Tobacco plant cost me the rest of my hand; then Rich had his first two Production/Trader cycles work rather effectively, netting 3 cards from each compared to my 2. However, I was choosing the Prospector, so we were keeping somewhat equivalent in cards.

In the mid-game, however, I began to pull away. The Prefecture was a bonus and Rich was unable to draw a better production plant. The stars started aligning for my violet building strategy and down went the Carpenter, then the Library, and things just accumulated from there. A Chapel as well, with Rich still lagging behind in number of buildings, and it was from there only a short step to a convincing victory. Rich did get the Guild Hall down, but compared to my Chapel/City Hall/Palace combination, there was little but the counting.

50 points to 30, a decisive victory!

Thread: Why is th 5-8 player variant fun?

toguopp — 2008-05-13T11:05:16+00:00

I've seen comments by people who actually love the 5-8 player variant that uses two copies of San Juan. Why is it fun? San Juan is somewhat multi-player solitaire and the interaction comes from figuring out what works best for you and not for others. But wouldn't this interaction be hard to figure out with as many as 8 people playing - making the game even more of a multi-player solitaire exercise?

I hope there a few people out there who can explain why the large number variant works well, as I'm very eager to find a meaty game or variant that can accommodate a larger group of people. Thank you.

Game: San Juan

Thread: Two-player with Rich

Thread: Why is th 5-8 player variant fun?