October 20th and 21st: Saint Petersburg with Hilary

I recently came to the realization that Hilary likes game that have little or no hidden information. She dislikes having to guess what someone is thinking or trying to do. With that in mind, I pulled out Saint Petersburg, a game where players try to create the most efficient victory point engine using cards representing workers, buildings, and aristocrats.

Everything in Saint Petersburg happens "face up" - cards are made available face up in front of all players, and then the players take turns choosing cards and either paying for them and adding them to their tableau, or taking them into their hand to pay for later (the hand size maximum is 3). Every card generates income, victory points, or both (along with a few special abilities), and players must balance getting enough money early in the game with getting enough victory points by the time the game is over. In addition, players earn points for having as many different types of aristocrats as possible.

Saint Petersburg has a fair number of options available to players, and it can take some time to pick up. Hilary and I played twice in consecutive nights. I won both games, but she pulled considerably closer on the second. We'll try it again sometime, but we loaned the game to our friend Alana for the time being.