Saint Petersburg is a board game originally released in 2004 by Bernd Brunnhofer, Michael Tummelhofer, Jay Tummelson, and Michael Bruinsma. Despite the seeming design-by-committee, this simple card game plays quickly and isn’t overly complicated. The goal of the game is to collect as many victory points as possible. To do so, you will need to acquire gold, which is used to purchase workers, buildings, aristocrats, and “exchange items”, which replace workers, buildings, and aristocrats already on the board.

The game takes place in rounds, and each player begins with 25 gold. The basic idea is simple: each round, there are 4 phases (worker, building, aristocrat, exchange) in which cards of those types are sold. Each player simply chooses the card he wishes to buy and places it face up in his play area, and then the next player takes his turn. A phase ends when all players have passed consecutively. Workers cost between 3 and 8 gold each, and generate 3 gold at the end of the worker phase. Buildings tend to be moderately expensive, and generate victory points. Aristocrats generate some gold, and the more expensive ones also generate victory points, but aren’t as efficient as workers and buildings in doing so. However, at the end of the game you also get extra victory points for each different aristocrat you have in your hand. And finally, the exchange items (which have squares around their cost) replace currently placed items. The amount of gold or victory points a card produces is listed at the bottom of each card.

There are a few other interesting things: First, if you already own a card, buying another one costs one gold less for each card you already own. This gives you incentive to collect workers of the same type. Second, you have a “hand”, which is capable of holding up to 3 cards. The hand can hold cards for play later in the game, and you only have to pay for them when you play them. However, any cards left in your hand are worth -5 victory points at the end of the game! Third, cards not bought in the round are moved to the bottom row, where they cost one less in the following round. Finally, there are a few cards with special properties that give you the ability to do things like convert gold to VP, draw an extra card, hold 4 cards in your hand, etc…

This PC version is a great one-player recreation of the board game. Make sure you also download the english language pack and cards (which are at the bottom of the web page on the right). Also, change the AI strength to Z1 — the default strength doesn’t let you play as any position except position 1.

Full instructions can be found here. The instructions aren’t very good, but the game is very simple to play and you will figure it out after a few games. However, even after figuring it out, you will still likely lose a lot of games to the very good AI! I think it took me over 15 games before I was finally able to scratch out a win!

Fortunately for us, Bret Mulvey has created an excellent freeware Windows game (based on Eurorails) called Pluto Scarab Rails. Rails runs under .NET, so you will need to have the .NET framework installed to use it. Rails includes a fantastic random map generator, an easy to use interface, and competitive AI so it can be played solitaire.

Upon starting the game, you begin with 50 million euros and no track. Mouse-hovering over various cities show the goods that they produce. To the right of the game board, you will see all of the contracts available. These contracts represent the current demand for goods. Hovering over a contract will show you the city that demands the good, along with all the cities that produce it. You make money by fulfilling contracts (that is, picking up a load of goods from the city that produces them, and deliver them to the city that demands them). Of course, to get there, you will have to connect the two cities with track, which costs money. And, of course, your competitors are also building track. Once two adjacent pieces of land are connected, that route is “taken”. So grabbing up non-mountainous, non-bridge routes before your competitors is important! Once you deliver a contract, the contract, along with the two bottom contracts are replaced with new contracts (note: contracts you are in the process of delivering may disappear when this happens, so be careful which ones you select, and in what order you deliver your cargo).

Your beginning train has 2 cars and a slow steam engine. Once you have picked your starting spot, clicking on the train icon allows you to upgrade either the number of cars or the engine type of the train for 20 million euros.

The game ultimately is a game of optimization. You have to decide where to build track, where to drive your train, what goods to pick up, and how to most efficiently deliver them. The game comes with brief, but excellent documentation. I suggest you give it a quick read-through before beginning. The average game takes a couple of hours, but can be changed by lowering or raising the amount needed to win.

Thanks, Bret, for a fantastic version of a wonderful board game.

Go to: Pluto Scarab Rails website

The other day, CppTrader introduced me to a little flash game called Dice Wars, and I thought I’d pass it on to anybody interested. Dice Wars is very reminiscent of the old board game Risk, only simplified, and playable in under 10 minutes.

Because the game does not come with instructions, let me explain how to play here. The map is divided into a bunch of random territories, each having a random number of adjacencies. You are the purple territory. Each territory has a stack of dice on it. When it is your turn, you can attack adjacent territories by clicking on one of your territories, and then on the adjacent territory you wish to attack. The dice are rolled, and whoever has a greater total wins. Ties go to the defender.

At the end of your turn, you get more dice that are randomly dispersed across your territories. The number of dice you get is equal to the largest number of adjacent territories you own. So if you had a cluster of 3 territories, and a cluster of 4 territories, you’d get 4 dice.

The game is extremely simple to play, and you will understand after one game. But the strategy is subtly complex, and you will be coming up with new tactics even after 10 or more games.

Have fun!