Critical Hit Wednesday

Another board game night that I can attend at Critical Hit! Tonight, Jerod scheduled St. Petersburg, a game I've been enjoying the heck out of through around 6 plays in the last 3 months or so. I've played mostly with two, with one three player game thrown in. I was hoping that we'd get some good games going tonight.

I showed up early and Jerod and I spent some time talking about the upcoming AGOT expansion, and we played a game with some decks we're testing while we waited for people to arrive. Chris Schaeffer showed up with Power Grid, and drew three other people to the game. Time for St. Petersburg to start then came and went, with no players having arrived. I was a little disappointed, and was thinking about trying to squeak into the PG game, when Jerod called Dan and talked him into coming down. About a minute later, Gary arrived, so we had our first four player game!

Things started off well for Jerod, as he managed to finagle a slight edge in money production. Gary and Dan caught on to the rules quickly, and the game was pretty tight between the three of us, with Jerod lagging behind but threatening a big explosion with his wads of cash. We slammed right through the mid-game, though, and I learned that four player St. Petersburg is MUCH quicker than two... There wasn't a lot of time for people to utilize things that they purchased. I wound up winning handily with a big aristocrat score at the end. Jerod managed to catch up to third, although he only pulled away from Dan with two vp's worth of rubles in hand. This really hammered home a lesson that with four players, you have to be tight with how you spend your money. Everyone liked the game enough that they wanted to give it another go, so we set it back up. At this time, Peter arrived and Jerod gave up his seat so that Pete could rest his feet. I quickly went over the rules for Peter, and we set to beutifying the city again. This time, I had a quick money advantage, then overspent on a mid-level aristocrat, and made the mistake of putting a shipbuilder in my hand during the worker phase. This really wasn't worth it, as I only really got to get him out in the last turn. I think that Dan could have played it, though, in the next seat, which would have given him a good money advantage early. Tough call. We were pretty tight on vp's early game, with Peter lagging behind. Midgame, Peter made a strong comback with building upgrades, but the late game came down to an aristocrat battle primarily between Dan and Myself. Dan got the better of the deal, and sealed the win with three aristocrat purchases on the last turn. If Peter would have bought a different aristocrat on his turn, I would have won. However, it wouldn't have changed his standing to but the other one, so it would have just been a kingmaking decision to take the one he didn't. Buildings also seem to be more important in the four player game, with the early/mid-game vp boosts counting for a lot more in a limited aristocrat field.

We all had a pretty fun time, although there's not a lot of chatter over a game like this, aside from some kibbitzing. On the other hand, it definitely allows for more casual talk than games like Puerto Rico, or Tigris & Euphrates, which are more intellectually intense. St. Pete fits nicely into my comfort zone for gaming, and I'm so glad I have it.

Speaking of intense games, while we were smiling it up over our the Paris of the East, Chris, Eric, Shawn, and Nate were busy supplying power to the United States. I know that Eric pulled out the win with a "gutsy" play, but I don't know what that play was, exactly. I'm curious to find out. It seemed they really enjoyed the game, though. Dan bought it tonight, so hopefully there will be more games around the store soon.

The game next week is Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings, and the week after that is Power Grid, for anyone who may be interested...

GG,
Jason