About Us | Terms & Conditions | FAQs | Log in

Call us now on +44 (0) 20 8346 2327

Items: -

HOME

New Releases 21 May

New Releases Archives

Pre-Orders

Suggested Games

Roleplaying Games

Board Games & Card Games

Collectable & Living Card Games

Other Collectable Games

Historical Wargames

Miniatures Wargames & Rules

Miniatures, Paints etc.

Magazines & Comics

Accessories

Calendar

Events

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

CONNECT WITH US

WE'RE WITH BITS & MORTAR

SHOP WITH CONFIDENCE

Main Catalogue | Board Games & Card Games | Rio Grande Games | San Juan

San Juan

Price: £23.99

Card Game, 2-4 players, ages 10+ An innovative card game based on the best selling board game - Puerto Rico. As with the board game, players choose roles that can help all players and attempt to build buildings, produce and sell goods, etc, to gain the most prestige. Different enough to give players new challenges and opportunities for fun and enjoyment. ++++++++++++++++++++ Counter magazine review ++++++++++++++++++++ 2-4 players, 45 minutes designed by Andreas Seyfarth reviewed by Alan How San Juan is the card game based on the concepts of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is an amazing game, spawning more positive comments than any other in recent times, so how would its offspring fare? The follow up to most originals are usually poor second copies. How many films are so much worse than the first one? How many book sequels are just more of the same? In the board gaming world, the Siedler and Carcasonne series have not provided the innovation and imagination of the original, but have created good quality games nonetheless. So San Juan\'s highly anticipated follow up to the remarkable Puerto Rico has created the hardest of hard acts to follow. Careful positioning by Alea as ``Puerto Rico for the masses\'\', has helped to dampen speculation that it might usurp its parent as game of the next decade. The competition for Puerto Rico the card game drew several designs to the table, but it was the type of game (and Andreas Seyfarth\'s option) that swung the decision his way. And so Puerto Rico-lite was borne. As with any design based on an earlier version, San Juan has many features that are familiar to Puerto Rico players. The choice of roles, type of role, use of production and game benefit buildings, as well as the colours used in Puerto Rico will ring true to fans. There are many new elements that have been incorporated in the game to make San Juan feel different from its parent. The best aspect of San Juan is its biggest change and the element that has been simplified. This concerns the uses to which cards can be made. Rather like the counters in Civilization, which are used as money, population and markers, the cards have multiple uses. Face up, they are used as their normal game function; face down, they are used to cover production buildings when the Producer role is used and then represent the goods of that production building. As cards in your hand, they could be used to build a building or as payment for the building. This use of cards is clever and central to making the game much faster than Puerto Rico. The 110 cards contain 42 production buildings and 68 violet coloured buildings. There are five types of production building - the familiar indigo, sugar, tobacco and tobacco are joined by silver as the new richest produce. The violet buildings are far wider in scope than the Puerto Rico buildings and can be used to benefit most areas of the game, including the roles. The roles are similar to Puerto Rico, providing a game action to all players and a privilege to the person selecting that role. The role selection is still at the heart of the game, so I will cover these in some detail. I\'ll try to give my view of the powerful combinations that are possible as well. First the ones that arrived from Puerto Rico: The Builder is much the same, providing the option to build with a discount of one card (= money) to the performance who selected the role. The best building type aspect is to use the builder in conjunction with the librarian (doubling the privilege to 2 discount), the black market (allowing up 2 goods to be used to pay for a building), the quarry (allowing a discount of one on violet buildings) and the carpenter who provides one card back when a violet building is erected. This means that it is possible that a violet building with a cost of 5 cards could be purchased for no cards from the hand and a return of one. Finally the poor house allows a player to claim a card if when building their hand is left with 0 or 1 cards (after the carpenter), so it is possible to get another card back in the hand with this combination. The Producer is also similar allowing production of goods, but in San Juan the change is that only one good is produced unless you chose the producer role, which allows one more good to be produced, or have some other game building that bends the rules. The other difference is that the goods are shown as produced by drawing a card from the draw pile and placing it face down. Only one good is allowed for each production building. This introduces several aspects. The face-down card ensures less perfect information as no-one knows what card has been used. The lack of competition for goods means that the tactical use of the producer is far different in San Juan than Puerto Rico. There is no limit on the number of goods available, just the number of production buildings each player has and the benefits acquired from the roles and violet buildings. A good combination for producing is the library (which allows an extra good to be received taking the total to 3), the well, which allows an extra card to be drawn when 2 more goods are produced and the aqueduct, which adds another card to production. So in all 4 cards could be received as goods and a further 1 to your hand. This means that you have to have 4 empty production buildings to make maximum use of this combination. The Prospector receives one card and no-one else gets one. There is a violet building that adds some value, but basically this role is ``one for me, none for anyone else\'\'. In combination with the library, the gold miner can set two cards and with the gold mine, there is a chance of another card in your hand. But that\'s about all for this role. The Trader carries out a function in a similar way to Puerto Rico, allowing a player to sell goods from their production buildings. Unlike Puerto Rico, there is no blocking of play, so all players can sell goods as much or as little as they like. Combinations that add to the trader include the trade station, which allows an additional good to be sold, the market stall, which allows an extra card to be taken as payment when 2 or more goods are sold, the trade station which is like the market stall, but provides payment of 1 extra card whenever goods are sold and of course the library which allows an additional good to be sold. A new role is the Councillor. This allows cards to be drawn from the deck and one added to the hand. Other players draw two and choose one, while the councillor selects one from five. This role can be improved significantly by the prefecture, with two of the cards being retained from the selection. As soon as one person gets the prefecture, the other players may consider that giving two for one advantage limits them selecting this role. The role does provide a useful way of cycling through cards and like the producer, the number of cards taken from the draw pile means that the card you may be seeking has been used as another person\'s discard. On the other hand, this card does allow you to select the card that you are looking for, so its best use is as a searching role. When combined with the prefecture (allowing 2 cards to be retained), the library (allowing the privilege to be doubled to 8 cards drawn) and the archive (allowing all cards drawn to be mixed with your existing hand), the councillor is very helpful in resorting your hand into the right mix. This overview of the roles and buildings highlights the need for the players to collect specific sets of cards and therefore to focus on one strategy or another to improve their chances in the game. There are 24 violet cards in total, some adding completely new functions to the Puerto Rico base. The library seems to be a very powerful card and there has been much discussion on the particular merits of the cards, their costs and values. This suggests that the follow up is generating a lot of buzz in gaming circles, and nearly all of it positive. San Juan is a card game though and so the luck of the draw is prominent in any game involving cards. While this makes the options less certain, it also lightens the game approach and a wider audience can be drawn to the game. My only criticism of the game is the number of players. Many new games this year have changed from 3-5 players to 2-4. Often the 2 player versions are add-ons with special rules. While the 2 player version of San Juan works very well, the lack of the fifth or sixth player options in a fast paced game like this is slightly disappointing. I have devised rules for 5 and six players which need two decks to play, but not yet tested this out in practice. This issue aside I am very satisfied with San Juan. It is fun and quick to play and in my opinion it has clearly hit its intended target and I\'ve played this game more than any other new one this year. It\'s a good buy and well worth adding to your collection. (As I was completing this review, I learned that Mik Svellov has designed some rules for 5-8 players. See his website for further details - www.brettboard.dk/games/varia/sanjuan.htm Thanks, Mik, for an interesting set of rules!)

More ...

Main Catalogue | Board Games & Card Games | Rio Grande Games | San Juan

**sRecentPrefix**

<br/><br/>
<div class="recenththeader">
<input class="recenthtbuttonright" id="scrollbackrecent" type="button" value="    Next >>" onclick="ScrollBackRecent();">
<input class="recenthtbuttonleft" id="scrollforwardrecent" type="button" value="<< Previous" onclick="ScrollForwardRecent();">
<div style="text-align:center">Recently Viewed</div>
</div>
<br clear="all"/>
<table id="recenthtitem">

**sRecentImageRowPrefix**

**sRecentImageItem**

**sRecentImageRowSuffix**

</tr>

**sRecentDescRowPrefix**

<tr>

**sRecentDescItem**

**sRecentDescRowSuffix**

**sRecentPriceRowPrefix**

**sRecentPriceItem**

**sRecentPriceRowSuffix**

**sRecentDeleteRowPrefix**

<tr>

**sRecentDeleteItem**

**sRecentDeleteRowSuffix**

</tr>

**sRecentSuffix**

</table>

**sRecentEmptyList**

Events Calendar, both
In-store & Conventions

About Us
Site Map

Terms & Conditions
FAQs

New Releases
Notice Board

Leisure Games, 100 Ballards Lane, Finchley, London, N3 2DN
Site maintained by ITQ Solutions Ltd.