Friday, May 12, 2006

Even more San Juan!

Fiona and I now have some kind of San Juan addiction. It really is a great two-player game. We managed to find time for two more games after her Systema class Thursday evening.

In the first game I start sensibly with a Tobacco, Fiona having no build. When I then also build a Well Fiona decides to drop a Statue. She does know instinctively that’s she not supposed to do that, and sure enough next turn she realises she doesn’t really have any good options. I then build another Tobacco and Indigo, and am able to produce two goods to none, whilst Fiona has a Prefecture. I then have both a Chapel and Palace in hand.

I’d been thinking that it had been a long time since I’d seen a Chapel used effectively, and as I have the Palace as well (which will turn each card discarded to the Chapel into 1.25pts) I decide to go for it. I build the Chapel, and then store a card almost every turn. I’m pretty certain I don’t pick Builder again the entire game, I just dump my hand into most expensive thing I can afford whenever Fiona builds, and then refill my trading from my many production goods. If Fiona doesn’t build, I’m quite happy to trade anyway, even if it will take me over eight cards – just think of it as a Councillor in which Fiona doesn’t get to use her Prefecture.

Fiona builds a Black Market, which helps her with my repeated Production, and also a Poor House, which in theory is a nice combo with Black Market, but she doesn’t seem to get as much use out of it as I expected. Between my Chapel and her Poor House she should be trying to close out the game as quickly as possible I think. This is often a point that it takes beginners many games to understand – in two player don’t play to maximise your score by trying to assemble the perfect set of buildings, play to maximise the difference between your score and your opponents., so you’ll win!

By the end of the game Fiona has a decent collection of Buildings including a set of Monuments and an Arch, and both City Hall and Guild Hall, but it’s not enough to beat quite enough to beat my score, which includes an 11 point Chapel (the highest I’ve personally seen).
A very instructive game, but I don’t think the 11 point Chapel is a scenario likely to come up very often.

The second game I get a dream Violet position - my builds being on order: Prefecture, Market Hall (just before Fiona is about to do the first trade), Carpenter, Quarry, then Hero and Victory Column, City Hall, Triumphal Arch and Palace, before closing out with Chapel and Statue for a total of 50+ points. Fiona has been using Smithy the entire game, and has accumulated the biggest collection of Silver Smelters I’ve ever seen (six), but as expected the Guild Hall plan can’t possibly compete with a perfect set of violet buildings, and I win again.


Afterwards I point out to Fiona that (a) she forgot to Produce / Produce / Trade / Trade, which she needs to do to get best use her many production buildings, and (b) Smithy / Guildhall makes the smaller production buildings more efficient than building lots of Silver. In a way these are the same mistakes as the first game – concentrating too much on assembling the highest score she can, without worrying enough about what I'm up to.

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