boardgaming in photos: Saint Petersburg, Impulse, Jamaica

15 May 2015. Saint Petersburg was popular around 2004, and a new version has just been released, with new artwork, an addition to the rules, and the two previously published expansions included. I noticed that Jeff had stocked it at his webstore, so I decided why not revisit this old title and at the same time help him sell. I later found out he was already down to his last one or two copies, so it was unnecessary after all.

We did a full 4-player game. We played Jeff's copy, which is the first edition, and we included the New Society expansion. This expansion replaces some of the cards in the base game to rebalance it, and also adds some new cards. I have never played Saint Petersburg enough to find it unbalanced, so I never bought the expansion. Now that I've played the expansion, I quite like it. Unfortunately it has been long out of print, and it is very expensive in the secondary market. The 2nd edition contains the expansion, but I prefer the 1st edition artwork.

This was the second time I played Carl Chudyk's Impulse. This time it was a 4-player game using partnership rules. Jeff (light blue) and I (green) were on one time, and Ivan (white) and Boon Khim (purple) on the other. In the partnership game, a team wins when one of the team members reaches 20VP. I was the start player, and right off the bat all of us rushed to the galaxy centre to grab VP's.

My cards.

This was one memorable, crazy game. For the first few rounds my hand was a perfect storm for Trading (i.e. sacrificing cards for victory points). Within three rounds I was already close to 20VP, and was poised to win on my next turn. I neglected military and science, and poured all my effort and resources into scoring points. It was a gamble. It seemed mad, but it was very viable. I was betting on speed. I needed to reach 20VP before Ivan or Boon Khim could stop me. In Round 3, Boon Khim had no choice but to launch his attack. If he didn't stop me, I would cruise to victory. There was one crucial battle he needed to win. He needed to destroy my cruiser so that his cruisers could get past that sector to attack my transports, which were getting ready to score the last few points I needed to win. It was a 50-50 battle. Both of us had only one cruiser. Unfortunately I couldn't hold the line. My front (which consisted of exactly one cruiser) crumbled, and I was soon completely wiped out. It was crazy, and it was great fun.

At this point I (green) had been exterminated. Jeff (light blue) was later destroyed too by the combined forces of Ivan and Boon Khim.

22 May 2015. It was pirate theme night at Boardgamecafe.net. Other than Madame Ching I also played Jamaica, a race game. It is not only about racing though. You also score points by digging up treasures, collecting gold coins, and even robbing the other players. These three are action cards. Everyone has a hand size of three, and every round you simultaneously pick one to play.

Your ship has five cargo holds, and each can only store one goods type - food, cannons or gold coins.