Games Session
|
|
| Date: |
16th April 2004 |
| Game Played: |
Santiago |
|
|
| Players |
Result |
Win |
Ratings |
| Nige |
127 |
P |
7 |
| Mark K |
114 |
|
7 |
| Garry |
107 |
|
7 |
| Mark G |
88 |
|
7 |
This week, I finally got Santiago to
the table. I had been waiting for a chance to try it with 5 players but
the opportunity hasn't arisen and I finally decided to go ahead with four
of us. The idea of the game is to plant crops on a barren landscape and
ensure they receive an adequate water supply so that they can be harvested
at the end of the game for a decent profit. Each round, four crop tiles
are available for planting and players bid (once round the table) for the
right to choose first. There are five different crops and two different
grades of crop: the higher quality allows the owner to place 2 markers on
the tile; the lower allows placement of one marker. Once a tile has been
acquired, it is added to an empty space on the landscape and markers are
placed on it. There are two considerations for placement: having the tile
next to crop tiles of the same type increases the size of that crop field
and the potential payout at the end of the game; while being connected to
the water supply stops your crops from dying (and dead crops pay nothing).
Once the crops have been planted, the
player who bid least gets to extend the water supply in one direction by
laying a water channel, making more spaces fertile. Before deciding where
to build the water channel, each player can offer a bribe to have the
channel built where they want. The channel builder then decides whether to
accept a bribe or build somewhere else at a personal cost of one escudo
more than the highest bribe. Once the channel has been built, any crop
tiles not connected to the water supply dry up - they lose one marker per
turn and any tile without a marker dies the next time it dries up. After
all the available channels have been built (11 rounds), the crops are
harvested and players receive profits. Each field pays out, to any player
who has markers in that field, a number of escudos equal to the number of
tiles making up that field multiplied by the number of markers the player
has in the field. The person with the most escudos from field profits and
cash in hand is the winner.
This was a tense and very enjoyable
game. There are lots of things to consider: how much to bid for choosing
tiles; whether to bid lowest to become the channel builder; where to place
tiles when you are uncertain how the water system will develop; whether
and how much to bribe the channel builder; whether to accept a bribe and
help the person bribing or build the water channel elsewhere (foregoing
the bribe and having to pay out yourself, but placing the channel
somewhere to help yourself and/or hinder your opponents). I made one or
two silly errors when bidding for tiles and this proved quite costly. Mark
K built up a strong presence in the largest fields and Nige made lots of
money by accepting bribes and bidding relatively low for the tiles. And it
was the money in hand that turned out to be decisive, giving Nige a
much-needed win.
