{"id":3650,"date":"2004-02-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-02-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/02\/19\/westpark-review-san-juan\/"},"modified":"2004-02-19T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-02-19T11:00:00","slug":"westpark-review-san-juan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/02\/19\/westpark-review-san-juan\/","title":{"rendered":"Westpark Review – San Juan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/
\nSan
\nJuan<\/a><\/h3>\n

Same author (Andreas Seyfarth<\/i>), same publisher (Alea<\/i>) and same location
\n(San Juan is the capitol of Puerto Rico) – yes, San Juan<\/i> is the little brother of
\nPuerto Rico<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

Opening the box delivers the first surprise: San Juan<\/i> is a card game; no board,
\nno colonists, no money. Yet, we find a similar set of “role” cards and
\nbuildings as in Puerto Rico<\/i>. The basic principles are very similar to Puerto
\nRico<\/i>: the players’ task is to produce goods which can be sold for money and to
\nerect buildings which can in to flavours: production buildings for goods and general
\npurpose buildings which provide special abilities.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/p>\n

I am not going into much detail here about the rules of San Juan<\/i>, but rather
\ntake a look at the difference to Puerto Rico<\/i>. As in Puerto Rico<\/i> players
\nselect a role and perform the action associated with it. But different to Puerto
\nRico<\/i> the same cards act as buildings, goods and money, depending on the action
\nperformed. Erecting a building means playing the card of that build from one’s hand
\nas well as paying the building costs with other (building) cards from the player’s
\nhand. Producing goods means placing (building) cards from the draw pile face down next to
\nthe corresponding production building; and selling goods means placing produced goods
\n(building cards) on the discard pile and drawing the corresponding amount of hand cards
\n(now reflecting money) from the draw pile. For those familiar with Puerto Rico<\/i>
\nthis is simple enough and easily understood. Those not familiar with Puerto Rico<\/i>
\nrest assured: the rules are very well written and the game can be played after only a
\nbrief introduction round.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/p>\n

While Puerto Rico<\/i> has a lot of depth and is rich in different strategies (see
\nour tips here), San Juan<\/i> is a much lighter game. It has, however, a number of
\nadvantages over Puerto Rico, which make it a game for a wider range of players. First and
\nforemost, San Juan<\/i> is a lot shorter a game – playing time is around 45 minutes. We
\ndidn’t see the high frustration level we discovered in Puerto Rico<\/i>, which
\noccurs when other players play suboptimal or start ganging up. In San Juan<\/i> players
\nare much more independent from other players’ actions than in Puerto Rico<\/i> but
\nmore dependent of card drawing luck, which is nicely balanced by the shorter playing,
\nproviding a chance for “revenge”. Puerto Rico<\/i> hardly leaves time for a
\nreplay the same evening. Last but not least different to Puerto Rico<\/i>, San
\nJuan<\/i> can be played with two to four players equally well.<\/p>\n

San Juan<\/i> is definitely not a strategy game like Puerto Rico<\/i> (you can
\nfind our strategy hints here<\/a>) and in my opinion leaves
\nlittle room for different tactics. Players are however always faced with tough decisions:
\nis it worthwhile to keep an expensive building card until one has collected sufficient
\ncards to be able to pay for it? Or is it better to use that card as money for a
\n“quick win” cheap building? Is it better to go for more production buildings or
\nfor general purpose buildings? The former generate income, the latter save money due to
\ncost savings. A good (German) description of the San Juan<\/i> cards and the associated
\npossible tactics can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overall, San Juan<\/i> is one of the best new releases in 2004 and a worthy
\nsuccessor of Puerto Rico<\/i>. It should not come as a surprise that it has been
\nselected as our “Game of the Month” in March 2004.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Juan Same author (Andreas Seyfarth), same publisher (Alea) and same location (San Juan is the capitol of Puerto Rico) – yes, San Juan is the little brother of Puerto Rico. Opening the box delivers the first surprise: San Juan is a card game; no board, no colonists, no money. Yet, we find a similar … Westpark Review – San Juan<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":5,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}