On May 16th, 1703, Czar Peter laid the cornerstone for the first building in Saint Petersburg. Quickly, glorious buildings were added, always being expanded, so that Nobility (bringing victory points) may want to move in. But to accomplish this, one needs merchants who can provide the necessary Rubles, or the glory is over. The competition isn't sleeping either, and can sometimes steal a desired card right out from under your nose.
Saint Petersburg has a board to tally victory points and to set out the four types of cards. It is the cards themselves that players need to collect. In each round – with the number of rounds dependent on the number of players and the randomness of card availability – players first pay for CRAFTSMEN who supply money for further purchases; then BUILDINGS to score points; then ARISTOCRATS, who are needed for money, points, and end-of-game scoring; and finally, unique cards from all three categories which give greater benefits. During the first rounds, players never have enough money to buy every card they want. During later rounds, they have plenty of money, but the cards they'd like to buy may have already come and gone...
The Saint Petersburg expansion is actually two expansions in one. It contains "The Banquet," previously available in Spielbox magazine, and the "New Society", which adds new cards, plus extra tokens to allow play with up to 5 players.
The "New Society," designed by Tom Lehmann, adds replacement cards for some found in the base game, changing their costs or rewards, and adds several new cards to each phase, including an entirely new line of worker: the "New Farmer," which is costly, but also provides VPs during the Worker phase.
When playing with five players, the fifth player does not receive a start token for a new phase—instead, the holder of the fifth token receives two victory points (except on the first turn, when he or she instead receives two rubles) as compensation for not starting one of the four phases. This fifth token is only used in five-player games. Other than this—and advancing tokens two player positions each round—the game plays out exactly as before, with four phases per round: Worker, Building, Aristocrat, and Trading.
"The Banquet," designed by Karl-Heinz Schmiel, adds cards with special powers that allow players different types of actions on their turns.
The two expansions may be used separately or combined.
Expands:
Condition: NEW in shrink
2-4 players
45-60 minutes
Age:10+
