Customer Reviews

San Juan

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am an ex-computer games junkie and was always playing city building games like Civilization. I don't have the time I once did, and I am not spending the hours on the computer like I used to. Well, this Christmas I received this game and was pleasantly surprised. After the first game I knew we had a winner. We proceeded to play it four more times over the next few days.

Why do I like this game?

It can be played with TWO people. Yes, it may not be quite as exciting with two people (as it is with three or four), but it is still fun. I will say, however, that it is nice to vary the number of people you play with. Four people is fun in a way that three is not. Three is fun in a way two is not. There are cards that get played a lot more often in larger games, and the strategy changes based on the number of people you have. For example, with four people you are almost always trading your goods each round, so it is important to build a strong economy. (This is not as important with two or three players, where building might be your priority).

This game doesn't require any special equipment -like a board- and it is very portable. (You might even be able to play it on a plane.)

The games last about 45 minutes (at the longest) so you really can get a quick play in before moving on to something else. There are no worries that the game is going to go on forever. Basically, the game ends when ANYONE has built 12 buildings, so no matter how complex a strategy you have, if you don't hurry it up and time it to coincide with the quickest builder in your gaming party, you might lose.

Another thing that makes it fun: You DON'T keep score during the game (like with Scrabble or Hearts), so you don't really know how you are doing during the game. It is only at the very end when you tally up all your points that you know if you won or lost. (Sure you can look at players' hands, but some key "multiplier" cards are only played in the last rounds, so you never really know...)

And finally, unlike with games such as Monopoly, or Chess, or Risk, one person does not "crush" or "destroy" the other. You are not going to have a complete winner with all the money and all the armies (leaving the others broke, or with no armies). This means you can really have an enjoyable time, playing your best, and not feeling like you can never win, or that you are much worse than the others. Everybody has the same access to all the cards and their likelihood of winning does not go up or down just because someone else is playing really well, or really poorly.

This game is highly recommended and I am starting to research other Rio Grande games as well because I enjoyed this one so much! It is well worth buying from another vendor if Amazon does not stock it.

San Juan has quickly become our favorite game, and we are an avid game-playing family.

San Juan is the card game version of "Puerto Rico" by Rio Grande Games. We purchased "San Juan" because it can be played with 2-4 players, and we often only have two people available to play.

The concept is loosely based on the idea that you are in San Juan, Puerto Rico. You are building manufacturing facilities to produce goods such as indigo, sugar, tobacco, coffee, and silver. Also, you may build other privileges or benefits as an owner - for example, you might choose to build a Quarry, which allows you to build certain types of buildings for a lower price. As your manufacturing facilities produce goods, you trade them on the market, make more "money", and build more buildings.

It's difficult to explain the basic concept without being able to show you the cards, but it is a very easy game to learn. We have taught several people the game within about 10 minutes, and after we've played one round, they understand it well.

This game is surprisingly different every time we play. Strategy is important, but luck does affect the success of whatever strategy you use. Generally speaking, the games are generally very close in score.

A few things we love about this game are:
- once you've played it a couple of times, you can play a game in 20-30 minutes.
- the game seems drastically different whether you play with 2, 3, or 4 players.
- easy setup & cleanup. You need very little table space to play the game.
- it's a very accessible game. People ages 10 and up learn it quickly and enjoy it!

We learned this game first, then we tried "Puerto Rico". You do not need to know one game to understand the other. In fact, it seemed that Puerto Rico seemed a bit more confusing to us (this may be due to the fact that San Juan came later, and the directions are much more clear in the later game).

I highly recommend this game to those who are looking for a fun, quick game that never gets old!

Each of the 2-5 players begins the game with an indigo plant. From there, they compete to develop San Juan, building sugar, tobacco, coffee and silver plants, constructing monuments and other structures, and collecting privileges and rewards along the way. The game setup allows players to see what others are constructing and one player's move often affects another's. The game ends when one player constructs 12 buildings. It involves lots of strategy with some luck. Portable (no game board, provided scorecards not needed) and great fun, this game comes highly recommended.

Our daughter introduced us to this game and we were hooked by the second game. It seemed a little complicated at first, but by the time we finished one or two rounds we got the hang of it and loved it. It's actually easy to learn and our children were playing it with us and planning strategies after just a few games. I highly recommend it!

I wanted to wait until the honeymoon (with the game) was over before finally reviewing it. I got it for Christmas and my wife and I were instantly hooked. Recently we were able to play it with 2 other people, and they picked it up very quickly. It does not take very long to play.

It is an amazingly simple, strategic, and fun card game. For those who might not have known, it is a stand alone card game, it is not an expansion, and you don't need Puerto Rico (the game it is based on) to play or understand San Juan. I have had an easy time teaching this game to other people and they were really surprised by it. It is a casual "hey lets play a game real quick" or "beer and pretzel" game that everyone seems to enjoy. San Juan is a great first step into the non-hasbro board games, and it comes in a nice small box with quality cards. I plan on throwing this in my luggage when visiting in-laws.

I can easily say that San Juan is a must own, whether you frequently play board/card games or not, and I can easily recommend this for families who like to play games, with or without mixed ages.

If it were lost, stolen, or ruined I would definitely buy another.

Side Note:
We bought Puerto Rico after owning this which is also a great game but is definitely a different animal. We also own Race for the Galaxy which I enjoy more, but only because of the sci-fi nerd in me. RFTG is just a hair different and possibly deeper, but San Juan is way more user friendly, a lot easier to teach others to play, and people are generally more accepting of its non-nerdy visual appeal. Truth is I am happy playing either one.

Let me start off by saying that I believe, in general, if it says Rio Grande or Mayfair on the box it is worth considering. Anyway, I picked this game up on a whim at GenCon2009. I didn't have time to demo it but was in the hunt for a couple of other games and the seller I was buying from was running a buy 4 get 1 free special. I could not be happier that I picked this as my 5th game.

If you have played Race for the Galaxy it plays very much like Race. If not it may take a game or two to really learn what is going on.

This is a card game version of Puerto Rico. The object of the game is to finish with as many victory points as possible. You get these points by manufacturing buildings. There are 2 types of buildings, producers and violet. Producers are used to produce goods that can be sold for more cards. Violet buildings give you certain bonuses such as letting you draw cards if certain conditions are met, reducing the cost to build certain types of buildings, allowing you to produce or sell more goods, etc. There are special violet buildings that cost 6 cards to place. Depending on what you built and which 6 cost card it was, these cards can be worth 4-8 victory points though they can get even bigger. Most other cards are worth 1 to 3 points each and can cost anywhere from 1 to 5 cards to build.

To build these buildings you must pay for them. Each player starts with 5 cards. To pay for these buildings they must discard cards equal to the cost. So say you want to build a Carpenter (costs 3). You must discard 3 cards to play it. This is an interesting dynamic I had not seen in other games before San Juan or Race for the Galaxy. Sometimes to build a building you really want, you must discard another you wanted. It adds an interesting dynamic when you have to wonder if it is worth building now or waiting a turn to build and keep a certain card you want.

Every turn is broken into 6 phases. Builder, producer, trader, councillor, prospector, and governor. The governor is passed around (he has no real benefit other than to show whose turn it is and keep the game going) and everyone takes turns picking a phase. In the 2 player game, the governor picks 2 phases. That means every turn 3 or 4 phases of the other 5 will be picked meaning there is always 1 or 2 that are skipped that turn. You are allowed to build buildings during the builder phase, produce a resource on a producer card during the production phase, trade a good for cards from a producer during the trader phase, draw 2 cards and keep 1 card during the councillor phase, and the prospector (and only the prospector) can draw a card during the the prospect phase. Other than prospect phase, everyone gets to participate in every phase.

The person that picks the phase gets a special privilege for that one. The person who picked builder can build for -1 cost, the person who picked producer can produce goods on an additional producer, and so on. So not only are you trying to make sure that the phases you want are being played but you are also keeping an eye on which one is best for you to grab due to the privilege.

When you sell a good you draw a random trade tile that has the values of the different goods that turn. Sometimes a good will sell for 1 card one turn but 2 cards the next turn. You signify producing a good by placing a card face down underneath the producer. Each producer may only have 1 good on it at a time. You signify selling that good by taking a card off of a producer and putting it (still face down... the discard pile is always face down) in the discard pile and drawing the corresponding number of cards. Normally you can only produce or sell one good if the phase is picked. There are privileges or other cards that change this.

After everything else is done the governor checks everyone's hands to make sure they have no more than 7 cards (12 if they have a tower) and ask if they want to use the Chapel if they have one in play (a specific violet card that has a special ability at the end of every turn) and then passing the governor card to the next person.

The game ends at the end of the phase when someone plays their 12th card. At that point, you count up all victory points from the cards you played (the ones in your hand at the end of the game do not help you) and the highest total wins. The game comes with a scoring pad and pencil that makes scoring easier to understand while you are learning the game.

The first time you play the game (assuming you've never played anything similar to it), you will have little to no clue what just happened. The second time you should understand the rules but may still struggle with the strategies involved. By your third or forth game you should hopefully have a decent chance even against someone that has played quite a bit. It is fairly simple to learn once you learn how the turns work and get used to paying for things by discarding. And after you have mastered this game, Race for the Galaxy (a sci fi version of San Juan) should be far easier to learn. Race is a bit more involved so this is a great starter game to play before learning that one. And even though San Juan is easier to learn it still has little nuances that makes it a great game to play even if you have both San Juan and Race for the Galaxy.

For those of you who've bought or played Puerto Rico, this will be a very familiar game. It's basically a simplified card version of the Puerto Rico game. Instead of placing buildings and collecting resources, you're playing cards as buildings and resources.

For instance, if you place a sugar plantation face up on the table in front of you, when you generate resources, you get a card, face down, on that plantation to represent a sugar resource. You can then later trade that resource in the Trader phase (familiar, no?) for more cards. It's simple to learn and get up to speed with and runs a lot faster than a typical Puerto Rico game (though it'll still take you 30-60 minutes).

If you liked Puerto Rico and like card games, this is definitely worth getting. Otherwise, I'd stick with Puerto Rico if you're not a card game person.

For those of you who don't know what Puerto Rico is, beyond the island itself, this game is a nice, sophisticated card game that takes a little bit to learn but then is a fast-paced and fun game to play. Not quite as simple as a game of poker or canasta or something (in terms of rules, not strategy), but it will definitely take you a little time to get used to the rules. Once you do though, it's fun and moves pretty fast.

If you like card games and don't mind a few rules, this is a great game to get and play. You can easily play it with 2 people if needed but more are supported. And, it's a good introduction to Puerto Rico's general gameplay which could get you up to speed if you want to tackle that game next.

San Juan is the sister game of Puerto Rico, so if you love that game but want something that is more portable, quicker to setup/play, and easier to teach others then this game is definitely for you. If you have not yet tried Puerto Rico but are relatively new to Euro board games or you may not have as much patience with learning complex rules and setup then this game is definitely for you and it will eventually simplify the learning on PR since it uses many of the same concepts.

For a portable strategy game (it takes up about the space of 2 decks of cards) there is a surprising amount of depth to the gameplay. Like Puerto Rico the player will need to evolve his strategy each round based on the opportunities available and their ability to help their position or hinder others.

There is a free PC version to be found on-line with basic/limited rule explanation, interface and AI but it is still fun when you are on your own.

For those that played Puerto Rico, this will be an easy transition. The game runs pretty quick once you know what you're doing. The rules allow of a 2 player game that works well. The entire game is played with cards, they are buildings resources and money. There is also the roles "cards", trading rates boards and a score pad. The game is simple enough that it should be easy for everyone to pick it up within a game or two.

Gameplay:
The point of the game is to have the most points at the end of the game. Unlike Puerto Rico, the only way to score is to put up buildings, though the church allows you to place cards under it for points. When someone reaches 12 buildings the game ends. Each role lets you preform an action with the person pulling the role getting a bonus. Buildings are split into two groups: violet and production. Violet buildings give you some bonus, while the production buildings produce resources on the Produce Phase. The resources can be traded in for more cards. When building something, you pick a card from your hand and then use the rest of the cards to pay for it.

This is a very fun, albeit quite solitary, 2-4 (3-4 recommended) game.
Unlike a lot of boardgames though, there is little interaction between players, which was much to my surprise. I bought this fully expecting to have all kinds of diplomacy and trading going on, but was quite surprised to not find that was not the case. In San Juan, you are trying to have the most victory points (determined by what you build) by the end of the game (when any player builds their 12th building).
Oh, and when you see the back of the box, don't worry, the cards aren't actually written in German. I was quite freaked out for a second.