San Juan Review: choose your role and build an empire

San Juan is the capital and most populous city on the island of Puerto Rico. It was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521 and, according to the 2020 United States Census, has a population of 342,000.

During the Spanish colonization, Puerto Rico produced indigo, sugar, coffee, and tobacco, as part of its agricultural economy. San Juan, as the capital, was the administrative and commercial center that coordinated the flow of these products. Silver, although not mined locally on a large scale, circulated as currency and a symbol of colonial wealth.

All this historical context and these products are present in the game San Juan. Let's play!

San Juan is a 2-to-4 players game, age 10+, by designer Andreas Seyfarth. Art by Franz Vohwinkel.

San Juan was released in 2004 by Alea, a subsidiary of Ravensburger. In Brazil, it was released in 2017 by Grow. Its mechanics include: hand management, changing turn order, set collection, follow commands, and action selection.

San Juan won several awards in the year of its release, 2004. Some of the most notable: it won the Fairplay À la carte award, the Japan Boardgame Prize for Best Game, and was recommended for the Spiel des Jahres award.

Let's get to know the game!

Playing the Game

Our goal is to make San Juan grow, develop, and prosper. Performing various roles, privileged or not, we will govern, produce, build, trade, mine, and sometimes act as advisors. Our goal is to progress further and further and stand out from the competition.

This is the scenario in San Juan!

San Juan is based on the acclaimed board game Puerto Rico, but with many different mechanics. In particular, the game does not include colonists or the transport of goods. The production and trade of goods are normally limited to one card per phase; however, players can trade a product if another player did it before.

San Juan is basically composed of building cards, which grant special bonuses to whoever builds them. Victory points are obtained exclusively by buildings, and the game ends as soon as a player has twelve buildings.

Cards and Setup

Cards are separated into two types of buildings:

- Production: indigo plant, sugar mill, tobacco storage, coffee roaster, and silver smelter. A player can have any number of production buildings, even duplicates;

- City: all other beige-background cards. Each player can only build one of each, meaning they cannot have duplicate common buildings.

Cards have a three functions:

- They are used as buildings, if placed face up in front of you;

- They are used as money in players' hands;

- as goods, when placed face down on production buildings.

Game setup follow these steps:

- Place the five Role cards and the Governor card on the board;

- Place the five Trading House cards face down on the board;

- Each player receives one Indigo Plant card and places it face up in front of them;

- Shuffle the remaining cards to form a supply deck and place it in the center;

- Each player draws four cards from the supply;

- Finally, choose the first player.

Turns

During their turn, players will choose Roles. There are five to choose from, and each has a different effect:

- Builder: allows you to build a building;

- Councillor: allows you to draw cards from the supply and add them to your hand;

- Producer: allows you to produce a good from a production building;

- Prospector: allows you to take one card from the supply and add it to your hand;

- Trader: allows you to sell goods.

A turn in San Juan is simple, but highly strategic. The first player starts, receiving the Governor card:

- The Governor must choose a Role and can perform the action and the privilege (afterwards everyone can perform their action without privilege);

- Now, the next player must choose a Role, being able to perform the action and the privilege (afterwards everyone can perform the action without privilege) and so on until everyone has chosen a Role.

Each Role can only be chosen once per round.

If you're in a two-player game, the Governor chooses a second Role and plays again before passing the Governor card to the other player.

Let's understand each of the Roles, their privileges and peculiarities.

The Builder, as an action, allows everyone to build something if they wish. To do so, the cards in their hand must be used as money to pay the value printed on the card they wish to build. As a benefit to the player who chose this role, they pay one less card. Remember that, during the game, you can build as many production buildings as you want, even if they are duplicates, but only one of each city building.

With the Councillor in play, as an action, all players look at the top two cards from the supply deck, keep one and discard the other. The privilege of the player who chose this role allows them to look at three additional cards, keep one and discard four, that is, they have five options to choose from.

The Producer role allows all players to produce a good. To do this, they draw a card from the goods deck and place it on one of their production buildings. The privilege of choosing this role is to produce a two goods.

The great thing about city building cards is that they add a lot to the game. Some of them only give points, but others can act at the same time that certain Roles are executed.

The Trader allows everyone to sell a good. You choose one of your produced goods, discard it into the discard pile, and draw the number of cards indicated on the Trading House card from the supply deck. As a privilege, the player who chose this role can sell a second good.

The Prospector is the only role where only the player who chose it will perform. Their privilege is to take a card from the supply deck and add it to their hand.

After each player has selected a role, and all players have taken the corresponding actions, the round is over. The used role cards are put back in the center of the table, and the governor card is passed to the player to the left.

The new Governor reminds the owners of a chapel to put one of the cards from their hands under their chapel, if they want. After that, the Governor ensures that no player (including the Governor) has more than 7 cards in their hand (*). All players who have more than 7 cards must discard cards (any that they wish) until they have only 7 left. Exception: Owners of a tower may keep up to

12 cards.

That's how a round of San Juan goes!

Ending the Game

The game ends immediately at the end of the Builder phase, when a player builds their 12th building.

Victory points are calculated as follows:

- Add up the points of the buildings, which are indicated at the bottom of the building cards;

- Add 1 point for each card under the Chapel;

- Award points for specific cards that award points at the end of the game: Trumphal Arch, Town Hall, Palace, Guild, and Residence.

The player with the most points wins! In case of a tie, the player with more cards in hand and produced goods wins.

San Juan is interesting precisely because of its Role selection mechanics, and that's what makes it shine. Your strategy should be fleshed out based on the Roles, and on building what is necessary and makes sense for you.

Right from the start, and throughout the game, always think about producing goods; remember which ones worth more, according to the Trading House card. Keep this in mind when deciding what to produce, but always produce at least 1 good, so you will benefit every time the Merchant is executed.

Based on the above image, you can now see that it's no coincidence that the Indigo Plant only costs 1 card, the Sugar Mill costs 2 cards, the Tobacco Storage costs 3 cards, the Coffee Roaster costs 4 cards, and the Silver Smelter costs 5 cards. In other words, the more they cost to build, the more valuable their goods are and the more victory points they give at the end of the game. This should be part of your strategy.

Make good use of being the Governor, as this allows you to be the first to choose a Role. Be strategic. The idea is to "prepare" by using a specific Role, hoping (or not) that others will choose Roles during the round that will benefit you, even without privileges. It's quite a feat.

However, if a player notices that you, for example, have produced something on your turn hoping that someone will decide to sell it in the market, they may end up not choosing that Role, just to hinder your strategy. It's part of the game.

For hardcore gamers, there are over 20 different types of city buildings: Smithy, Gold Mine, Archive, Poor House, Black Market, Trading Post, Well, Market Stand, Crane, Chapel, Tower, Aqueduct, Carpenter, Prefecture, Market Hall, Quarry, Library, among others, each with its own bonuses. This gives the game enormous replayability.

San Juan also features the possibility of building Monuments. There are three available: Statue, Victory Column, and Hero. Monuments don't give in-game bonuses, but they award victory points. There are also four more expensive buildings that award points at the end of the game, depending on what you built: Town Hall, Guild Hall, Triumphal Arch, and Palace. It's worth investing in them—keep that in mind during the game.

But never forget: city buildings, which includes Monuments and others that award points at the end of the game, can only be built once per player; that is, you cannot have two of the same building.

Combos in San Juan are common with the right buildings. In the following example, the player who built the Aqueduct and the Well, even if they didn't choose the Production Role, executes the combo. As already mentioned, the Aqueduct allows its owner to produce one more good, and the Well, in turn, allows the player to gain a card from the supply deck if they have produced at least two goods. Try building your combos and have fun!

If possible, it's always good to have a building that supports each of the Roles. This way, even without privileges, you'll execute actions with some advantage over your competitors. This can make your path to victory easier.

Another helpful tip: only build Monuments and the most expensive cards, 6-cost buildings, from mid to endgame. First, focus on getting your "engine" up and running on its own. Then, invest in more expensive buildings, which usually leave you with no cards in hand once you build them. Remember that there's a hand limit.

Based on these tips, develop your best strategy and win in San Juan.

Unboxing:

Regras:

Gameplay:

If you're looking for a fast-paced, clever game, easy to explain, simple to play, and with excellent stimulation for children, San Juan is the game for you!

San Juan will capture children's attention from the start. All the cards are very iconic - the game's art team didn't hold back. The visuals are very appealing, and the kids will love them.

Furthermore, the card layout is very helpful: the cost to build is at the top, and the victory points are at the bottom. Children will enjoy building and seeing what their friends are building. But to achieve this, important stimuli come into play without the children even realizing it.

They will constantly be managing the number of cards they have in hand, calculating whether they can afford a card they want to build, thinking about how many cards they will have in hand at the end of the turn, and so on.

In addition, strategy and logical-mathematical reasoning come into play, because there's no point, for example, in wanting to trade if the production card hasn't produced anything yet. They will learn logic in a fun way.

They will also practice decision-making. Making choices isn't always easy, and they'll learn this in the best way: by playing.

Pedagogically, San Juan provides a true lesson in resource management. It stimulates strategy, decision-making, and logical-mathematical reasoning, and on top of that, it's fun!

I recommend San Juan for your collection!