Santiago – Review
Santiago is an auction designed by Claudia Hely and Roman Pelek in 2003 and is currently published by Z-Man Games..
Santiago:
- Designed by: Claudia Hely and Roman Pelek
- Published by: Z-Man Games
- Number of players: 3-5
- Playing time: 75 min
- Player ages: 10+
A Quick Overview
Each player is an plantation owner in Santiago competing to grow a variety of crops. Each round, players bid on a variety of crops and ensure that they are irrigated properly.
Careful cooperation with other owners will ensure proper irrigation else your crops run the risk of drying out and providing no income for you!
The winner is the player who has the most successful plantations.
Game Play
The heart of Santiago is the first part of the game which is an auction for a variety of crops. There are 5 different crops and one crop per player becomes available each round.
The auction style is a once-around, unique-bid auction which means that players only have one chance of making a bid. Oftentimes, it is not best to be the one to be first in the auction.
The player who bids the least (or passes first) becomes the Canal Overseer.
The second part of the game is the irrigation phase where players try to place plantation tiles (won during the auction) in strategically viable locations.
Choice of locations is important because a player can choose whether a crop is watered or not.
And now comes the interesting part of the game: negotiating with the Canal Overseer! Each player takes turns placing a bribe for the Canal Overseer to place a water canal.
After this, the Canal Overseer can choose to take any bid(s) or pay 1 more than the total highest bid and place the canal anywhere.
Each plantation yields, to the owner, crop per worker multiplied by the size of the plantation itself. The player with the most money wins.
Observations
This is a negotiation and auction game. If you like games with these mechanics, then you will probably enjoy this game.
This game can be aggressive due to the auctioning and bribing of the Canal Overseer. Often a crop tile will not be irrigated and to get water to it requires the cooperation of the Canal Overseer. If another player decides to provide an opportunity for the Canal Overseer to build elsewhere!
This can cause some consternation for some players (myself included!) but it is fun.
I own this game and I have played it a few times. I think it is a good game and can be played in about an hour or so. It can be used as a tool to teach mathematics to younger players but I feel the 10+ age requirement is ideal.
Another thing to note about negotiation games is that they are very dependent on group dynamics and personalities. If players are equally skilled at making trades/bargaining then this is an excellent game providing much needed table banter.
Otherwise, if there is a mis-match between player skill sets, then it is quite easy to bully the weaker players.
Happy gaming.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I own Chinatown and Aquaduct, we enjoy both. Will this feel like a nice progression or redundant?
I have played Chinatown. As for “Aquaduct” I am not sure there is a game named that. Did you mean, “Aqua Romana?” If so, then I haven’t played that game.
I enjoyed Chinatown and I think Santiago is different from it. In Chinatown there is negotiation but it can continue for some time. In Santiago, you are “bribing” the Canal Overseer and you can only do that once.
Possibly, you may be able to coerce other players into bribing the way you want. However, in terms of “feel”, I think Santiago is a lot meaner than Chinatown.
Would I recommend Santiago? Yes, but with the understanding that the bribing of the Canal Overseer can be a bit much for some players.
Happy gaming!
Ah! I found “Aquadukt”; no I haven’t played that game either. My comments above still stand.
Happy gaming!