I first saw Santiago (Z-man Games, 2005 -- Claudia Heley and Roman Pelek) in GAMES magazine and was vaguely interested -- mostly because the cube colors (purple, white, tan, gray, and black), weren't your typical colors in a games such as this. The description didn't really catch my attention, though, so I didn't think much more about it. Then, I started hearing word about what an excellent game it was when scanning the 'net; but since the game was only released in Germany, I didn't think that I would get a chance to play it. I was therefore pleased and delighted to hear that Santiago had been picked up by Z-man games and looked forward to playing it.

The theme of the game, building plantations and digging canals, didn't really interest me that much, neither did my initial rules reading. But after my first playing I was hooked. The entire game comes down to knowing which plantation to pick, where to put it, and a very fierce, bitter canal auction. The auction seems to be the most critical part of the game, and yea verily, is the most fun. The game plays in an hour or less, feels like a "meaty" game, but yet is light enough that I've seduced many new gamers with it. Santiago may be one of the most underrated games of the last couple years.

A small board with forty-eight squares in a grid with ditches running throughout, breaking the squares into groups of four. Each player takes twenty-two yield markers (cubes) of their color, along with one blue canal (a long stick) and one "proposed" canal marker of their color. A spring piece is placed on one of the intersections of ditches on the board, and the "canal overseer" piece is given to one player. Each player also receives ten Escudos (currency) with the remainder placed in a bank. A pile of forty-five tiles (one less in a three-four player game) is sorted into equal stacks according to the number of players, shuffled, and placed face down. Finally, the rest of the blue canals are placed near the board. The first of the rounds is ready to begin (nine rounds for five players; otherwise eleven.)

At the beginning of each round, the top tile in each stack is turned face up. Tiles show one of five different plantations (pepper, sugar cane, potatoes, bananas, and beans), and either one or two planters pictured on each one. Starting with the canal overseer, and proceeding clockwise around the board, each player makes one bid. A player can bid any amount they wish, as long as no other player has bid it, or pass. The player who bids the lowest (or who passes first) takes the canal overseer figure. The player who bids the highest chooses a tile and places it on the board, on any free space on the board. They then place one yield marker of their color on the tile for each of the workers on the tile. If the player passed in the auctioning phase, however, they must place one less yield marker on the tile. All players then pay their bids to the bank.

Each player then, starting with the player to the left of the Canal Overseer, suggests a placement for a canal. Canals must be placed in the ditches on the board, and must either connect to the spring or an existing canal. When suggesting a placement, the player either places their proposed canal piece down where they want the canal to go, as well as the amount of money they are bribing the Canal Overseer with. Players can alternatively add money to one of the current offers, if they like how another player has placed their canal. Once all players have made their "suggestions", the Canal Overseer can take one of the offers, taking all the money and replacing the suggested canal with a blue canal from the pile in the middle of the table. The Canal Overseer can even build a canal in a place where no one suggested but must pay the bank one more Escudo than the highest offer to him.

Each player, in turn order, then can decide if they want to place the free canal they were given at the end of the game and do so if they desire. "Drying" then occurs. Each plantation NOT next to a canal loses one yield marker. If the plantation has no yield markers, it is turned over into a desert and cannot be built upon for the remainder of the game. Each player then receives three Escudos as income, and a new round begins.

Once the last tiles have been placed on the board, and the round completed, all tiles that are not next to a canal are immediately turned into desert. The game ends, with each player scoring their plantations. Each plantation tile that is adjacent to another plantation tile of the same type is considered to be in the same plantation. Several players can possibly score points for the same plantation. A player scores their points by multiplying the amount of yield markers in their color on the plantation by the amount of tiles in the plantation -- taking Escudos form the bank equal to the total. Once all plantations are scored, players count their money, and the player with the highest total is the winner!

Some comments on the game...

1. Components: I have to state that the plastic insert in the box is one of the nicest I've seen in a long time. There are custom spaces for all the pieces, and the tilted slots for the money help make the box an excellent place to keep the "bank" during the game. As I stated earlier, it's nice to see cubes of different colors; and the slightly subdued yield marker colors provide a nice contrast against the very colorful plantation tiles (which are green, red, brown, blue, and orange. The canal sticks are similar to the "roads" from Settlers of Catan but are longer and help provide a nice visual effect when the entire canal network is complete. The board itself is drab; but that works, because the colorful effect the plantations have upon it along with the yield markers make the theme a bit more lively (although that's hard.) The Canal Overseer piece is a cardboard figure in a stand, and three plastic palm trees are provided for a variant. The money is nice, although the larger bills are fairly superfluous, as they are only used at the end of the game for about a minute or less.


2. Rules: I really enjoyed the layout of Santiago's rules. The first two pages explained how the canals were to be placed, and how final scoring occurred. This helped me, as a reader, quickly grasp the major mechanics of the game. The rest of the rules then spelled out the actual order of play, but I already knew the basics. The back of the eight page full-colored, fully illustrated rulebook had a quick guide to the game -- it may be possible to play the game only having read this guide! Either way, I found that the game is very easy to teach to people with the only hang-up being how auctions work, since very few games have bidding such as this.


3. Auction: I enjoyed how the auctions worked. You could bid any amount, as long as it wasn't the same amount another player bid. This led to some interesting bidding. On one hand, players are eager to get the Canal Overseer, because the benefits of that position are twofold: money from other players and/or decision where the canal is placed. However, the player who bids the lowest (thus getting the Canal Overseer) often gets a very poor choice of tile. If a player passes in the bidding, (and is first), they assure themselves of getting the Canal Overseer -- but at the cost of a yield token. In the five player games I've played, games often started with players bidding one to five Escudos in the first couple rounds. As the game continued, some players' bids got higher, and a few passed occasionally, making the bidding phase a bit unpredictable. The tiles being turned face up may remind one of a similar mechanic in Puerto Rico, but here it is of much greater importance.


4. Placement: When placing a tile, players must carefully consider where the tile should go. First of all, they want to place it next to a canal, or to a spot where they are pretty sure a canal can go. Secondly, should they expand a current plantation. Yes, it might score them a lot of points, but it might score an opponent even more points. For example, if a plantation already has ten tiles and Joe has six yield tokens on it; if I play a tile there with one token, I'll get ten points, but he'll get six more. Is that worth it to me? Choices such as this are interesting, although in actual gameplay they take but a few seconds to make.


5. Bribing: Trying to get the Canal Overseer to put the canal where you want it is a fun, yet strife-filled part of the game. A lot of argument and (loud) persuasion has occurred in the games I've played, as people desperately want the Canal Overseer to pick their spot for the canal. Sometimes evil (or canny, however you want to look at it) folk will simply put a suggested canal down that goes nowhere -- helping no one, just to hurt the other players. If they offer enough money, the Canal Overseer just might be tempted to take them up on their offer, which irritates the other players to no end. At the same time, players can band together, and temporary alliances are formed each turn as players strive to get the canal waters flowing in their direction. Each player has one "backup" canal that they can place; but if they place it too early, they have nothing to fall back upon in the later stages of the game.


6. Canal Overseer: Being the Canal Overseer is fun, but can cause a bit of stress. Players get to choose between the options offered them. They can choose their own route for a canal; but as this is fairly expensive (they lose all the money offered to them, plus the money they have to pay), it's rarely been done in the games I've played in. Still, players know that it's an option, so they must not be too chintzy when bribing the Canal Overseer.


7. Players and Time: The game is good with three or four, but I absolutely love it with five players. With five, the auction phase and bribing phase are much more interesting, as there are five different players who want several different goals. But no matter how many people are playing, the game clocks in just under an hour, which is pretty impressive, considering the amount of "game" included in the box.


8. Fun Factor: Santiago transcends the usual intellectual pit that many of these games fall into, passing the boundary of "fun". This is simply due to the bribing phase. Negotiation, pleading, demanding, and other forms of quite vocal communication occur, and it's a lot of fun to be involved in and watch. I do realize that a very few people may be turned off from this aspect of the game, and a few others can turn it into an ugly affair, but for the most part it's extremely enjoyable.

If you're looking for a game that has a lot of player interaction, no downtime, a playing length of an hour, and a simple scoring system, Santiago has it all. It's become a staple of my collection, a game that new players and hardened gamers can play alike. There's some luck with the tiles being turned over, but for the most part the game's result happens because of negotiation and keen bidding. Don't let the lackluster name or theme turn you off from this game; it's one of the best I've played in recent years.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games."