It’s been a while since I last played Tichu (about 50 weeks, actually). I played a game at BSW and sucked. No wonder. It was fun, anyway. We were down something like 800-0, but my partner pulled a Grand Tichu and then we won another round but after that was quickly over. I’d say my skills are rusty, but I don’t have any to start with. Ha! Anyway, this game just reinforces my view that Gang of Four is the better game of the two. Not deeper, perhaps, but certainly more fun to play. Choose Tichu over Gang of Four only if you have a fairly regular group interested to play the game a lot. For more casual play, Gang of Four is much better.

As usual, I also played St. Petersburg. The four-player game was won by a player who got a first-turn Mistress of Ceremonies. I’m quite sure that was the root of his victory. Repeating Alex Rockwell’s rule of thumb: always make sure you have 18 roubles in the first aristocrat phase, especially if you’re the first to player to pick. If you can’t buy the Mistress if she comes up, you’ll be bloody annoyed. Good first-round aristocrat kicks butt. Unfortunately, I got none this time and lost the game. ‘Nuff said.