The Great Board Game Mystery

What's is the biggest mystery in board games? No, not Mystery Express (and no, not Clue either), but something much bigger. We're talking BIG, like, who's face is on the front of St. Petersburg?!

Need some help? Here are a few close-ups...

Still need some help?

Well, the game rules indicate that the game takes place during the reign of Czar Peter (the Great) of Russia (Hence the name, St. Petersburg). Of course! The face on the box must be Peter the Great! Right?

Wrong! Well, sorta wrong.

The picture may represent Peter the Great, but the face is partly modeled after our mystery person, and I'm not talking about Col. Mustard.

Here is a good image of Peter the Great I found Online. Clearly, the hair is a match, and the eyebrows look good too, but is this is the same Peter that is on the front of the box? No!

But you might say, "This is a very young Peter the Great, surely the Peter on the box is just an older version of the man." You are right, of course, but here is another image of Peter, 20 years, and perhaps not a few military accomplishments later...

This mustache is a closer match than the teenage-stache of Peter the younger, but what about the hairstyle and the hard features? The actual Peter has a cleft chin and a long face. The artist did not just forget to add these details the box. No, this is clearly not our Peter.

But then....who is our Peter?! I will defer to the keen insight of the little boy Peter in the movie Finding Neverland, who, upon being asked if he was Peter Pan's namesake, shook his head and looked at Mr. Barrie (Johnny Depp's character and author of the play Peter Pan), and said, "but I'm not Peter Pan...he is!"

Little boy, you are right! No, our St. Petersburg Peter is not Mr. Barrie or Johnny Depp. Our Peter someone much more important and relevant to the game.

That's right, the man on the front of St. Petersburg is the author of the game, Michael Tummelhoffer.

But you may have trouble finding a picture of this mysterious man, because Michael Tummelhoffer is only a pseudonym. The real author is a man often shrouded in mystery: Hans Im Gluck lead designer Bernd Brunnhofer, pictured below...

Don't you see the resemblance!? No? Well, it might be a bit of a stretch, but just imagine Mr. Brunnhofer with a darker mustache, and no glasses, and a thick head of curly hair. Most of the facial features are a pretty good match, and the eyes and especially the chin are nearly identital.

And by the way, I can verify with certainty that Mr. Brunnhofer is the author of St. Petersburg, because I have met him. He was kind enough to allow me a picture with him when we visited the Hans Im Gluck headquarters in Munich two years ago.


Many thanks to Hans in Gluck and Bernd Brunnhofer for treating my friends and I to a fun evening of games, and for this fun mystery to unfold.

Board Games for Couples

While this post has nothing to do with applying board game mechanics, it does have a lot to do with real life, and real life is often a lot more interesting than theory.

I googled "Board games for couples" just to see what I could find, but I was very disappointed by the results. Of the top ten results five were geared toward "adult" board games, ie, games to spice up your love life. Sex games seem a bit silly to me. Instead of trying to make things happen with cheap ploy's and other's opinions of what makes good romance, why not improve your relationship?

My wife and I enjoy playing board games together as a fun way to spend quality time together. We are both very competitive game players, so sometimes we get upset when we don't win, but overall, playing games together has been a very positive experience, and something that we can have in common. Here then, is a list of top five games that we prefer to play together:

1. Carcassone (Rio Grande Games): Tile laying game. The hardest thing to learn is the scoring. We love it because every game is different, its simple to set-up, and the strategy is not too heavy.
2. Small World (Days of Wonder): Beautiful game with a fanciful theme. Easy to learn and play. Hardest thing is the set-up.
3. St. Petersburg (Hans Im Gluck): Germany's version of Monopoly, only six-times shorter and a whole lot friendlier. Great to play over a mug of hot cocoa and a TV movie.
4. Thurn and Taxis (Rio Grande Games): Non-aggressive game about the first international postal service. A bit counterintuitive to learn, but very easy and fun once you get going.
5. Ticket to Ride (Days of Wonder): Simple game with light strategy. Not a lot of down-time between turns. We like it because you have to plan ahead!

Thats our list for now. Hope you look one of these up and give them a try someday with your significant other, and may your relationships be blessed.