Puerto Rico - a strategic game for 3 to 5 players, ages 12 and upwards which takes some time to learn but then allows for many enjoyable and varied games. Whilst a first game may take around 3 hours to play this game is usually over in 90 minutes when all the players are experienced.

The objective is to gather more victory points than your opponents, these are awarded for the goods you export back to the Old World and for the buildings you construct.

Components

There are lots of parts to this game and a good supply of Ziplock bags is ideal for keeping them under control.

Each player is issued with a board representing their part of the Island of Puerto Rico, there are spaces here for 12 buildings and for 12 plantations.

There is one main board on which all of the buildings are stacked, both for processing commodities and other buildings, each building has both a cost and a victory point value. There are a total of 49 different buildings with limited quantities of each building available.

Plantation tiles represent the 5 trading commodities of corn, indigo, sugar, tobacco and coffee whilst there are also tiles of the same size which represent quarries.

There are smaller cards for ships which allow colonists to arrive from the Old World and also for goods to be shipped back from Puerto Rico to the Old World generating victory points on the way.

Goods tokens in different colours represent the different commodities which are created during the game.

Small brown discs represent the colonists who are placed in the plantations and the buildings and who help with the production of goods etc.

There are also tokens which represent victory points and are awarded for shipping goods.

8 character cards and the Governor card represent the actions that can be taken each round and the player who is starting each round.

The last component is money, represented by tokens each with a value of 1 gold.

Setting Up

The setup position differs slightly dependent on the number of players, this affects the number of settlers available, the numbers of victory points available, the ships that are to be used and the character cards available. All of the buildings are also placed on the main game board which is placed in the centre of the playing surface. Plantation tiles are placed in piles and one more than the number of players is shown face up. Also surrounding the main board will be the goods and colonist ships and the trading house. The last area is reserved for the character cards.

Once the starting player has been chosen (by whatever means is appropriate), each of them is allocated an appropriate plantation tile.

Game Play

The game takes part in rounds and will take approximately 15 rounds to complete. Within a round each player will choose a Character in turn, once a player has chosen a Character then each player takes the action of that Character including any bonus actions for the selecting player before the next Character is chosen.

At the completion of the round each of the unused Character cards is loaded with a doubloon, all used Character cards are then returned to the pool and the Governor token is passed to the next player.

The game finishes at the end of the round in which:

• There are not enough colonists to refill the colonists ship whilst the Mayor character is played
• A player fills his 12 building spaces through the Builder character
• All of the victory point chips in play are allocated during the Captain characters play.

The Characters

Settler - this character allows each player to select a plantation to add to their island, there is a benefit in having groups of these to maximise the effects of the refineries which can either process 1, 2 or 3 of the commodities. The bonus for selecting this character is the choice of selecting a quarry instead of a commodity plantation. Quarries reduce the costs of each building but do not allow goods production. Once all plantations have been selected a new set of plantations are put out. Tip: try to select early on in the game to reduce building costs.

Mayor - this character distributes arriving colonists with each player taking one each in turn and the selecting player taking an additional colonist from the pool. At this point colonists maybe redistributed amongst the plantations and buildings. New colonists are then added to the colonists ship, one for each empty space in the players building with a minimum of the number of players. Tip: because you need colonists for production this character can be key if you are short of people or you really need to reorganise where your people are.

Builder - this character allows you to create new buildings, these have to be paid for by a mixture of your populated quarries and by doubloons. The selecting player has a doubloon removed from all building costs. Tip: in a 4 or 5 player game you might want to select this character to help you choose the buildings to support your strategy.

Overseer - this character is used to produce goods from plantations. Note that in order to produce all commodities other than corn you need a refinery of the appropriate type and both the plantation and the refinery must be suitably staffed. The selecting player is able to choose an additional commodity from amongst those that they produce. Tip: excellent choice early in the game if you are the only producing player or where there are limited commodities remaining and you are going to gain far more than your opponents.

Trader - this character enables you to trade your commodities with the trading house. The selecting player receives an additional doubloon for any sale, there is a restriction on sales in that only 1 commodity of each type can be sold to the trading house unless the selling player has the 'Office' building in play. The trading house is emptied only when 4 commodities have been sold into it. Tip: selecting this character in conjuction with one or both of the 'Market' buildings and perhaps 'Office' allows you to generate money more easily than any other.

Captain - this character transfers your produced commodities from your part of the island onto the boats. Each player must play a commodity type in turn provided that there is room onto one of the ships, each commodity token gains the player a victory point. The selecting player gets an additional victory point for the first commodity type they ship. All but one of the unshipped commodities are then discarded back to the pool unless the player has a 'Warehouse' which allows additional storage. Tip: keep watch for playing this to gain yourself extra points especially where you can force opponents to discard commodities back to the pool.

Prospector - this character gives the selecting player a doubloon and none of the other players any advantage. Tip: use this card where additional money is stacked, this game can leave you short of cash and taking free money in one round can increase your building options very quickly.

The Hooks

The characters form a strong part of this game but by now means the only important factor. The buildings play an equally important part supporting your strategy of trading or commodity generation. The large buildings can add a critical amount of additional victory points at the end and make the difference between winning and losing. Because different players will have different strategies in mind this game will always be varied, the restricted number of each type of building and occasional commodity shortages can dramatically affect the outcome.

Your Tactics

Which character to choose ?

Which commodities ?

Quarries ?

Conclusion

This is a great game with a huge replayability factor. Tactics must be fluid in order to take advantage as oppportunities present themselves.

Because this is quite a complex game it might not be ideal for introducing new games players but certainly for experienced players I would predict this game will be popular for some time to come.

Additional Reviews

Details from Boardgamegeek