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Puerto Rico is a German board game designed by Andreas Seyfarth published in 2002 by Alea in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. Players assume the roles of colonial governors on the island of Puerto Rico during the age of Caribbean ascendancy. The aim of the game is to amass victory points, mainly by shipping goods to the Old World or by constructing buildings.

Puerto Rico can be played by three to five players, although an official two player variant also exists. There is an official expansion which adds new buildings which can be swapped in for those in the original game. In February, 2004, Andreas Seyfarth released a separate card-game named San Juan based on Puerto Rico and published by the same companies.

Gameplay

The game consists of several different mechanisms which fit together in a carefully designed way. While the rules are simple, misunderstandings are common; players should play one step at a time from the rulebook at least once.

The game is played on a separate board for each player, with spaces for city buildings and plantations. The resource cycle of the game is that players grow crops which they exchange for points or money. The money can then be used to buy buildings, which allow players to produce more crops or give them other abilities. Buildings and plantations do not work unless they are manned by colonists.

Throughout the game, players take on different roles (Captain, Mayor, etc.). If a role is picked, it will affect all players. But the player who picks it gets special privileges. The turn structure consists of three nested loops. The outermost loop is who gets to choose a role first. The middle loop is where each player chooses a role. The innermost loop is where each player acts based on the chosen role.

During gameplay, each player's accumulated points are kept hidden from the other players, so there is no knowledge of a specific score or ranking until the end of the game. As the game enters its later stages, players may only be able to guess at their score in relation to other players.

The game has several different end conditions which are calibrated so that no one strategy is dominant.

  1. The game ends if the preset supply of colonists is exhausted.
  2. The game ends if the preset supply of victory points is exhausted.
  3. The game ends if any one player builds in all twelve spots in his city.

The winner is the player with the most victory points: money and goods are only a tie-breaker.

Roles

The roles in Puerto Rico are chosen one at a time by each player, each turn. The roles affect all players, but the player who choses it also gets a bonus. The interaction and operation of the roles is central to the way the game works.

  • Settler: Each player selects a plantation or quarry and new plantations are revealed. The drawing of plantations is the only random element of the game.
  • Builder: One production or special building may be purchased by each player.
  • Mayor: Players receive colonists to man plantations, quarries, and buildings; and they may move colonists they already possess.
  • Craftsman: Manned plantations and production buildings produce goods.
  • Trader: With limitations, one good may be sold by each player to the trading house.
  • Captain: Players must load goods onto the ships for victory points. Loading continues in order until no one can make further shipments.
  • Prospector (not used with three players): the player who selects the prospector gets a doubloon (money).

Unused roles gain a doubloon at the end of each turn.

Strategy

Strategically, Puerto Rico offers a lot of possibilities. On the boardgaming site BoardGameGeek, it has received more strategy articles than any other game, and many of these articles are the most viewed sitewide.

There are two important dichotomies in the game. Understanding the balances in each is crucial.

The first balance is between making money and earning points. Making a decision about which to go after is strategically very important. Money helps you establish infrastructure which will get you more points later, but points are points immediately. It is almost always better to focus on earning money early on and to switch focus later to earning points. However, the point at which the focus should change is often not clear.

The second split is between focusing on shipping and focusing on building. Both strategies are generally bad when played to their reductive extremes. The question is which one a player tends toward, relative to his opponents.

A player focusing on shipping will simply try to get as many points from shipping goods as possible. The shipper will try to produce a lot of goods, and buy mostly buildings which help with production and shipping. There are many variations which are not incompatible. Shipping players also want to keep the game going a long time, so they can rake in more points.

In contrast, a builder will often try to get a lot of buildings quickly, ideally ending the game before a shipper gets fully set up. A combination of quarries and money making buildings ideally allows a player to build at an accelerated speed.

In reality, all players need money, and will probably lose if they don't ship at all. But understanding the interplay of different strategic leanings is key, and one of the game's challenges.

Tactical play is also crucial: a player who ignores tactical play will give money and points away, especially to the following player. Tactical play includes: trading a good to block another player trading it; preventing trading by not emptying the trading house or stripping goods by shipping in the early game; crafting and shipping to consume the limited number of each good.

The game is very well balanced in the sense that there is no "guaranteed win" strategy: if strategy A wins against strategy B, there is a strategy C that will win against A, and B might win against C.

Expansion

In January 2004, Alea released an expansion to Puerto Rico. The addition consists of 14 new buildings that may be used alongside or instead of the original 17.

Controversy

One controversial aspect of the game are the pieces that are identified as "settlers" or "colonists" in the game. They represent the people who arrive at the island and are put to work at the plantations. While it is not mentioned in the game, players aware of the actual history of the period being portrayed will realize that these workers were slaves being brought in from Africa. This means that the players are in effect simulating the role of slaveowners, albeit at a very abstract level. The pieces themselves are dark brown in color.

Some people have argued that a game should not simulate slavery. Others point out that the game itself does not mention slavery. They also point out that no similar protest is made about the numerous battle themed games which are simulating killing at the same abstract level. The colonists can also be painted an alternative color scheme.

Awards and rankings

Similar games

  • San Juan is a card game by the same designer, based on Puerto Rico and featuring many of the same elements
  • Caylus is a game similar in flavor and complexity

External links

Board games | Puerto Rico | Deutscher Spiele Preis winners

Puerto Rico (Spiel) | Puerto Rico (jeu) | Puerto Rico (gioco) | Puerto Rico (brettspill) | Puerto Rico (lautapeli)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Puerto Rico (game)".

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