Highlights among Games
Puerto rico
Journey to new worlds in games
Dear Reader! There are games that truly open up new horizons, as did Sid Sackson’s „Acquire“, Richard Garfield’s „Magic The Gathering“ or Klaus Teuber’s „The Settlers of Catan“. “Puerto Rico”, the easy-going heavyweight from the think tank of Andreas Seyfarth is another game that belongs into this category. Since its appearance at Spiel 2002 at Essen this game of optimization from publisher ALEA has been praised to high heavens by nearly all reviewers. The reason for this: The search for the ultimate game strategy is a never-ending one; this strategy simply does not seem to exist. All roads lead to Rome, sorry, Puerto Rico, and all are paved with opponents who implement their planned goals by clever choice of buildings, if to their own advantage or disadvantage will only become clear during the course of events. Add to this the different roles that – very fitting for this game – relate to all players at the same time. The journey into the new Caribbean games universe is never made alone, not even in the Austrian Games Museum in Leopoldsdorf, where you will find congenial partners. www.spielen.at
The light of my lamp first alights two nearly empty game boards in front of each player; they will be filled in the due course of time with buildings, production sites and plantations for Indigo, Coffee, Tobacco, Corn and Sugar Cane. The raw materials planted on plantations are processed in specialized production sites, then sold for a profit and finally shipped across the world’s oceans. Miscellaneous buildings, which are constructed by each player to his own liking on his available space, support production of wares and trading them. In order to do so you need settlers (not slaves, that would not be politically correct, H.K.) who you need to recruit on time. In addition to all this, all “Puerto Ricans” simultaneously take up the roles of settler, mayor, builder, craftsman, trader, captain or prospector, which creates a lot of interaction for a game that basically is an individual building game. If you actively choose a role you receive the benefit of a bonus action, a tactical factor that must not be underestimated. I spare you the description of the individual roles, but would like to emphasize that especially this element of “Puerto Rico” is the icing on the cake and provokes a very individual reaction in each player. Money in the guise of Dublones are also present on Puerto Rico and makes role tiles, that have not been chosen, more attractive from each round to the next, allows you to construct buildings and thus governs the development of the plantations. If you cannot get enough of husbanding the island you can make use of the „building generator“ available on the Internet that lets you generate additional interesting production sites. If you love to play in pairs I recommend the site listed under expert tip; or to buy „little brother“ San Juan, the game of husbanding the island with cards only. One last remark: Puerto Rico was praised to high events by all reviewers, received an incredible amount of awards and was celebrated as one of the groundbreaking games of the last decades. This is a verdict I can agree with wholeheartedly. Puerto Rico is a diamond of the first water among games!
Comments to: Hugo.Kastner@chello.at
Homepage: www.hugo-kastner.at
Recommendation # 71 PUERTO RICO
Players: 3-5 (Variant 2)
Age: 12+
Time: 90+
Designer: Andreas Seyfarth
Art: Franz Vohwinkel
Price: 25 Euro
Year: 2002
Publisher: Alea/Ravensburger
Tactic: 7 von 9
Info±: 0 von 9
Chance: 2 von 9
Your goal is to husband Puerto Rico profitably with a succession of lots of small tactical actions integrated into an overall strategic decision. This is not at all easy, as a wrong choice of role can benefit an opponent. The small beatific chance element is provided by the layout of the plantation and quarry tiles, coupled to the order of role selection. All in all an excellent “game for experts”!
Hugos EXPERT IP
Try out the 2-player version of the game that was developed by experts and is available on the internet. (http://www.spielefreun.de/puertorico/) Challenge and strategic decisions as well as choice of roles are very similar to the flair of the multi-player version.
Hugos FLASHLIGHT
Complex – but not complicated. This is the short formula for this unusually versatile, umpteen times award winning game from the think tank of Andreas Seyfarth. Beginner’s mistakes are unavoidable, different strategies are applicable and at the end the games are decided on a narrow margin – all indications for a well-balanced and mature game. Puerto Rico quite rightly occupies one of the top ranks in an all-time list of „great“ games.
PREVIEW
DOMINION
In the dark Middle Ages