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Puerto Rico
Rio Grande Games
Rating: 0 1 2 3 4.50 5

Exploration. Colonization. Prosperity. What do these words have in common? They are all synonymous with early America and the Age of Exploration. Although Puerto Rico wasn't associated with the United States at this time in history, it was still ripe with possibilities as it's name implies; the Spanish-given name translates to "rich port", and Puerto Rico from Rio Grande Games captures this idea perfectly.

In Puerto Rico (the game), players vie for prosperity and respect through building wondrous buildings and a variety of plantations. Players take roles of various, yet all equally important roles of prospector, captain, mayor, trader, settler, craftsman and builder. How you manage each role is important, and you choose what role you will play on your turn is possibly even more important.

Let me get one thing out in the open before I continue: I've heard people say that Puerto Rico is like Princes of Florence, only better. Well, the games are very different, though some of the ideas in the game design may seem similar. If you like Princes of Florence, you will probably like Puerto Rico, but you will still find reasons to play Princes of Florence and that Puerto Rico won't necessarily take it's place (though I have to agree that I find Puerto Rico to be a better game). 

Puerto Rico is a game for 3-5 players aged 12 and up, with playtime listed as 90-150 minutes. The game setup takes some time as there are plenty of pieces to sort out but with all players chipping in this can be accomplished in no time at all. Here's a laundry list of the components in the game:

5 Player Boards
1 Governor Card
8 Role Cards
1 Game Board
49 Buildings
54 Doubloons
58 Island Tiles
1 Colonist Ship
100 Colonists
1 Trading House
50 Goods
5 Cargo Ships
50 Victory Point Chips

After all the pieces are sorted out and you are ready for play, choose a starting player and give them the "Governor" tile to show that they are starting the round; finish the setup using the setup rules for the number of players playing. One thing that I would like to point out is that even with 3 players, Puerto Rico is a great game. Some games I find lacking when the player count is low, but with Puerto Rico, 3 players plays very well. Bonus points to Andreas Seyfarth for that nicety!

Play begins by the starting player choosing a role from the list that I gave earlier. Now, every player gets a chance at the role in question, but the player that chooses the role gets a "privilege" that is associated with the role that they choose. For example, if you choose the builder role, you would get to build a building with a -1 to the cost. Once the starting player has done their action with the chosen role, the player to their left gets an action with that role (without the privilege, mind you) and so on until all players have acted. 

The next player then chooses the role that they wish to start, and take the privilege associated with it. Again, once this player is done, each other player (in order) gets their turn with the role. Once all players have chosen a role and all players have had a chance to act out each one, you will put a doubloon each remaining roles that were not chosen; now pass the "Governor" tile to the player left of the starting player - that player will start the next round.

Here are the functions of each of the available roles:

Settler: When this role is chosen, each player gets to choose a plantation from the available randomly selected plantations next to the game board and place it onto an empty island space on their player board. Plantations help you produce items that you will either sell for money, or load onto a cargo ship for victory points. Privilege for choosing the Settler: You may choose a Quarry instead of a plantation. Quarries allow you to gather resources for building and lower the production costs when you take on the builder role.

Mayor: When this role is chosen, each player takes a colonist, in turn order, from the Colonist Ship. Colonists are workers that come to Puerto Rico for work. You NEED colonists in order to work quarries, plantations, and in your buildings. If you have extra Colonists, you can have them stay at San Juan until needed. Privilege for choosing the Mayor: Take one extra colonist from the supply of colonists. 

Builder: When the builder role is chosen, each player gets a chance to build a building in an empty city space on his or her player board. Buildings are necessary to process most goods produced from your plantations. There are other specialty buildings that can greatly assist you in the game, but you won't be able to build everything since you are limited to 12 spaces on your city area of your player board. Buildings also provide Victory Points at the end of the game. You can only build one building per round. Don't forget that if you have quarries can decrease the building costs of buildings, if you have any. Privilege for choosing the Builder: Build one building at -1 cost.

Trader: When you act out the role of the trader, you will attempt to sell your goods to the Trading House. However, the trade house has only limited space, and they prefer to only have one of each type of good in storage. (There are buildings that will allow you to change their minds...) Once the Trading House (another tile with storage spaces on it) is full, the trading ends for this round. Trading is necessary for gaining money to build. Privilege for choosing the Trader: When you sell an item at the Trading House, you gain an extra doubloon.

Craftsman: When the craftsman role is chosen, all players will produce goods if they: 1) have plantations with colonists working in them, and 2) have a building to process the goods (the only exception is corn, which requires no processing). Goods are not only vital to sell to the Trading House - they also are worth Victory Points when loaded onto cargo ships. Privilege for choosing the Craftsman: You get to take one bonus good (that you can produce) from one of the available supply piles.

Captain: Ah, the good 'ol Captain. The Captains are responsible for sailing the Cargo Ships and shipping goods back to the Old World. When the Captain role is chosen, each player will load goods onto the available Cargo Ships. For every good loaded, you gain one Victory Point. There are a limited number of ships as well as a limited number of cargo holds on each ship. You cannot mix different goods on a cargo ship! After each ship has been filled or all players are no longer able to load goods onto a ship, players may loose the extra goods that they have lying around if they don't have buildings to store the goods in. Privilege for choosing the Captain: You earn one bonus Victory Point when you load goods onto a ship. 

Prospectors: Prospectors are played differently than the other roles in the game. The player who chooses the Prospector earns one doubloon, but other players do not get a chance to take on the Prospector role as they do with the other roles in the game. 

Each round the players continue this dance of role choosing and role activation. The end is triggered when the one of the following happens:

- At the end of a Mayor's turn (when the Mayer would re-stock the Colonist Ship - even more strategy that I won't detail here) if there aren't enough Colonist tokens to load the Colonist Ship's minimum (one for each player playing).

- During the Builder's turn if one player builds on their 12th City Space. 

- During the Captains turn if the last of the Victory Point chips are used up. 

In the end, the player who has amassed the most victory points (through goods sent to the Old World and building VP's) is the big winner!

The strategy options in Puerto Rico are many. Between the buildings, the plantations and the roles in the game, you can focus on one area to win or try to use a variety of choices that can bring you victory. Be wary, though. If you intend on focusing on one path, you may find other players thwarting you to slow you down. You may need to shift gears mid-game in order to succeed. 

Puerto Rico is an excellent addition to the Rio Grande stable of games - one that will probably go down in gaming history as one of their best. I know that those are big words, but they are true nonetheless. If you like Rio Grande-style of games, you must buy or at least try Puerto Rico. There is plenty of replay value, and the hours and hours of entertainment value is well worth the purchase price. 

Written by Gene Vogel
(Posted 11-18-02)