For the island in the Caribbean that inspired this game, see Puerto Rico. 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. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1536x1891, 921 KB) Puerto Rico setup for 4 players. ...
Received for the #1 game of 1994, Manhattan Andreas Seyfarth (November 6, 1962) is a German-style board game designer, most notably he created Puerto Rico, consistently ranked as the best board game ever [1]. In 2002 the game was awarded first place for the prestigious Deutscher Spiele Preis (German...
Ravensburger Spieleverlag GmbH is a German game company. ...
Rio Grande Games is a publisher of German-style board games in English. ...
Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ...
A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often winning. Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand. ...
Puerto Rico, a popular German-style board game German-style board games are a broad class of games that feature simple rules, modest length, and attractive components. ...
Received for the #1 game of 1994, Manhattan Andreas Seyfarth (November 6, 1962) is a German-style board game designer, most notably he created Puerto Rico, consistently ranked as the best board game ever [1]. In 2002 the game was awarded first place for the prestigious Deutscher Spiele Preis (German...
Also see: 2002 (number). ...
Ravensburger Spieleverlag GmbH is a German game company. ...
Rio Grande Games is a publisher of German-style board games in English. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
“West Indian†redirects here. ...
The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans before the voyages of Christopher Columbus; it includes Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively known as Africa-Eurasia), plus surrounding islands. ...
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. San Juan is a card game designed by Andreas Seyfarth and published in 2004 by Alea in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
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.
Each player has a separate small board with space for city buildings, plantations, and resources, plus a role summary. There is also a central supply of various resources, as well as some shared ships and a shared trading house.
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.). The game has a three-layered turn structure: during each round, every player chooses a different role; and whenever a role is chosen, every player can take the action appropriate to that role (though the player who chose it gets a small additional privilege). The right to start a round, to choose roles within a round, and to take the action for the chosen role, all pass to the left.
Players get victory points for owning buildings, for shipping goods, and for manned "large buildings". Each player's accumulated shipping points are kept hidden from the other players. As the game enters its later stages, players may only be able to guess at each other's scores.
The game has several different end conditions which are calibrated so that no one strategy is dominant.
- The game ends if the preset supply of colonists is competely exhausted.
- The game ends if the preset supply of shipping victory points is exhausted.
- The game ends if any one player builds in all twelve spots in his city.
In each case, players finish the current round before the game ends. The winner is the player with the most victory points: money and goods are only a tie-breaker.
Roles Each player must choose a role every round, from among those not yet chosen. All players may then take the action associated with the role; the player who chose the role take the action first, and also gets an additional small "privilege", e.g. a discount on construction costs when choosing "Builder". - Settler: Each player selects a plantation and new plantations are revealed. The drawing of plantations is the only random element of the game other than seating arrangement and choice of first player.
- Builder: each player may buy one building, paying with doubloons.
- 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, each player may sell one good to the trading house for doubloons.
- 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): no action, one-doubloon "privilege".
Unused roles gain a doubloon at the end of each turn; the next player who chooses that role gets to keep any doubloons on it. This makes it likely that all roles will eventually be chosen.
Strategy
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Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details. | Strategically, Puerto Rico offers a lot of possibilities. On the board gaming site BoardGameGeek, it has received more strategy articles than any other game, and many of these articles are the most viewed site-wide.[citation needed] Image File history File links Circle-question. ...
Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ...
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. Points decide the winner at the game's end, but money helps you establish infrastructure which may get you more points in the long run. 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 obvious.
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. Ravensburger Spieleverlag GmbH is a German game company. ...
A second expansion is under development, but the release date and title are uncertain, though Rio Grande Games, Puerto Rico's US publisher, says, "[Seyfarth] promises this by October, 2008" (April 25, 2006, Rio Grande Games).
Awards and rankings The Deutscher Spiele Preis (German for German Game Prize) is an award for German-style games. ...
The Essen Feather (German: Essener Feder) is an award for German-style board games, given at the Deutscher Spiele Preis ceremony at the October game fair in Essen, Germany. ...
The International Gamers Award is an award for strategy board games and historical simulation games. ...
The Spiel des Jahres (German for Game of the Year) is arguably the most prestigious board game award for German-style board games. ...
2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Internet Top 100 Games List is a ranked list of non-computer games, mostly board and card games. ...
2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ...
External links - Alea's home page for the game (German)
- Puerto Rico and an introduction to playing Puerto Rico at BoardGameGeek
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