You may have been to Puerto Rico before, but have you ever played a tabletop game called Puerto Rico? This board game allows you to play as their citizens to work on your own Island board. You will gain victory points by constructing buildings and shipping goods, as well as earn income by selling goods and more. Play this game today and let your own Puerto Rico Island rise!
Category - Strategy
Difficulties - ★★★★★
Players - 2-5 Players
Playing Time - 90-150 Minutes
Recommended Ages - 12+
Components
5 Island boards, each with 12 Countryside spaces (top) and 12 City spaces (bottom)
1 central game board
1 Governor card, which indicates the starting player for the current round
8 Citizen cards
49 City tiles
58 Countryside tiles
5 Cargo Ships
1 Hiring Hall
1 Trading House
100 Workers
50 barrels of goods
50 victory point (VP) chips
51 doubloons
How to Win
The player who has earned the most VPs is the winner of the game.
Setup
Give the starting player the Governor citizen card.
Game setup varies depending on the player count. Set out all the game pieces for a specific number of player and set aside any remaining pieces to the box as they will not be used in the game.
Place all required basic game buildings on their respective spaces indicated on the game board and put it in the middle of the table.
Place the Trading House & Hiring Hall below the game board. Prepare the barrels of goods and workers and place them all next to the game board.
Each player will be given an Island Board. Give each player a number of Silver Doubloons and a specific Countryside Tile (either a corn field or an indigo field) as required for specific number of player.
All of the remaining silver and gold doubloons will form a bank and to be placed on the blank space on the main game board.
How to Play
At the beginning of each round, the Governor player chooses one of the Citizen Cards first. Every player will also have a chance to perform that specific citizen's action, but only the player who chose the role can perform its special advantage on their turn. Play the game in a clockwise direction.
End of Round
Each round will be ended when every player has chosen and performed the action of the Citizen cards. The Governor will place one silver doubloon from the bank on each of the Citizen cards that were not chosen by any players from the last round. Once every player has taken their action on the round, pass the Governor card to the next player at the end of round; he will be the new Governor who starts the next round first. Return all Citizen cards and continue to play as usual until one of the endgame conditions is met.
End of Game
There are three possible ways to meet the endgame conditions:
Workers are running out and can't be filled into the Hiring Hall at the end of the Foreman phase;
Any player who has filled all of the City spaces on their Island Board during the Builder phase;
or, no more VP chips can be taken during the Captain phase.
Each player count their victory points by adding together: the value of their VP chips taken from the Captain phase, the VP value of the buildings that a player owns, and the bonus VP awarded for any occupied large buildings on their Island Board. Doubloons and goods will only be counted as VPs if there are two or more tied players. The player with the most VPs wins!
Review
Alea Puerto Rico is a complex eurogame that you should never overlook. It could be a bit difficult for new gamer since there are so many little details that you need to take care of in order to play the game easily; but once you played for a few more times, you will have an idea of how to win the game effortlessly and realise how much you love this game accidentally. It is definitely the best gateway strategy board game for all sort of gamers!