Tips puertorico

From Board Game Geek by Alex Rockwell:

For anyone who wants to improve their Puerto Rico game....and to 'grok' this wonderful game.....read on. I know its long, but that just means its in depth, and thus is ACTUALLY HELPFUL.

As many who have read a chessbook know, the best strategy in Chess is "control the center". Many games have a fundamental superior strategy that should be followed, often with lesser strategies as well. These strategies dictate your actions when there is not an important TACTICAL move that you must make.

In essence, strategy is about the long term, tactics is about short term gain (or preventing the same for your opponents). "Tactics is what you do when there is something to do....strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do". Like chess, Puerto Rico is a highly tactical game. Good tactical play and average strategic play will beat ok tactical play and good strategic play most of the time. However, if everyone plays well tactically, you will need to have a superior strategic understanding of the game in order to secure the win. You need to know what terms will benefit you most in the long term, not just in the short term. And the long term plays are sometimes much harder to see.

Before I get to the dominant Puerto Rico strategic, I'll talk a little about tactics. Most of the tactics of Puerto Rico comes from your role choices. If you look at the effects of the different roles you could pick, generally with a lookahead of about 1-2 turns, and find the one which works best for you/hurts your opponents, you will do well. To do this, you will have to determine likely moves by your opponents, and find the role which helps you given what they will probably do. Also, look for choices which dont leave you wide open to a big blow if someone chooses certain roles, since strong players will often do this to destroy your position.

Here is an example of an important tactical play:

In a 3 player game, the game starts like this:

Turn 1: Player 1 Settler/Quarry, player 2 takes corn, player 3 takes Sugar. Player 2 takes builder/small market. Player 3 builds small sugar, player 1 builds small market. Player 3 takes mayor filling small sugar/sugar plant. PLayer 1 fills quarry, player 2 fills corn.

Turn 2: Player 2 takes (settler or builder or mayor). Player 3 takes craftsman, producing 2 sugar.

You are player 1. You have the following role choices:

Settler/Mayor/Builder (minus whatever player 2 chose) Trader w/1 dubloon Captain w/1 dubloon.

You have no goods, and an occupied quarry. Player 2 has a corn, player 3 has 2 sugar.

What is the correct play?

"Oh captain my captain".

Not choosing the Captain role is almost a guaranteed loss if player 3 is at least as skilled as you are, and will probably give them a good chance of winning even if you are better than them.

But I dont even have a good to ship, you say! It doesnt matter. Taking the captain isnt great for you, giving 1 dubloon. Thats not as great as the benfit you would have gained from the builder for example, with your quarry.

However, not choosing captain allows player 3 to begin the next turn by trading sugar, with 2 dubloons on the trader, for a gain of 2+1+2 = 5 dubloons! This will give them enough money to buy a coffee or tobacco plant, a couple turns ahead of either of the other players. This is an enormous advantage, as they will likely trade that good for an even greater money advantage, and be the first to build buildings such as the harbor or factory.

This is an example of a tactical choice where the wrong move will have more effect than all of your strategic decisions throughout the game.

Now, on to the best Puerto Rico strategy.

Many players tend to think of the game as being about shipping versus building. That is, that there are two main strategies, shipping or building, as well as a 'mixed' strategy, hedging your bets between the two.

However, this veiw misses something important. Those 'strategies' are ways to score points. They give you somethng to do which is beneficial to you. Having some role which benefits you more than others is key in Puerto Rico. If you are in a position where you gain points by building, but you lose points (relative to others) when producing and shipping occurs, then thats ok, but not great. You could win if things work out well, and building comes out to dominate the game.

However, you can do better. How? Its simple.....follow the dominant strategy of the game of Puerto Rico. This strategy doesnt involve shipping or building, it involves income. In this game, income is king. If you are making money, you will be able to buy large buildings, and score lots of building points. If you are making money, you will be able to buy production buildings to make goods, and shipping buildings like warehouse, harbor and wharf to ship your goods effectively for many points. If you are making money, then you will be able to put yourself in a position where both shipping AND building will gain you points over the other players.

In most cases, you cant be the best at both shipping and building. Unless all the other players are complete newbies, this just isnt possible. Your goal is to reach a point where in shipping, you gain over some of the opponents, but dont lose much to anyone, and in building its the same. Thus, through a cycle of building and shipping, you gain points over each opponent, some you gain over in the captain phase, some in the builder, but overall you have gained on everyone. This WILL happen if you have the best income potential in the group, AND you have solid tactical play, so you arent missing out on points and opporunities that way.

Often your position will become lopsided towards one or the other of the point scoring methods. For example, in the course of playing tactically, you just never had any good chances to choose the settler and take any quarries, yet you managed to get several corn plantations. Or vice-versa. In these cases, if you have good income, what will happen is that you will dominate one of the point scoring methods (your strength), while maintaining an average score in the other. For example: The shipper who manages to afford a large building, and dominates shipping. Or the builder with a guild hall and another large building, who also had a harbor and managed to ship for an average 25.

Usually in these cases as well, you will prevail.

So how does income have this wonderful effect on your game?

Several ways. Primarily, it allows you to purchase means of scoring points. That is, money lets you buy production buildings, warehouses, harbors and wharfs, as well as large buildings, with which to score points. Generally, if you buy the appropriate building early enough, it will pay MORE POINTS than you spent in dubloons to buy it.

At the beginning of the game, buying a coffee roaster is going to do a tremendous amount of good. You are going to use it to produce a number of coffee throughout the game. Hopefully, you will sell several of those coffee, and ship the others. If you do this, you will probably rake in 4*2.5 dubloons (2-3 trades, say 10 dubloons average), and several shipping points. Using that 10 dubloons to buy a large building later in the game will yield about 10 points. The coffee roaster is 3 points, and you shipped 3 coffee. In total, that coffee roaster gave you 16 points worth of benefit, for a cost of only 6 dubloons. The early you bought the roaster, the better it will have performed.

The key in buying building is to determine the point at which the benefit is no longer worth the cost. In the early game, that coffee roaster may well produce 16 points of benefit. In the midgame, you might only have 1-2 chances to trade the coffee, and only ship 1-2 goods. Maybe it provides 10 points of benefit. In the late midgame, maybe you'll trade once and ship once, and get only 6 (and converting that money from the trade into a large building, and occupying that large building by the end was a hastle as well! And at the end, it will probably be completely worthless.

Money is thus the best at the beginning of the game, where it gives you the greatest return. 5 dubloons invested into a tobacco plant near the start may well pay off 15 points worth by the end of the game. Money is weakest at the end of the game, and completely worthless once the game ends, except for tiebreaker. 5 dubloons on the final turn will likely get you just 2-3 points off a building. 10 dubloons near the end could get you 10 or so points from a large building, but you'll probably have to put effort into making this conversion happen. In the middle of the game, money and points are fairly balanced, and you'll probably be able to get a 1 for 1 conversion of money to points without effort. For example, you build a harbor and use it for a half dozen bonuses throughout the rest of the game. Or you spend 10 dubloons on a large building, whenever building happens, and fill it when the mayor happens. 10 coins -> 10 points with no effort. Later on, this same conversion will likely take up 1-2 of your lategame role choices.

So we can define the phases of the game like this:

Opening: Dubloons > Points. Midgame: Dubloons = Points. Endgame: Dubloons < Points.

I said that income was the dominant strategy of puerto rico. Well, thats not entirely true. Its the dominant strategy for the first half of the game. It dominant until the point where points start to become better than dubloons.

So let me rephrase the best strategy like this:

"The dominant strategy of Puerto Rico is to focus on income in the opening and early-midgame, to focus on converting money into a means of scoring points in the midgame, and to focus on maximizing the use of your point scoring method(s) in the endgame". Thus, in each phase you focus on either money or points, whichever is better in that phase. In the opening, you go for money, since its better than points. In the midgame, you focus on means of converting money to points. And in the endgame, you focus on points.

Generally Puerto Rico lasts about 15 turns or so. Sometimes a bit less (if someone fills there building space up fast, to deny the shippers their late game point scoring bonanza). That means that up until about turn 5-6 or so (keep track!), income should be basically your sole concern. (Of course, giving up 3 points to get one more dubloon probably isnt great, but giving up 3 for 3 certainly is). turns 6-8 should be the finale of your income searching, and the last time you would consider buying that factory or large market. (And possibly the last time you consider buying that coffee roaster as well, if you dont have quarries). Turn 6-10 or so should see you converting money to point scoring buildings like harbor and warehouse. If you have several corn, and forsee trouble getting a corn boat, wharf is a good choice, but often, warehouse will do almost as well for much less. The endgame should see you playing tactically to maximize the effect of your point scoring methods and minimize those of your opponent. Money should only be important to you in blocks of 10, to build large buildings. (If you have a couple quarries, smaller amounts could matter, so you can keep building smaller buildings for 2 points each)

You should practice forseeing the end of the game, and preparing for it. When you think that two mayor phases will likely deplete the rest of the colonists, two build phases end the game through 12 buildings, or 2 captain phases end the game that way, then you know you are in the very late game. (Note: 40% of the shipping VPs left often means only 2 captain phases remaining, if people have a decent amount of shipping ability). They can go really fast at the end! Forseeing the game end will help you avoid making endgame mistakes (which are VERY common in beginner games, and are made moderately often by all but the most experienced players)

For the following, "Builder" refers to a player whose position is such that building is their means of gaining points over their opponents, and "shipper" is a player for whom shipping is theri means of gaining points over their opponent.

All of the following are big mistakes in the late-endgame:

1) Choosing settler at any time UNLESS: 1a) taking it gets you to 10 dubloons AND you forsee that there is time to buy and occupy a large building. 1b) you have hacienda and residence and 10 or less plantaions, and there was nothing better 1c) (maybe) there was nothing else great and an opponent needed the dubloons on it to reach 10, and you want to deny them a large building

2) Taking the mayor when an opponent has an unoccupied large building and you dont, unless it ends the game and you desperately need to end the game now (before opponents buy more large buildings or the next shipping round happens)

3) Taking the mayor when the colonists are running low and you are a shipper, unless it gives you a BIG benefit compared to others. (i.e. it occupies a wharf and you have 5 corn that would get dumped)

4) Taking the builder role when you are a shipper, unless it is giving you a large building, and not giving a large building to your competitiors.

5) Taking the craftsman when you are not a shipper.

6) Taking the trader unless it puts you over 10 dubloons and there wasnt another way to get over 10. Even then, this can be a mistake if it also puts others over 10 and they get to build large buildings first and take the ones you want.

7) Taking captain as a builder in a turn where the captain would not otherwise have gotten taken. (i.e. you are last to go), UNLESS doing so allows you to score points and deny points to the shippers.

8) Taking captain as a builder such that doing so causes both captain and craftsman to occur this turn, when otherwise only captain would have been taken. For example: you are 2nd last in the turn, and captain and craftsman are left. A shipper is after you, and you are a builder. Taking captain lets you deny points to others. You take it. Now the shipper chooses craftsman, and next turn captain happens again, and you get crushed. Had you not taken captain, then the player after you would have had to, and then next turn people dont have goods yet. This one is quite tricky. It depends on exactly when the game will end, the boats, the players....so many factors.

Back to strategy...

The choice of which building to buy is often the most important strategic decisions you will make during the game. Different buildings become inefficient to buy at different times.

In general, income producers are best early, and are very poor at the end of the game. Buying a coffee roaster on turn 4 of the game will generally prove extremely useful, and provide money and points all game. Buying it on turn 9 (a bit past the midpoint), and it will be a struggle to gain more than what you put into it. Similarly, a factory or large market should be bough fairly early if you are going to benefit from it. If all you do from the factory is make back the money you put into it, it was a bad choice. That money is worth less later on, and so you arent getting much out of it. Perhaps a harbor wouldve been a better choice, as it wouldve paid back in points. Or perhaps a large building, or just a small warehouse.

Points producers like warehouse, harbor and wharf are best bought in the midgame. This is because you still have enough time to get a good number of points from them, but there wasnt something better. (Earlier, the income building was better, since its money was more important, but now it isnt, so the point producer is the right buy).

Later in the game, large buildings are the best choice, as they give all their points up front. The harbor needs time to pay off, and there isnt enough time left to make it worth more than the large building. Occasionally, a certain large building will be worth getting in the late midgame....usually Guild Hall. In a position where the Guild Hall can potentially score you many points, getting it before an opponent does can be huge. This generally occurs when you have 2-3 quarries and are producing one of 3-4 different goods, and using building to score your points. (Harbor is good here too, but which one to buy depends on how late it is, and how the shipping is going. And of cours,e in the best world you would end up getting both, since you followed the dominant strategy well and secured a solid income in the opening).

One of the most common strategic mistakes is when players buy buildings at a time where it is too late to get enough use out of them. Often you will see a player buy a harbor or wharf on turn 11 or 12 (or later!), with only a couple of shipping phases left, when they had enough to buy a useful large building. Seeing an opponent in a strong position make this blunder always makes me cheer. Buying production buildings too late is a mistake as well. Consider a case of a player with corn, indigo, tobacco and coffee plantaitons, and an indigo and tobacco plant. The boats are decent for them, and they will likely be able to ship two of their three types of goods each captain phase. This player has 8 dubloons during a building phase on turn 8-9. They buy a coffee roaster. This is a mistake! The coffee roaster will likely produce 3 or so coffee during the rest of the game. Lets say they manage to trade one and ship 2, for a benefit of 6+ 3 from the roaster is 9, but with the hassle of trying to trade that coffee, find a boat for the coffee, and convert the money from the trade into a large building to make use of it. What if instead they had bought a harbor? In the three to four remaining captain phases (probably), scoring 2 extra points each time, they get 6-8vp + 3vps for the harbor is 9-11 vps. Thats as much or more as the roaster, and with less hassle! (By hassle I mean possible used role choices to trade the coffee and build and fill the building).

Had it been turn 6-7 however, that coffee roaster probably wouldve been the right choice, especially if it looked like the coffee was likely tradable, and the tobacco might have trouble people traded.

Along with building buildings based on what phase of the game we are in, its important to correctly value dubloons on the different roles. In the start of the game, these paying roles are HIGHLY important, as the money is at that point worth a LOT, and the tactical benefit of choosing a different role is probably smaller. (except in the case of denying someone a big early trade for lots of money). Also, in the earlygame, you can count on the money on certain roles making them attractive to others as well, so you can fairly accurately guess what people will choose,

In the midgame, the money becomes less important, and there more balance between it and the tactical decisions. And finally in the endgame, the money becomes almost worthless, and role choices should be made based on their benefit to scoring you points, and tactical considerations.

So what happens when one ignores the strategy of focusing on income early, point scoring capacity in the midgame, and then using that capacity to score points in the endgame? They get into a position where they have trouble finding roles which benefit them more than others, and they get stuck always having their choices aid someone else. They cant get ahead, and they find that their best course of action is to end the game as soon as possible, since they lose more and more the longer it continues. Often, these players will have gained a lead early on, through a focus on shipping corn, for example, while ignoring income. Perhaps they wasted time getting some immediate gain of a couple more points, or denying a couple points to an opponent, when doing so caused them to miss out on several dubloons, and prevented them from establishing an income source early. In the midgame, they find their advantage is wearing out, and in the endgame they are gasping for air as everything they do helps someone else more than themself.

If it is possible to get a lead in victory points while at the SAME TIME securing an income source, then this should of course be taken, since it will set you up with a lead and the ability to maintain it. However, you should never sacrifice setting up an income in order to score a few points short term, as it will kill you in the end.

Some examples of early game strategic mistakes:

Buying a large indigo plant or large sugar plant in the first few turns, without 2 quarries. Here, you are spending two extra dubloons on something which will not improve your income at all, but only increases your capacity to score points by a bit. Buying a small indigo or sugar plant would have provided the same possibility of trade income. Early on, that extra capacity will be of small use to you, as its hard to get the plantaions and people to use it. Spending the two extra dubloons damages your ability to set up a good income source early on. If you are getting multiple plantations of one of those types, and want to produce the goods, the best course of action is to buy the small plant early, then set up an income source (coffee/tobacco), then buy the large indigo or sugar mill in the midgame, when you are actually getting enough colonists to produce all those goods. You will then be able to use this as a source of points.

This follows the rule: Income first and foremost, then use that money to secure a point source, then use that point source as much as possible to win the game.

Remember that income will be used later on to buy large buildings, for big points. This means that when you are setting up income early on, you are in effect getting money AND A POINT SOURCE. You spend the income you get from it in the early midgame to buy MORE POINT SOURCES (such as shipping buildings), and then you use the money you get from it in the mid-late game to buy large buildings.

Thus, it looks like this:

Opening: use money to secure income (ex: coffee, tobacco, large market, factory) (source of money + points) Midgame: use money to secure source of points (you now have two sources of points, your income and your point producer like harbor warehouse or wharf) Endgame: use money to buy points straight up (large buildings), use point scoring buildings like harbor to score points.

As you can see, buildings like tobacco storage and coffee roaster, bought early on, are amazingly strong because they help you in THREE ways. They give you income from trading. This gives you point producers in the midgame, which gives more points later on. It gives money for large buildings in the endgame, for more points, and third, it produces shippable goods, and thus is helping you to score points in three different ways!

Look at this example. On turn 3-4, you buy coffee roaster, and get it occupied. It produces 6 or so coffee throughout the game. On turn 5, you get to trade the first coffee your produce for 4 dubloons. On turn 7, you trade another coffee, and this pays for a harbor. This harbor gives you two points per captain phase for the remaining four captain phases of the game. (benfit 8+3 is 11 points for the harbor). Of the remaining 4 coffee produced, you ship 3 and trade 1. The trade helps pay for half of a large building that ends of scoring you 10 points (we'll call that 5 for that coffee). The shipped coffee are each worth a point.

In total, that coffee roaster was worth 3 points for itself, plus 11 for the harbor is bought, plus 5 for half the large building, plus 3 shipped coffee is 22. And all for a cost of just 6 early dubloons.

Do you wonder why you got beaten by 15 points by that player who bought a coffee roaster and held a coffee monopoly for the majority of the game? THIS IS WHY! You went and blew your early money on a hospice, got a few extra colonists which let you produce a few extra goods, and save a couple bucks by getting your quarries occupied immediately. You gained 2 for the hospice + 2 bucks + 2-4 goods you wouldnt have produced is 7 or so, and he got 22 of the coffee roaster. You sat there trading your indigo and struggling to trade your sugar for 1-2 per time, when he was raking in the cash and buying buildings that scored even more points with the proceeds.

You played fine the rest of the game, and so did he, and the fact that his early coffee roaster was WAY better than your early hospice meant that you were 10-15 points behind, just due to one strategic decision in the opening...

THATS how important early income is, and why focusing on income early, point scoring capacities in the midgame, and points in the endgame is the dominant strategy in Puerto Rico. Whether or not you end up shipping or building will be dictated by how things go, by tactical decisions, by timing issues, by your seat, and how the plantations fall. But as long as you followed the plan and secured your source of income, then you will be in a position to win the game when it comes to the end. The details will differ, and knowing how to make the most of each position, and where to take the game from here, will come from experience. But knowing the underlying plan and strategy underneath everything you do in the game will always help your steer yourself into a position of strength, from which you will be able to find role choices that help you more than your opponents. And that is the key to winning at Puerto Rico.