Puerto Rico: The Game

Lots of people like to play board (or card) games. I am one of those people. Now I should qualify that. Games of the board and card variety come in three types: speed, strategy, and luck. Admittedly, many games use at least some amount of all of those, but you can generally say a game is mainly one or another of those three. TW likes speed games, since she tends to kill me. (Never play SET with TW). I like strategy games, because I like to out-think/out-maneuver an opponent. If you are at all like me, then I have a game for you: Puerto Rico.

I will warn you. Puerto Rico has a lot of rules and takes a little while to learn, but once you get it, you will find that it is one of the most balanced, interesting, strategically dense, and fun games you will ever play. The basic idea is that the players are all plantation owners who are trying to settle Puerto Rico. (It's a little like Settlers of Catan, and I believe it's by the same company so that makes sense). You take turns building, producing goods, shipping them to England, selling them, or getting more settlers (a side note, the "settlers" are little brown chips that come to Puerto Rico on a special ship. Essentially they're slaves, but we're being politically correct, which is probably a good thing in this case, so they're settlers). It's really a fantastic game, so if you're looking for a new game to keep you interested, check it out.