Review of Puerto Rico Expansion

The Puerto Rico Expansion is a small expansion of new buildings for Puerto Rico.

Players: 3-5
Time: 90-180 minutes
Difficulty: 6 (of 10)

(All the same as the original game)

The Puerto Rico Expansion was originally made available online; it has since been made available in a professionally produced form as well, but only to people who buy Rio Grade Games at specific gaming conventions. This review is of the fully produced form.

The Components

The expansion contains two cardboard sheets of new, diecut tiles as well as a rulesheet.

The Tiles: There are 12 new small buildings (@ 2 tiles each) and 2 new large buildings (@ 1 tile each). In addition there's a new type of island/plantation tile: the forest (@ 12 tiles). There were some faint differences in the printing and contrast on the new tiles, but overall they were very close to the originals, which was sufficient in this case.

The Rulebook: A four-page black and white rulebook. Most of it is filled with a long listing and a summary of all the new buildings, which was very helpful. There were a few different notes on what buildings not to use with other buildings, which should have all been in one place, but other than that the rules were pretty clear.

With all that said, I'll admit that I did have one major problem with the components: the distribution method. Yes, I could have gotten it online and produced it by hand, but that's just not the same thing as getting a high-quality professionally produced expansion. I'm a bit offended that I had to jump through real hoops to get myself a copy of this expansion in published form. Going to a specific gaming convention is going to be out of the reach of most of Rio Grande's customers, and I think it shows a lot of disrespect to those customers to make a core expansion for a game available in such a way (especially when they've shown in the past that they can distribute tiny supplements through the normal distribution chains; and when other companies are showing that they can distribute tiny supplements through their webs sites). But then, I gave up on CCGs long-ago because I thought the same about all their ultra-rare foil-stamped gold-embossed specials, only available at conventions between 7am and 8am on Saturday morning.

Overall, the expansion's pieces are fine, and up to the standards of the original game, but the price was way too high in terms of annoyance and frustration, thus I've given it a "3" out of "5" for Style.

The Game Play

The expansion introduces 14 new violet buildings to the game, almost doubling the number in the original Puerto Rico game.

The Draft: As with the original game, only 17 violet building types are allowed into the game, now out of a new total of 31. Thus a "draft" is held at the start of play.

To do this the players, one at a time, fill the Game Board with buildings, starting with the lowest value ones. Each set of buildings put on the board must match the building cost of the board space. Thus, there is one space for a "1" building. The first player must choose either the Small Market (the original game's "1" building) or the Aqueduct (the expansion's "1" building). Then the next two players must choose "2" buildings from among the Hacienda and the Construction Hut (from the original game) or the Forest House and the Black Market (from the expansion).

Whenever a building is selected both of that building's pieces are put on the board (until we get to the level "10" buildings of which there are only one each).

The draft continues until buildings fill all the spaces on the board, at which point the unused 12 building types are put away.

The Buildings: The buildings offer variations on the standard Puerto Rico gameplay. Here's the short synopsis of what they do:

• Aqueduct (1): Craftsman. Increases production of Sugar or Indigo.
• Forest House (2): Settler/Builder. Lets you choose a forest plantation tile, which need not be staffed; 2 act like a quarry.
• Black Market (2): Builder. Reduces the cost of a building by 1 for sacrificing a VP, a good, or a colonist (up to one of each).
• Storehouse (3): Captain. Stores 3 of any kind of goods.
• Guesthouse (4): All. Houses 1 or 2 guests who may be moved to another tile at any time.
• Church (5): Builder. Grants VP for building larger buildings.
• Trading Post (5): Trader. Your own trading house.
• Small Wharf (6): Captain. Your own ship, which you may send any goods of any types on, but you only earn 1 VP per 2 goods.
• Lighthouse (7): Captain. Awards doubloons for taking captain and shipping.
• Library (8): All. Doubles privileges.
• Specialty Factory (8): Craftsman. Awards doubloons for producing multiples of the same good.
• Union Hall (9): Captain. Awards VP for pairs of goods you have before shipping.
• Cloister (10): Game End. VPs for triplets of like plantations.
• Statue (10): Game End. 8 VPs, no staffing requirement.

Relationships to Other Games

This expansion is, clearly, an expansion for the original game of Puerto Rico. Some of the buildings which first appeared here have also shown up in the card game of San Juan.

The Game Design

Here's how this expansion changes the game:

The Draft: The draft is a fine way to get a different selection of buildings into every game, as each player will probably have different favorites and thus put different things on the board. However, there's no strategy to this at all, as you can't know what buildings will be useful to you before you begin play. (I've seen variants where all the buildings are used, 1 of each, and where buildings are picked as people buy them; these do introduce strategy, but are admittedly pretty clunky.)

The Buildings: The main purpose and use of these buildings is that they introduce variability to the game, and thus increase replayability. I think this expansion does a really good job of meeting this goal, as some buildings will newly emphasize certain roles (e.g., we had both the new Lighthouse and the old Harbor in our game, and this definitely made the Captain role more interesting), while others emphasize new strategies (e.g., a number of tiles emphasize a plantation specialty strategy in this expansion, while the opposite was true in the original) or new tactics (e.g., the Statue and the Guest House both allow for a very late purchase of a 10-point building, while in the original you'd have had to get your building staffed with a Mayor turn). I've heard some grognards complain about the expansion, I think merely because it changes things; conversely, that'll be a plus for 90% of players.

As with the original game, some buildings are all but worthless (here, the Forest House) and some might be a bit powerful (perhaps the Union Hall, though I didn't see that actually come out in play). Some groups might choose to start leaving out certain buildings (from both the original game and the expansion) as a result, but there will still be plenty of variety allowed.

On whole, this supplement isn't as exciting and innovative as the original Puerto Rico game, but it's a very solid expansion for a very solid game and thus earns a "4" out of "5" Substance rating.

Conclusion

If you're willing to jump through the annoying hoops that Rio Grande Games has imposed (or else make a copy for yourself off the net), this is a very good expansion for the Puerto Rico game that will increase the replayability of the core game quite a bit.