Preamble.
I read as much as I can about a game before I buy it. I never buy games on impulse. The reason is that we have a large game collection now, and several games rarely make the table because they have been superseded by better titles. Other games only make the table on rare occasions because we’ve played them so many times, and we like to take a break from them. Puerto Rico fits into this latter category. It is still one of my all time favourite games, and highly popular with everyone we play games with. Initial reports suggested that Cuba was somewhat similar, but with enough differences to create a new experience. Later reports suggested that it was just a mixture of over-used mechanics that didn’t lead to anything particularly exciting or interesting. Eventually I picked a copy up off the shelf in my local games shop. It looked really appealing, but I didn’t buy it. Instead, I went back to the various articles I had read on BGG and tried to work out if the people who liked it were of a similar bent to me, or if my likes mirrored the dissenters. It turned out to be the former, so the next day I went back to my games shop and bought a copy…… and boy am I glad that I did!

Components.
The game comes with a large and beautifully illustrated central playing board, plus 5 double-sided individual player plantation boards. There are character cards for each player, a deck of ship cards, a starting player card, and 24 small statute cards. There are 25 large cardboard buildings tiles, as well as small tiles for the town hall votes and church vito. There are five wooden meeples and five wooden disks in each player colour (blue, red, yellow, green, purple). There are 18 wooden octahedrons in each of white (sugar), orange (citrus) and green (tobacco), as well as 15 each wooden rum bottles and cigar boxes. There are 15 resource cubes in each of natural (wood), red-brown (stone) and blue (water), and there are 6 wooden disk markers for various uses during the game. Finally there are 60 cardboard coins in 1, 3 and 5 peso denominations. There is a small A5 size 16 page rulebook, plus four thick rules summary cards.

Overall, the components are all of excellent quality, and beautifully illustrated. The components (notably the central board, character cards and rum bottles/cigar boxes) really help to give the game a rich theme. More details are given in the gameplay section below. My only quibbles are minor ones:
-the box could do with a proper insert rather than the standard shape of one trough in the middle because the boards just slide about on top.
-the line of just five buildings down the side of the board is confusing and doesn’t really make much sense (see below).
-why not include 5 rules summary cards instead of 4?
The rules are quite well written, although it takes a couple of reads to get the hang of the difference between resources, products and goods.


Gameplay.
Set up takes a few minutes. Firstly the board is placed in the centre of the table. The 25 building tiles are then placed onto the spaces onto and adjacent to the board. This is rather confusing. The buildings are loosely categorised into those that give victory points (10), income sources (5), factories and the black market (5) and those that increase power (5). One of each type is illustrated on the right hand edge of the board and you are supposed to put those buildings on those spaces, and then place different category buildings in rows adjacent to the board. This feels like a weird half-way house. Either all should be on the board (or an adjacent separate board), or none should. We always now put all the buildings next to the board because otherwise we end up forgetting the five that are on the board.

Next the products (citrus fruit, sugar cane, tobacco) and goods (rum and cigars) are sorted into piles. Three each of the products are placed on the relevant market spaces on the board labelled 6, 5 and 4, and two each of the products are placed on the relevant market spaces labelled 6 and 5. Resources (wood, stone and water) are then sorted into piles, as are the black disks. The ship cards are shuffled and placed face down next to the board. The top two cards are placed face up in the first two dock spaces in the harbour area of the board. Another is placed face up next to the edge of the board to represent the next ship to arrive.

Next the 24 statute cards are divided into types (I = Tax Acts; II = Duty Acts; III = Subsidy Acts; and IV = other acts), and each pile is shuffled and placed next to the edge of the statute area of the board.

A starting player is chosen, and he/she takes the starting player card, a playing piece (meeple) and marker (disk) of one colour, plus the corresponding plantation board. The latter has a 3x4 grid of fields consisting of a warehouse (with lot), lake, two mountains, two forests and two plantations of each type (tobacco, citrus fruits, sugar cane). These plantation boards are really interesting because they are identical on one side but have a different arrangement on the other side. This increases choice and replayability (which are already high) and is therefore to be applauded.

Each player takes 10 pesos and two resources and two products of his/her choice (again offering different possibilities from the start). Finally each player takes the set of character cards in his/her colour. The meeple is placed in the warehouse on the player’s board and the wooden disk on the starting space of the victory point track that snakes around the board.

The game turns are played in 5 phases:

1.The Bills Phase: the top card of each of the four statute piles is turned over and placed on top of their respective stacks. These represent bills that may be enacted later in the turn.
2.The Action Phase: beginning with the starting player, each player plays one of his/her character cards and carries out the appropriate action. This continues until each player has played 4 out of their 5 cards. The different character cards are:

a)The Worker: player moves his/her meeple onto any space on his/her plantation board. The worker activates all fields in the same row and column in which it stands. Each field immediately generates one resource (water from lake, stone from mountains, wood from forest) or product (from respective plantations). Only a maximum of two products may be generated unless a player gives up a water piece that he/she already has, in which case a third field can be activated to produce a project. All products and resources are placed into the lot space of the warehouse.
b)The Tradeswoman: the player may use the market in the following ways: buying any number of items from the market (remove from the gameboard and pay the amount of pesos for indicated underneath); items that are not present in the market may be bought from stock at a cost of 7 pesos.; selling any number of items to the market, gaining the amount of pesos of the next space covered up; if the market is full, players may sell products to stock for 1 peso each or goods to stock for 3 pesos each. As an alternative action to using the market for buying and selling, the tradeswoman can be used once per turn to take one resource of any kind or one product with the lowest current market price from stock. If this alternative action is used, the player places one of the wooden black disks on the appropriate space to show that this alternative action is not available until the next turn.
c)The Architect: the player may pay the appropriate resources to take one of the building tiles and build it on top of one of the spaces on his/her board (not the warehouse space). Buildings come in a variety of types. Some turn resources, products or goods into victory points or pesos; others affect shipping; some produce victory points or pesos for nothing; some turn products into goods or vice verso; some affect voting etc. As alternative actions, there are two spaces on the architect space on the board that give players 2 or 1 victory point. Just like for the Tradeswoman, these spaces are covered with black disks as used each round.
d)The Foreman: the foreman allows a player to use the features of the buildings in the same row and column as their meeple. Each building can be used only once, but in any order. The warehouse is a building and if activated it allows players to store all products currently in their lot.
e)The Mayor: allows the player to supply one ship of his/her choice in the harbour with any number of pieces of merchandise in order to score victory points. Each ship requires a cargo of 5 items, shown by the coloured shapes thereupon. Products and goods are simply placed onto these spaces to indicate that they have been delivered, and the player gains 1, 2 or 3 victory points apiece depending on the position of the ship in the harbour. As an alternative, the mayor can be used to gain 4 or 2 pesos, in much the same way that the architect can be used to gain victory points (black disks placed on appropriate spaces on the board).

Once everyone has played 4 character cards, the new starting player is determined: it goes to the person whose last (fourth) card played had the highest voting value (mayor = 5; foreman = 4; architect = 3; tradeswoman = 2; worker = 1)

3.The Parliament Phase: Each player now reveals their last (unplayed) character card, each of which has a different number of votes (see above). Players then secretly place none or more pesos into their fist to buy additional votes (revealed simultaneously). The player with the town hall building gets 2 additional votes if they have activated it with their foreman. The player with the most votes selects two of the bills to be passed and they are then placed into the appropriate spaces on the parliament building, covering any earlier bills. All money bid is lost and ties are resolved by repeating the buying of votes.

4.The Statute Phase: all the current acts (up to 4) are now enacted in order. Each player can choose whether or not to comply with the Tax and Duty Acts by paying the appropriate cost in pesos and items respectively. Doing so earns the player 2 victory points for each act complied with, and a bonus of 1 victory point if both are complied with. The Subsidy Act then awards victory points relevant to whichever act is in force (e.g. 1 victory point for each building owned). The Other Acts affect various aspects of the game (e.g. building act causes all buildings to cost an additional 2 pesos to erect).

5.End of the Round: at the end of the round, players must give up all products still in their lot (not resources or goods). Fully loaded ships then leave the harbour (cargo returning to stock), and remaining ships move down one until each dock is full and another ship is shown as approaching. Note that if there is a ship in the 3rd dock, it leaves the board, even if it is not fully laden. Finally, all black disks are removed from the board.

The game ends after 6 turns have been played. Players receive an additional 2 victory points per building, and the winner is the player with most points (ties broken by most money).


So, What Do I Think?
The simple answer is, I think this game is an absolute winner and I give it 10 out of 10. I’m firmly on the side of the people who say this is a really excellent game that is somewhat reminiscent of Puerto Rico but creates a new and interesting experience in its own right. I disagree with those who say that the game takes used mechanics to produce something that isn’t new or refreshing.

Cuba has a very special feel all of its own. It is only vaguely reminiscent of Puerto Rico. There are lots and lots of potential strategies, and I particularly like the Parliamentary Bills. There are different ways to win, and there are plenty of difficult decisions to be made throughout. The balance between which characters to play and in which order, and which to play last and which to leave for votes, is simply delicious.

Overall then, this is an absolute winner. It plays well with 2-5, but is better with 3+. It takes about 2 hours to complete once set up. Everyone in our group loves it.

The first play is a steep learning curve because it is a real ‘step into the unknown’. It was made worse by my personal fear: I am absolutely useless at seeing patterns, and this is my downfall in many games that require this ability, and I was worried that the plantations board would fox me. Luckily, I find that the patterns in positioning buildings and activating squares on plantations in Cuba just add to the choices and angst in the game, and I am more than able to cope.

All in all then, this game has my highest possible recommendation. If you enjoy games like Puerto Rico, Pillars of the Earth or Stone Age but want something with its own unique feel, then give it a try.