There are a large number of articles on Puerto Rico strategy in the general discussion forum, but not all of them are useful. A gaming group new to Puerto Rico will pass through many phases of play as they discover new "killer strategies" and revisit old ones that trump each other in a rock/paper/scissors fashion.
In reality, there are no specific gameplans that will dominate, but there are many overall principles that must be adhered to in competitive play. Winning Puerto Rico comes primarily from predicting the opponents' moves, anticipating and adapting to the flow of the game, and steering the game to let you be the one taking the decisive roles.
Whose advice should you take? Players experienced with many hundreds of games against hundreds of different opponents are a good start, especially if they have a solid history of winning. For Puerto Rico, these players are found on Brettspielwelt, and a few of them post here.
Alexfrog: one of the best players on BSW, arguably the best. He plays a tight, mistake-free game and ruthlessly maximizes the efficiency of every move. He's written several articles geared toward getting beginner players started in the right direction, so we'll start with one of his first.
Puerto Rico Strategy Principles (Condensed)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthrea...
Alex discusses the key principles crucial to achieving victoy in Puerto Rico and offers a brief explanation of why they are important. Read this and heed this.
The 'best' Puerto Rico strategy + startegy & tactics
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthrea...
Alex offers some more detail on the basic principles and offers some game examples. As Alex plays the 3-player game almost exclusively, his tactics writing heavily focuses on that. Skim this now for a brief lesson in implementing key principles, and return to it later for actual study.
icetrey (jimc): Jim is one of the most experienced players on BSW, and has written the bible on converting key principles into actual play. His style is solid and consistent, and he is impossible to trap with gambits or unorthodox tactics. He has seen every "magic bullet" strategy and his writing accounts for them and why they fail.
The Large Warehouse of Puerto Rico Knowledge
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthrea...
Jim walks the reader through every role and the when, why, and how of using them in accordance with key principles. His writing is clear, comprehensive and avoids the myopia of discussing tactics for a specific number of players.
Large Warehouse of PR Knowledge, part 2
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthrea...
The continuation of the previous article.
After studying Jim's bible, it's back to Alex with some detailed analysis of the crucial early game. Competitive Puerto Rico has an "opening book" that essentially dictates the moves each player should make in the first two rounds. Diverting from this path in a serious game should not be attempted without very good reasons.
Puerto Rico Opening Theory part 1: General Principles
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthrea...
Alex revisits the key principles and discusses why the early game plays much differently from the later stages.
Puerto Rico Opening Theory part 2: Openings
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthrea...
Alex discusses specific, common situations in the early game and shows why some moves are clearly stronger than others. Additionally, he highlights common mistakes made by beginners.
David Grabiner wrote another article that hammers on the key principles in addition to pointing out some mid-game and late-game plays that are crucial to avoiding a few endgame pitfalls
The Ten Commandments of Puerto Rico
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthrea...
At this point, the reader is well equipped to play a competent game of Puerto Rico, but will need to get a healthy base of experience before concerning themselves with more complex tactics. Puerto Rico is full of traps, tricks, and gambits that are part of any advanced player's arsenal, both implementing and defending against. These unorthodox moves are only relevant to highly specific situations, but due to their number, most games will offer at least one player the opportunity for a game-breaking move that does not adhere to the key principles. The 4-player, and especially the 5-player games are fraught with these.
From the Large Warehouse of Knowledge to Victory
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthrea...
Listing all of these oddball moves is not practical, but discussions of them are scattered around the articles in the general forum. Here, I have written an introduction to concept.
Last edited on 2005-05-05 19:20:58 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Posted Thu May 5, 2005 9:10 pm
