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Max Jamelli
United States
Chambersburg
Pennsylvania
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Numero 16 - Havana
It may be strange to think, but games can have families. There are economic families, war game families, and sometimes games are so similar it's like they're brother games. I'm not sure when I first played San Juan, but I had many plays of Puerto Rico under my belt by the time I did. It was one of those game that felt comfortable because I knew it's older brother game, Puerto Rico.
Fast forward to Christmas of ... 2007 perhaps. My mother in law had asked to see my games wishlist. I made sure I had it updated before she saw it. One of the games on my list was Cuba (a game I'll get to later). When I heard that Cuba was getting a little brother game called Havana. I immediately put Havana on my wishlist thinking, how funny would it be to have my mother in law choose this game for me as well? Turns out, I did get this game for Christmas - but not from my mother in law. It came from My Secret Santa from 2009.
When I first opened it, I was surprised at how much stuff came in the box. I mean, this is Cuba's little brother. I was expecting a pack of cards and a couple cardboard roles. Nope. There are cubes, and cardboard buildings, cardboard money, cards, and builder-type guys. All of it with the same look and feel of Cuba. I was very happy. I was also pretty pumped with the rulebook. Cuba's rules were pretty easy for me to grasp and Havana's rules were also very easy. Matter of fact, I taught myself before I taught Jen. This is very rare.
As it turns out, I haven't been able to play Havana as much as I'd like. As of this writing, I have 7 plays. 7 is a decent number, but for as long as I've had it and as much as Jen and I enjoy it (it ranks 10th on our combined geeklist) we just don't get it out very often. I'm sure the one reason she really enjoys it is that she's 4-0 all time against me. I can't figure out how to beat her. I'm 3-0 vs. my dad, so I can win the game. Just not against Jen.
I want to talk a little about the card mechanic, because I really think that's a very cool part of the game. You pick two roles out of your hand and they each have a number assigned. The "stronger" the role, the higher the number. You look at each number and create the lowest possible 2-digit number with them. For example, using these cards:
If you chose protection and conservation, your number would be 23. the lowest number gets to go first in that round, which is very important especially if multiple players pick the same roles. In a multi-player game this is probably very important. I've only played 2-P games, but it's still been a big deal. If you see a lot of trash and you select the debris role, but also select Mama, your number is 29. If someone else picks debris and anything besides Mama, you're missing out on some debris.
Even harder to wrap your brain around is the next phase - when you choose only one card and you have to "cover up" one of the roles you started with (creating a new initiative number). This is the part of the game that really gets me thinking - and in a multi-player game probably becomes very hard to keep track of. I just think it's a cool mechanic and it's a big reason as to why Havana is in the top 20.
Final Thoughts
For a little brother game, Havana stands on it's own well enough. The components are great and the card design is in the same vein as it's big brother Cuba.
Rated 8.8 / 10
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