I played two games of Puerto Rico today at the Brettspielwelt. Both were quite exciting. The first one was four-player game. It was remarkably low-scoring one: winner had only 31 points. Unfortunately that winner wasn’t me. Even though I had whopping 24 colonists and fortress too, I was only able to tie with the winner and lost because I had less goods. That’s a bummer.

Second game was three-player, and the same player, Shlimazl, won again. This time it was more definite. I played indigo shipper, which is a bit risky in the three-player game. I had large indigo factory, harbour and the customs house, but couldn’t get a colonist there. Well, it didn’t matter — even though I had 28 shipping points, I wouldn’t have won the game anyway. But it was quite tense game for me, I was sitting on the edge of my chair in the end.

I’ve played 6 games of Puerto Rico at the Brettspielwelt. In five of those games, I’ve placed second. In the sixth one, I was third out of three. I know how to play, my tactics work, but the edge is missing so I can’t win. It’s annoying… And it shouldn’t be because I don’t practise, I’ve played 19 games of Puerto Rico this year which is more than any other game and definitely the winner of the bigger games (I’m quite sure I’ll play more Zèrtz).

There’s no doubt Puerto Rico is a very good game, the best that’s been published this year (not that I’ve played many of this year’s new games, but anyway that’s my opinion).