Puerto Rico 1897

Puerto Rico 1897 brings the classic gameplay of Puerto Rico to a post‑independence setting, with everything you love: planting, trading, city building, and the race for money and prestige. Each player gets a small board filled with slots for plantations, buildings, and resources, and the goal is simple: out‑earn and out‑prestige everyone else. What changes is the way you pick actions. Instead of each player taking turns in isolation, the game uses Action Drafting: there are role cards on the table (like “Trader” or “Builder”), and whoever selects a card performs that action first, but everyone else can also take the same action, with the chooser getting a discount bonus. Thus, strategy becomes about deciding who picks the right role at the right time and who takes advantage of the discount to get what they need. Turn order progresses clockwise, and the phase order changes each round, keeping things fresh and forcing constant adaptation. The highlight is Hidden Victory Points: the points you earn from buildings, shipping, and large structures stay secret until the end, so you never know exactly who’s ahead. This creates tension and makes every decision critical. There’s also an end‑game bonus that rewards those who planned well their crops and exports over time. The mix of Action Drafting, Variable Phase Order, and opportunities to raise the value of unchosen resources makes Puerto Rico 1897 a deep yet approachable planning game. It’s perfect for fans of economic, farming, and resource‑competition games, and works well for 2‑5 players in about 70‑120 minutes. If you love the original Puerto Rico or strategy games that require tactical decisions each round, you’ll fall in love with this revised edition.