# Puerto Rico 1897 ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2022 - **BGG Rating**: 7.7 - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 2-5 (Best with: 4) - **Duration**: 70-120 min - **Weight**: 3.00 / 5 - **Designers**: Andreas Seyfarth - **Artists**: Gabriel Ramos, John Morrow - **Publishers**: alea, Ravensburger AG, Korea Boardgames, Lelekan - **Categories**: Economic, Farming - **Mechanics**: Action Drafting, End Game Bonuses, Follow, Hidden Victory Points, Increase Value of Unchosen Resources, Turn Order: Progressive, Variable Phase Order ## Verdict If you love economics, farming, and solid strategy, Puerto Rico 1897 will quickly become a favorite.Deep strategy in 70‑120 minFun action‑drafting rulesHidden points add tensionMedium complexityRequires focus on turn flowHIGHLY RECOMMENDED ## Description 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. ## How to Play Object of the Game The object of Puerto Rico 1897 is to earn the most Victory Points by strategically governing the idyllic island of Puerto Rico. Players take turns acting as a Planter, Builder, Recruiter, Craftsman, Trader, Captain, or Adventurer. While each of the other players also has the chance to perform the role's action, only the player who chooses the specific role on their turn benefits from the advantage associated with it. You'll be competing with rival farmers for the best workers to produce goods from Puerto Rico's valuable resources, selling them for profit, and building urban infrastructure to grow your reputation. The player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game wins. Preparation (Setup) Here's how to set up the game for 3 to 5 players: Place the central game board in the middle of the table. Stack all 49 Building tiles on their respective spaces on the board. Put all 51 coins on the board to form the Bank. Choose a starting player and give that player the Governor card. Give each player: 1 Island board. Coins equal to one fewer than the number of players (2 for 3 players, 3 for 4 players, 4 for 5 players). These coins must be placed on the Portrait of their Island board and visible to all players. 1 Estate tile as specified below, starting with the player with the Governor card and proceeding clockwise: 3-player game: 1st and 2nd players each take a Fruit tile; 3rd player takes a Corn tile. 4-player game: 1st and 2nd players each take a Fruit tile; 3rd and 4th players each take a Corn tile. 5-player game: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd players each take a Fruit tile; 4th and 5th players each take a Corn tile. The Estate tile is placed face-up on any of the 12 Countryside spaces in the top section of their Island board. Place the remaining pieces as follows (note that the picture in the manual represents a 4-player game; return all unused pieces to the box): Victory Point (VP) chips separated by denomination (1 VP and 5 VP chips): 3-player game: 75 VP. 4-player game: 100 VP. 5-player game: 126 VP. Cargo Ships: 3-player game: the Ships with 4, 5, and 6 cargo holds. 4-player game: the Ships with 5, 6, and 7 cargo holds. 5-player game: the Ships with 6, 7, and 8 cargo holds. Workers: 3-player game: 55 workers. 4-player game: 75 workers. 5-player game: 95 workers. Work Register: place 3, 4, or 5 workers (equal to the number of players) on the Work Register. Trading House. All 50 Barrels of Goods separated by color. Role cards: 3-player game: 6 cards (all except the 2 Adventurers). 4-player game: 7 cards (all except 1 Adventurer). 5-player game: all 8 cards. All 8 Quarry tiles face-up in a stack. All remaining Estate tiles face-down in shuffled stacks. 4, 5, or 6 Estate tiles (one more than the number of players) drawn from the face-down stacks and flipped face-up next to the Quarry tiles. Two-Person Game Setup Changes All rules remain the same, with the following exceptions: Place 1 of each Commercial Building and 2 of each Production Building on the corresponding spaces on the board. Each player receives 1 Island board, 3 coins, and 1 Estate tile (starting player: Fruit tile with the Governor card; second player: Corn tile). Use 65 VP for the game. Remove 3 Corn, Fruit, Sugar, Tobacco, Coffee, and Quarry tiles from the game. After shuffling and stacking the remaining Estate tiles face-down, flip 3 Estate tiles face-up (one more than the number of players). Use 7 role cards (all except 1 Adventurer). Use only the Ships with 4 and 6 cargo holds. Remove 2 barrels of each type of Good from the game. Place 2 workers (equal to the number of players) on the Work Register and 40 workers in the supply. Expansion I: New Buildings Setup Changes All rules remain the same, with the following exceptions: Place all Production Buildings on the board per the basic game rules. Place the 55 Commercial Buildings (the original 5 Large Commercial Buildings and 2x12 Small Commercial Buildings, as well as the new 2 Large Commercial Buildings and 2x12 Small Commercial Buildings) next to the board. The starting player chooses any 1 of the Commercial Buildings and places it on an empty space of the board. If there are more than 2 players, place 2 of the same Small Commercial Buildings on the same space. The next player chooses a Building and places it on the board, etc., until the spaces are filled with Commercial Buildings that have the following costs: Top Section: 1, 2, 2, 3 Second Section: 4, 5, 5, 6 Third Section: 7, 8, 8, 9 Bottom Section: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 Return the remaining 26 Buildings to the box. Expansion II: Citizens Setup Changes All rules remain the same, with the following exceptions: If playing with only the basic Buildings, place the 8 new Buildings on their spaces on the board. If playing with the basic and Expansion I Buildings, follow the Expansion I setup and choose 1 extra Building of each cost (2-8) until all the Building spaces on the board are filled. Place all 100 workers in the workers supply and place the 20 new citizens next to it. At the beginning of the game and at the end of each Recruitment Phase, put workers on the Work Register according to the basic game rules, but replace 1 worker with 1 citizen as long as there are citizens in the supply. Expansion III: The Smuggler Setup Changes Determine the number and type of role cards needed according to the basic rules for the number of players. Then, add the Smuggler card. Fluxo do Jogo Puerto Rico is played over approximately 15 rounds (years). At the beginning of each round, the player with the Governor card chooses a role card and places it next to their Island board. The Governor performs the action on the card using the role's special advantage. Then, the player to their left performs the same action, but without the special advantage. Play continues in clockwise order, until each player has performed the action associated with that role. Next, the player to the left of the Governor chooses one of the remaining role cards, places it next to their Island board, and performs the role's action using its special advantage. Going clockwise, the other players perform that action without the advantage. Play continues in this way with a player choosing a role card and all players taking the role's action. The round ends after each player has chosen a role card and all players have performed the actions associated with each of the roles chosen. End of Round To begin a new round of play, the Governor places one silver coin from the Bank on each of the role cards not chosen during the round. Each player returns their role card back to the area next to the board. The player to the left of the Governor takes the Governor card and becomes the new Governor for the next round. Play continues as above until one of the endgame conditions is met. Basic Role Rules All players must choose a role card on their turn, but performing its action is optional (except for the Captain). The player choosing the role performs both the action and its advantage before any other player. Other players may perform only the action. If a player cannot or does not want to perform the action, they are skipped for that role. The role card remains with the player who chose it until the end of the round. It cannot be chosen again in that round. If a role card has 1 or more coins on it, the player who chooses the role card receives the coins. Two-Person Game Gameplay The Governor begins by choosing a role card, and play continues as in the basic game. In the 2-player game, each player chooses 3 roles per round. The first player chooses a role, performs the action and uses the advantage, then the other player performs the action of that role. Then the second player chooses a role, performs the action and uses the advantage, followed by the first player performing the action for that role. Once each player has chosen and played 3 roles, the round ends. The Governor then places 1 coin from the Bank on the remaining role card, and the players return the used role cards next to the board. The Governor hands over the Governor card to the other player, and the next round starts. Ações e Como Jogar Each player must take a role card on their turn. This begins the phase for that role. With the exception of the Adventurer, each role card has an associated action and special advantage. The player who chooses the role card may choose whether to perform the action and the advantage, unless playing the Captain. If they choose to perform the action, they must do so before the other players. All other players, in clockwise order, may choose to perform the action but do not use the advantage. If a player is unable or chooses not to perform the action associated with a role, they are skipped for that role. All other players, in clockwise order, can still perform the action for that role. A role card remains in front of the player who took it until the end of the round and cannot be chosen by another player during the same round. The Planter (Planting Phase → Develop the Countryside) Action: Take 1 of the face-up Estate tiles and place it on one of your Island board's Countryside spaces. Advantage: You may take a Quarry tile instead of an Estate tile. The player who chooses the Planter card may take a Quarry tile or one of the face-up Estate tiles next to the board. The player places their chosen tile on any empty Countryside space on their Island board. In clockwise order, each other player may take one of the remaining face-up Estate tiles and place it on their Island board. The other players may not choose a Quarry tile unless they have an occupied Builders Yard. Estate and Quarry tiles can be placed on any empty Countryside space. Once placed, a tile can be moved, but not removed from a player’s Island board (the arrangement of the tiles is immaterial to gameplay). When all players have completed this action, the Planter refreshes the Estate tiles. They discard any remaining face-up Estate tiles. Then they flip Estate tiles from the face-down stacks until there are one more than the number of players face-up next to the board. If the Estate tiles run out during the game, shuffle the discard pile and make new stacks. If the discard pile also runs out, players cannot perform this action. Notes: If all 12 Countryside spaces on a player’s Island board are filled, they may not perform the Planter action. If there are no more Quarry tiles available, the Planter loses their advantage and the Builders Yard cannot be used. The Recruiter (Recruitment Phase → Recruit Workers) Action: In rotation, take 1 worker from the Work Register until all workers are gone. Then place or move all your workers. Advantage: Take 1 additional worker from the supply at the start of the phase. At the end of the Recruitment phase, repopulate the Work Register. The player who chooses the Recruiter card first takes 1 worker from the worker supply (not from the Work Register). Then all players take workers from the Work Register one at a time, starting with the Recruiter and going clockwise, until no workers remain. Players may receive different numbers of workers. The Estate, Quarry, and Building tiles have 1–3 semicircles on their faces. Exactly 1 worker can be placed on each of these semicircles. If 1 or more workers are placed on the tile, it is considered occupied. Only occupied tiles may be considered active. During the Recruitment phase, players place workers (obtained in the current or any prior phase) on any empty semicircle on a Quarry, Estate, or Building tile. They may also move workers placed in previous rounds to different tiles. If, and only if, a player runs out of empty semicircles on their Island board, all remaining workers are placed on their Portrait, to be placed during a future Recruitment phase. When all players have completed this action, the Recruiter repopulates the Work Register. They count the number of empty semicircles on the Building tiles (not Estate or Quarry tiles) on all players’ Island boards. Then they add that number of workers from the supply to the Work Register. The Recruiter must add at least as many workers as there are players in the game, even if they counted fewer empty semicircles. Notes: Workers may only be placed or moved between tiles during the Recruitment phase. Players should add and move their workers in clockwise order starting with the Recruiter unless all players agree to do so simultaneously. If there are no more workers available in the worker supply, the Recruiter loses their advantage. The Builder (Build Phase → Develop Buildings) Action: Buy and place 1 Building. Advantage: Pay 1 coin less than ## FAQ ### How long does a typical game of Puerto Rico 1897 last? Between 70 and 120 minutes, depending on player count and experience. ### For how many players does the game work best? Ideal for 2 to 5 players, but it keeps a good pace even with 6 if everyone is familiar. ### What is the complexity level? Medium to high: involves resource planning, role selection, and turn‑flow awareness. ### What are the main components? Individual boards, paper role cards, resource tokens, doubloon tokens, shipping tokens, and a turn‑order token. ### Is it suitable for beginners in strategy games? Yes, but some practice helps to grasp action‑drafting and end‑game bonus mechanics. ### How does the Hidden Victory Points mechanic work? Points earned from buildings and shipping are kept secret until the end, revealing only the final total. ### Are any expansions included? Yes, the base set already contains four expansions adding new role cards and resources.