Two classics
Sunday, July 17th, 2005Over the last week I played two old classics and had more fun than I anticipated.
Reading Yehuda’s blog reminded me that I have not played enough Puerto Rico recently, particularly with the expansion buildings. The buildings were novel enough, but playing with only four players felt fresh too.
We played with the following recommended buildings :
- Aqueduct
- Hacienda
- Black Market
- Small Warehouse
- Guesthouse
- Office
- Large Market
- Small Wharf
- Factory
- Harbor
- Library
- Union Hall
- All original large buildings
It was good to play without the construction hut. My group has a groupthink obsession with quarries, but I have been unable to win enough games without it for me to prove them wrong…
I might try some of Yehuda’s buildings after we have exhausted the basic possibilities of the first expansion.
I wonder what will be in the forthcoming Puerto Rico Expansion ?
This is not so good with three, as the tension from auctions is removed. On the other hand, fewer players meant I was able to see the pattern of the game with less distractions. I used to think three was OK, but after almost constantly winning my auctions with 200 florin bids, I can see it takes too much away.
I tried going for jesters aggressively and so created a work almost every round. I assumed I would win, but I was surprised in the last move when my friend took out another Prestige card and managed to keep building when my board was full.
My opinion of PoF has gone up. I still think there is too little interaction, but at there are several finely-tuned paths to victory and you have to be very alert.
It’s great to come back to these old games, either with new variants or with different people. The best thing is seeing new subtleties not spotted before.