Puerto Rico is a German board game designed by Andreas Seyfarth published in 2002 by Alea in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. Players assume the roles of colonial governors on the island of Puerto Rico during the age of Caribbean ascendancy. The aim of the game is to amass victory points, mainly by shipping goods to the Old World or by constructing buildings.

Puerto Rico can be played by three to five players, although a two player variant also exists. There is an official expansion which adds new buildings which can be swapped in for those in the original game. In February, 2004, Andreas Seyfarth released a separate card-game named San Juan based on Puerto Rico and published by the same companies.

Gameplay
The game consists of several different mechanisms which fit together in a carefully designed way.

The game is played on a separate board for each player, with spaces for city buildings and plantations. The resource cycle of the game is that players grow crops which they exchange for points or money. The money can then be used to buy buildings, which allow players to produce more crops or give them other powers. Buildings and plantations don't work unless they are manned by colonists.

Throughout the game, players take on different roles (Captain, Mayor, etc.). If a role is picked, it will affect all players. But the player who picks it gets special powers. The turn structure consists of three nested loops. The outermost loop is who gets to choose a role first. The middle loop is where each player chooses a role. The innermost loop is where each player acts based on the chosen role.

The game has several different end conditions which are calibrated so that no one strategy is dominant.


Strategy
Strategically, Puerto Rico offers a lot of possibilities. On the boardgaming site BoardGameGeek, it has received more strategy articles than any other game, and many of these articles are the most viewed sitewide.

There are two important dichotomies in the game. Understanding the balances in each is crucial.

The first balance is between making money and points. Making decision about which to go after is strategically very important. Money helps you establish infrastructure which will get you more points later. But points are points now. It is almost always better to focus on earning money early on, and to switch focus later on to earn points. But the point at which focus should change is often not clear.

The second split is between focusing on shipping and focusing on building. Both strategies are generally bad when played to their reductive extremes. The question is which one a player tends toward relative to his opponents.

A player focusing on shipping will simply try to get as many points from shipping goods as possible. The shipper will try to produce a lot of goods, and buy mostly buildings which help with production and shipping. There are many variations which are not incompatible. Shipping players also want to keep the game going a long time, so they can rake in more points.

In contrast, a builder will often try to get a lot of buildings quickly, ideally ending the game before a shipper gets fully set up. A combination of quarries and money making buildings ideally allows a player to build at an accelerated speed.

In reality, all players need money, and will probably lose if they don't ship at all. But understanding the interplay of different strategic leanings is key.


Expansion
In January 2004, Alea released an expansion to Puerto Rico. The addition consists of 14 new buildings that may be used alongside or instead of the original 17.


Awards and Rankings
Deutscher Spiele Preis, 2002 
Essen Feather, 2002 
International Gamers Award (General strategy, Multiplayer Category), 2003 
Nominee for the Spiel des Jahres, 2002 
As of October 2005, ranked number 1 in Internet Top 100 Games List by those on Usenet group rec.games.board 
As of October 2005, ranked number 1 at BoardGameGeek