The Victory Point

Puerto Rico is a game where you control agricultural production on an island of Puerto Rico. You can specialize in five major crop productions; Corn, Indigo, Sugar, Tobacco, and Coffee. If running a series of crop plantations sounds kind of lame, you will be surprised at just how fun this game is to play.

The game features a worker phase mechanic, where you choose one of the eight phases to be completed by everyone that round. For instance, if there are three players, then there will be three phases completed. Player one chooses Mayor, which brings workers to place in your fields. Player two chooses Craftsman, which gathers product from the plantations. Finally, player three chooses trader, for a chance to sell their products for doubloons. The phases are then completed by each player in that order.

The game really does require the perfect amount of thought. You have to wisely impact the order that worker phases are completed and balance yourself properly as you seek doubloons and victory points. Puerto Rico comes highly recommended by myself and my colleagues.