Would anyone like a game of Puerto Rico at http://puertorico.atomisys.com ?

It works very much like Spiel By Web. 3-5 players needed (including me).

Might as well

I've joined, but can't see any rules anywhere

Is it a game for anarchists?

Ermm, not much info it has to be said.
I'm registered anyway

Signing up now, I played Puerto Rico a few times but several years ago, it's a trading and building game as I recall, in which you choose a 'role' each turn. Seemed pretty interesting, it's got a huge rating on BoardGamegeek so this should be good.

In now, but can't see any games. Have you created a game, Whatever?

I haven't set up a game yet because I have to specify an exact number of players, so I am waiting to find out if we have a 3, 4 or 5 player game.

A PDF of the rules can be downloaded here

http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=4

I've printed out the rules and, from the summary, it looks like something I'd enjoy. Count me in!

I'll try to summarise the rules as the rulebook is quite daunting covering lots of special situations whereas the game is fairly straightforward.

On each of your turns you pick one of the following roles. _Everyone_ performs that role but the person who picked the roles gets a small advantage.

Role: Settler - each player chooses one plantation from those face up. Plantations not taken are placed on the bottom of the pile and a new set of plantations is placed face up.
Advantage: The settler may take a quarry instead of a plantation which makes building cheaper.

Role: Builder - each player may build one building by paying its cost. Each colonised quarry a player has reduces the building cost by one. The maximum number of quarries that can be used to get money off are one in column one, two in column two, three in column three and four in column four. Buildings come in three types. Normal buildings give you various advantages for the rest of the game. (The advantages can be viewed by hovering over the building.) Production buildings allow you to produce goods. The buildings in column four give you bonus points at the end of the game. All buildings are worth a certain amount of victory points.
Advantage: The builder pays one less cost for any building.

Role: Mayor - each player takes colunists from the colonist ship and places them on his/her buildings and or plantations. At this point you can also swap colonists that you already have around as much as you like. (You usually do not have enough colonists to put in all your buildings and plantations.) Each building's special ability is not active until they are colonised, including the bonus points for the buildings in column four. Some production buildings can be manned by multiple colonists. This allows you to produce more goods (see craftsman). At the end of the round one colonist is placed on the colonist ship for each empty colonist space on buildings only (not plantations), minimum one for each player.
Advantage: The mayor recieves an extra colonist.

Role: Craftsman - each player produces goods. You produce one corn for each colonised corn plantation. To produce any other sort of good you need a production building as well as manned plantations. For each colonised plantation if you also have a colonist in that production building type you recieve a good. e.g. if you have 1 colonised corn plantation, 2 colonised indigo plantions, and an indigo plant (production building) with at least 2 colonists in it you will recieve 1 corn and 2 indigo.
Advantage: The craftsman recieves one extra good of a type he can produce.

Role: Trader - each player may sell one good they have produced. That good is placed in the market. The same good cannot be in the market twice. The market has room for four goods and is only cleared at the end of a round if it is full. Each player recives money for goods they sell (coffee=4, tabacco=3, sugar=2, indigo=1, corn=0).
Advantage: The trader gets one extra money for a sale.

Role: Captain - all players must ship all goods that they can. For each good that they ship they gain one victory point. Each player in turn chooses one kind of good that they have places all of that good into one of the ships. There are three ships each with different capacities. Each ship can only hold one kind of good, so the first player to place goods in a ship effectively chooses what kind of ship it is. You can never have two ships with the same kind of goods on them e.g. two corn ships. The players keep going around until no player has any goods left that it is possible to ship. Players with any goods left may one choose one of those goods to keep. Any ships that are full are emptied.
Advantage: The captain gains one extra victory point with his/her first shipment.

Role: Prospector - special role in a three or four player game only. The prospector gets one money and no other player gets anything.

After each player has chosen a role and all players have performed those roles then 1 money will be placed on each of the three roles that have not been taken. A player taking a role with money on it in subsequent turns keeps this money. In the next round the player 2 chooses a role first and this privilidge (known as being the governor) passed on each round.

You start the game with one plantation, a small amount of money, no buildings and no colonists.

The games ends at the end of a round when either someone has built 12 buildings (the buildings in column four count as two buildings) the colonist supply has run out or the victory point supply has run out. At that point the player with the most victory points wins.

Guide to symbols on the wesite:
Sheilds=victory points
Man=colonist
Circle=money

I created a four player game - game: Fiso - password: Peach

As some of you are new to the game I'll try to put tactical notes in this thread sometimes. If you have any questions you can post them in here too.

Just waiting for Fancy Dan and then the game will kick off.

OPENING STRATERGY

I believe that players 1 and 2 always start with an indigo and players 3 and 4 start with a corn. That is to eliminate the advantage of going for because the indigo players need to buid a indigo plant or small indigo plant and two colonists (one for the plant and ont for the plantation) before they can produce anything. The corn players just need one colonist to place on their corn plantation.

Common first moves are to take either the settler to gain an early quarry (though this needs a colonist before it gives money off) or a builder to build an indigo plant or small indigo plant to ready production. Be aware that buildings are limited (number in the top right of each building). Because of this some players prefer to buy a small market before a production build because the first time you trade something (once it is manned) you get your money back. The hacienda, construction hut and hospice are also common first builds.

Sorry, busy day, in now, let's do it!

No problem. People who are in a hurry are not going to enjoy play by email games! I love them - I can mull over a turn as long as I need to.

We're off! And I'm the guv'nor, don't you all forget it!!

I've decided to head for the hills & pan for gold, hope that's okay

I've been - bought a market and that was it.

Yes, it takes a little longer to play than some of the games we have been playing because you have a lot to do on other peoples turns. Individual turns are very short. The game recognises some situations when you have to pass (e.g. the market is full so no more trading can take place) but others have not been programmed yet (e.g. there are no buildings available that you can afford).

I am only a few turns into my first game on the site so I am still learning the interface. I noticed that when logged in the prices of buildings are automatically showing any reduction due to colonised quarries. If I choose the builder role all the buildings reduce one in price while I decide which one to buy. I find this confusing so I though I would make you all aware.

No clue what i'm doing
Tried reading the rules, but i think playing will make more sense.
Hopefully building a hacienda will help?

Haciendas are very useful. Once you have a colonist on the building whenever anyone takes the "Settler" role you can click on the "hidden" pile first and get an extra plantation before you chose one of the face up plantations. Long term you can aim to build the residence which (if colonised) gives you bonus points at the end of the game the number of plantations you have.

I figured it had something to with getting a bonus
So, the next aim is to colonise it? Can this only be done by someone selecting that role?

The first time someone picks the mayor role you will get one colonist. You will have to choose if you want to colonise you corn plantation (to produce a corn when someone picks the craftsman role) or colonise your hacienda. (If you pick the mayor you will get two colonists so you can colonise both.)

I may be a bit slow playing this as, for some reason, the page loads fine on my phone except for the select button to make your choice each turn!
Means i can only play when at home

No problem.

Why don't you post to the message board on the site and ask about it.

We've just entered our first shipping round where we all have goods. As everyone always has to ship all the goods they can I can tell you already how it will go.

WHATEVER had to ship all both his corn to the corn ship scoring 2 points + 1 point for being the captain. (Note that the one bonus point is only for the first shipment.)

bspitles must ship both his indigo gaining 2 points. He can choose either the 6 or 7 capacity ship. (He cannot choose the 5 capacity corn ship because each ship can only carry one kind of good.)

domster must ship his indigo to the same ship bspitles chose scoring 1 point. (You cannot have two ships carrying the same kind of good.)

kizkiz can the choose to either ship corn to the corn ship scoring 1 point or indigo to the indigo ship scoring 1 point. As no-one else has any goods to ship he will get another turn straight away, ship the other good, and score another point.

The shipping round will then end and the corn ship will be emptied back to the supply, as it is full.

Shipping rounds become much more interesting later on. There are only three ships but five goods and any players who are unable to ship all their goods are only allowed to keep one good (not one kind of good). The small and large warehouse are a good defence against this but these buildings are expensive for the victory points they give. A wharf give you your own ship in the shipping phase but costs 9 gold to purchase.

Seems the website doesn't like the iPad so my turn will have to wait until I can get on my laptop, sorry folks!

Just chose the wrong role, I wanted the one that gives you colonists - thought that was the Settler, turns out it's the Mayor...

Making a lot of mistakes in this game, I'm sure, starting to get the hang of it though...

The first game of Puerto Rico is difficult because there is no luck and no hidden information but it is dufficult to know how to take advantage of this in the first game. It's an easy game to learn though and lots of stratergies can lead to victory so the 2nd game is usually a lot more fun than the first.

Don't forget that during a mayor phase you can rearrange your existing colonists as well as adding new ones. I quite often empty all my colonists out (click on each building and plantation until they have zero colonist showing) and start again from scratch to try to avoid making any mistakes.

Watch out for the number of colonists on the colonist ship at the end of this round! This will be one colonist for each empty building location - always a minimum of one per player. The next time the mayor is taken each player takes a colonist from the ship in turn and the mayor takes an extra one from the supply.

For example if there are 7 colonists on the ship:

Player A, who took the mayor gets 3, 2 from the ship and 1 from the supply
Player B gets 2 from the ship.
Player C gets 2 from the ship.
Player D gets 1 from the ship.

So player D is at a disadvantage!

Ay yi yi, just when I thought I was getting the hang of it...

Several steps ahead of me then

I just seem to be getting fields and putting people in them
Might have to look at actually gettign some victory points now