Rochester Gamers Community

Alhambra (designer Dirk Henn, various publishers including uberplay) is a game about palace-building, although the thrust of the game has more in common with stock-holding games like Acquire. This is hardly a surprise, since Alhambra is a reincarnation of Stimmt So!, a stock-holding game. It has won various awards, including the 2003 Spiel des Jahres, and is appropriate for 3-6 players, although it can be played with 2 players plus a "dummy" (named Dirk).

Power Grid is a highly acclaimed and popular game, second only to Puerto Rico in BoardGameGeek ranking. Despite its dry theme - administering a national power grid - and emphasis on arithmetic, it is an engaging experience that most players enjoy thoroughly regardless of whether they win or lose.

Thurn and Taxis is a game for 2-4 players. In the spirit of games like Ticket to Ride, is a game about collecting routes between cities and earning victory points. Routes of a certain length earn these victory points, and bonus points are earned by completely filling Provinces with your post offices.

Components

Puerto Rico, designed by Andreas Seyfarth and published in 2002, is a game about managing plantations in Puerto Rico, for 3-5 players. Its enduring popularity is evidenced by its long-standing status as the most highly ranked game on BoardGameGeek.

Upon hearing the words, “Puerto Rico,” among a bunch of gamers, the first thing I thought of was, “what a great vacation that’d be.” That was, until I learned about this game. Now, I sometimes still think of the sand and sun, particularly in the cold Minnesota winter, but more often think of the top rated game on www.boardgamegeek.com.

I had played this game a couple of times before buying my own copy, and then that copy sat in the box for quite a while. It is now out and punched and seeing frenzied play as it should.

Game Play - Puerto Rico has a very unique gameplay that really sets itself apart from other games.