Cuba

[Titus]

Cuba is designed my Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler, the same duo who brought us Pillars of the Earth. It won the Deutscher Spielepreis 3rd Place (the German award for gamer’s games) for 2008, which is impressive (Agricola and Stone Age placed 1st and 2nd, respectively).

I’m a sucker for heavy economic games and after picking up Container, I was looking for a new one to possibly add to my pantheon of favorites in this genre, which also includes Puerto Rico, Age of Steam, and Traders of Genoa. After much research and considering titles such as Imperial, Brass, and Scepter of Zavandor, I decided on Cuba and wanted to order it. Thankfully, some kind souls here on TW surprised me on my recent birthday by giving me a copy as a gift.

Overview of gameplay

Cuba is a strategy game for 2-5 players which has you playing a plantation owner/village leader in 1950’s, pre-Communist Cuba.

Each player has a plantation board with 11 fields and 1 warehouse. Each field can produce either 1 resource or 1 product each. The resources are wood, stone, and water (they come in cubes) and they are usually used to erect buildings. The products are citrus fruit, tobacco, and sugar (they come in barrels) and they have varied uses.

The central board depicts the capital city of Havana. One section is the market where products and goods are bought and sold. There are two kinds of goods: rum and cigars. Another section is the harbor where ships dock. These ships demand specific products and goods and if you load them you earn 1, 2, or 3 victory points each.

The third important section of Havana is the capitol where parliament convenes and enacts laws. There are four types of laws that can be in play that affects the game: taxes (pay this and you earn 2 VPs), duties (pay this and you earn 2 VPs; pay both and earn 5 VPs total), subsidies (additional way to earn VPs), and miscellaneous acts (which affect how the game works). At the start of each turn, a set of four proposed laws are revealed which may later become enacted.

To one side of the board are the building tiles. Buildings have varied abilities, such as converting sugar to rum or tobacco to cigars, converting resources, products, or goods to VPs, producing money (pesos), or producing VPs. There is only one of each building (except for the goods producing ones). When you erect a building, it replaces a resource or product field on your plantation board.

Each player also has a set of five character cards. Players take turns playing a character card and resolving it until everyone has played four each. The character cards and their respective actions are:

Worker – Lets you harvest resources and products from your fields.

Tradeswoman – Lets you buy and sell products and good in the market.

Architect – Lets you erect one building on your board.

Foreman – Lets you use the abilities of buildings.

Mayor – Lets you load products and goods onto ships in the harbor and earn VPs.

After character cards are played, the cards not played become the players’ representatives in parliament. Each card is worth 1 to 5 votes. Players may then buy more votes using money in a blind bid. Whoever gets the most total votes decides which of the two proposed laws come into effect. Laws are then resolved, the round ends, and a new round begins.

The game lasts for six rounds and whoever has the most victory points (VPs) at the end wins.

My take

Some on BGG have said that Cuba is derivative, calling it a cross between Puerto Rico, Caylus, and Pillars of the Earth. I haven’t played the latter two games but I can compare it to PR. Cuba is more complex and has more strategic paths to victory. Cuba also seems to have more player interaction due to the laws and parliament phase. However, PR seems more streamlined and has a more interesting role selection mechanic.

To be honest, I wanted Cuba to see if it could replace Puerto Rico as my game of choice in this genre. I haven’t reached that decision yet as I have to play it more but Cuba definitely has the potential to do so.

I love the multiple paths to victory. It gives you a great degree of long-term strategic planning and adds to the replay value as you’ll want to try different strategies in each game.

But there are still short-term tactical considerations, such as timing your shipping or erecting buildings right. The limited supply of buildings and limited space in each ship, as well as actions available only once per round, means there is a definite ‘get it now before anyone else does’ aspect to it.

The game seems a bit unforgiving though. Early mistakes can ruin your efficiency. Unlike many euro games of this kind where the bulk of the scoring is at endgame, the scoring is done in a constant stream so by midgame your ‘VP engine’ should be up and running already. By round 4 or 5 you can see whether you have a chance of winning. Still, I feel there is still room to adjust to what others are doing. Usually you’ll need a second source of VPs so you should look for opportunities to earn a few VPs whenever they present themselves.

I’ve only played it with the full five players so far and I’m curious to see if it’s better with four. So far, I’m very impressed with Cuba and look forward to playing it again.

I give it an 8 out of 10.


Pros: A brain burner; multiple paths to victory; deep strategic and rich tactical gameplay; great components

Cons: Can be unforgiving; a bit long (2+ hours); a couple of unclear rules

[viscoos]

But there are still short-term tactical considerations, such as timing your shipping or erecting buildings right. The limited supply of buildings and limited space in each ship, as well as actions available only once per round, means there is a definite ‘get it now before anyone else does’ aspect to it.
The game seems a bit unforgiving though. Early mistakes can ruin your efficiency...

I can atest to this, during the last game Titus was seated on my left so he was the player after me, I was ready to buy the "Monastery" which gives VPs for every 2 products, I did something else thinking that it would still be available next turn but lo and behold Titus got it on his next turn I lost by 4 points because I built the "small branch office instead"

Its a nice game and I have not played Puerto Rico, Caylus or Pillars ^^ but Id rather play Container or Stone Age.  I get impatient with these types of games because usually I already know what i would do even before its my turn again.

[Adrian (the other one)]

I have not played Puerto Rico

Blasphemy!  Burn the warlock!  Off with his head!

Having played Cuba twice, and owning Pillars of the Earth... I can attest that it does borrow a few of its mechanics.  But Cuba has enough to stand on its own.  I also find the role selection mechanic to be fresh.  It's still a role selection mechanic, but not the usual "I choose this role, everyone else gets to do it, but I get a bonus."  The timing of when to play your role is important as well, not just the role you chose.

I like Cuba enough to want to play it once in a while.  But definitely other economic games beat this one for me -- Container, Puerto Rico, Agricola (if you think of the farm as an economy).

[viscoos]

Blasphemy!  Burn the warlock!  Off with his head!

I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!

If it will make the inquiry better i have not played the ff games

Puerto Rico
Power Grid
Settlers of Catan
Carcassonne
Acquire
etc
etc

[ChineezPnoy]

I was also baffled d 1st time I heard viscoos sed that d 1st few weeks I known him.

He's still getting his feet wet pa naman 

I have not played Puerto Rico

Blasphemy!  Burn the warlock!  Off with his head!

[viscoos]

Its like sayin u like Pnoy food but never tried lechon yet! <----

Remember the story about the 4 blind men and the elephant?

[Titus]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Personally, I would not even compare Cuba to Container, as it's a different animal. Container is more like Modern Art or Owner's Choice: a more straightforward profit-making game. These games are math-intensive, number-crunching affairs.

Cuba is more like Puerto Rico, Age of Steam, Stone Age, RFTG, and Glory to Rome. As we like to say, it's an exercise in building an efficient VP engine and putting it to work for you. You produce resources which you then either reinvest into producing more resources or convert said resources into VPs.

I like both kinds of games. Cuba for me has depth of options and forces tough choices. And the in-game (rather than endgame) scoring is refreshing in a way as it makes it clearer to you how you're doing; no massive endgame scoring surprises (a la Stone Age and Agricola). When the margin of victory is no more than 2-4 VPs, it can get pretty tense near the end.

Viscoos, how about we play Puerto Rico next time? I've been wanting to play it again, and I'd like to see if it still holds the same appeal for me.

[Alger B C Lim]

erm how is the player interaction like? I mean is it more outside the rules negotiation (ill treat you a beer if you dont take that) or does the rules themselves really encourage the interaction?

hmmm i guess this will depend on the player group your playing it with...?

-alger

[maskmanjoe]

this having more paths to victory is putting it a notch higher than PR on my interest scale. Although I thoroughly enjoy PR, having seen that specific rigid strategies can almost assure you of victory got me a bit down. I'd like to try this one and see if it has what I was hoping more off in PR.

erm how is the player interaction like? I mean is it more outside the rules negotiation (ill treat you a beer if you dont take that) or does the rules themselves really encourage the interaction?

hmmm i guess this will depend on the player group your playing it with...?

-alger

I would surmise that its player interactions aren't of the Traders of Genoa level, na you can trade the shirt on your back if you wanted, but, like all games, it can probably be house-ruled

[Titus]

erm how is the player interaction like? I mean is it more outside the rules negotiation (ill treat you a beer if you dont take that) or does the rules themselves really encourage the interaction?

hmmm i guess this will depend on the player group your playing it with...?

To answer your question, there's no negotiation. But there are two varieties of interaction tied to the two major phases of each game round. During the action phase, when you play the character cards, it's almost like worker placement. You have to time your actions right and take limited available resources before someone else does, sort of like Agricola.

During the parliament phase, the interaction is more direct. There is a blind bid to decide which laws come into play and the laws affect everyone. So it's a competition to enact laws that benefit you more than anyone else or stop someone from enacting a law that will give him/her a major advantage.

[Alger B C Lim]

hmmm thanks guys. this game sounds interesting...

hmmm but 2 hrs to run 0_0

-alger

[ChineezPnoy]

U wouldn't notice how much time has elapsed coz ur constantly trying to plan ur moves based on wat evry1 did.  At least thats wat happened to me.

U can say there's tactics involved coz ur constantly trying to plan a step or 2 ahead of every1.  I had my share of AP when I didn't have a back-up plan wen my turn came around  >_<

hmmm thanks guys. this game sounds interesting...

hmmm but 2 hrs to run 0_0