Norbert Chan
Canada
Calgary
Alberta
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In the Noble expansion, there are 20 red tokens that represent nobles. They are exactly like colonists, except that each noble is worth 1 VP at the end of the game. Also, there are 8 new buildings in the expansion, that are all added to the base game, or all added to the base game and first expansion. You create extra slots on the gameboard to put these 8 buildings. Now, the new buildings do different things, depending if they are occupied by a colonist or a noble. For instance, in the Chapel, in the craftsman phase, a colonst in the Chapel gives a doubloon; a noble in the Chapel gives a VP.
Nobles are acquired in the mayor phase. One noble is placed on the colonist ship in place of one of the colonists, at tte beginning of the game, and at the end of each mayor phase. If you look carefully at the box cover of Puerto Rico, you can see the noble with the black hat directing the rest of the colonists who are hauling stuff around and looking resentfully at the noble who needs a haircut.
Photo courtesy of
Marek Pańczyk
Poland
Warsaw
Note that with this expansion, the game cannot end when the colonist supply runs out.
The new buildings, and a contrast between the noble and four colonists.
In our game, we played the Nobles with the base buildings, no buildings were from Expansion I. Going first, Jean took building and built a small market. Yes, this isn't the optimum move, taking the settler and a quarry is the best move here. I built a small indigo plantation, Don built a small indigo plant, Gary built a hacienda, and Tim built the last small market. On my turn, I should have taken settler to get the first quarry, but I wanted to make sure I got a noble since I was going to try out the new buildings, so I took mayor to be ready when someone pulled craftsman. Don took settler to get a quarry, and I ended up with a tobacco plantation. Gary produced, and Tim shipped.
I took a prospector when I was governor. When someone built, I built a construction hut, and so did Don. Gary built a small sugar mill. On later turns, Jean took the settler twice, taking a quarry each time, while Don and I used our construction hut to get up to three quarries each. So that was it for the quarries. With my 3 quarries, I had scraped together enough to get my tobacco storage. There was no room on the boat for tobacco, but I was able to trade it which allowed me to buy the Villa (the actual text reads "on his first turn in the mayor phase, the owner of an occupied villa may take 1 noble from the supply (not the ship!).If there are no more nobles in the supply, he takes a colonist from the supply instead (if there is one).") Jean bought the other Villa. Don built an early guild hall saying that was the earliest strategy he could remember. Gary was using his land office to discard a plantation tile to earn 1 doubloon each trader phase, since he had a haceinda to replenish his plantation tiles.
Eventually I was able to afford the Jeweler (get 1 doubloon per noble in your island). I was up to three nobles, so when someone pulled craftsman, I earned 3 doubloons as well. In front of me, Jean was able to pull mayor three times, so he earned 6 nobles, with his villa, while I got 3 nobles with my villa. I got to 5 nobles, while Jean had 9 nobles! Tim made a remark about whether we were playing the nobles correctly. So we looked on BGG using Jean's iPAD, and found the following thread:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/483412/puerto-rico-noble-exp...
We didn't read the whole thread, but decided to use interpretation 2, so Jean and I turned back 3 colonists (since we were taking a noble and a colonist as our action on the mayor phase). However, it turns out that taking a noble and a colonist with the Villa during your first turn to take a colonist is actually the correct way.
My first big building was the Royal Garden (1 VP per noble). I certainly didn't want Jean buying it, since it looked like there were many colonists in the game. Tim built a harbor and was shipping for many VPs.
With the game slowly winding down, I was able to make another trade of tobacco and used it to buy the fortress . When craftsman was pulled again, I earned 5 doubloons, and now I could end the game by buying a big building. However, if I did, then my unmanned fortress would not score the bonus points. So I took mayor instead. Gary decided to end the game by building, so I did buy a large building to end the game, thought it was unamnned.
Scores:
Norbert 47 (4 VPs, 26 building, 12 bonus (5 for Royal Garden, 7 for fortress), 5 nobles),
Tim 39 (19 VPs, 17 buildings, 3 nobles),
Don 39 (6 VPs, 22 buildings, 10 bonus for Guild Hall, 1 noble),
Gary 33 (19 VPs, 12 buildings, 2 nobles),
Jean 33 (9 VPs, 15 buildings, 9 nobles).
The Jeweler was more powerful than the factory (for me anyways, since I was only producing three goods during the whole game), since I got 3 doubloons one time and 5 doubloons the last time craftsman was pulled. Other than the hiccup with the Villa, which we were playing correctly then switched, and we were playing right about nobles being on the island (not the city), I think everyone enjoyed this expansion.
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Richard Hutnik
United States
Poughkeepsie
New York
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I like the Noble Expansion as something to play from time to time, but not necessarily as a replacement for play without them. I am in the camp the Nobles are too powerful and should be tweaked to weaken some, in order to make it more balanced. I would do these two, based on the input from others:
* Have it so there is 4 Nobles per player in the game total (10 total in a two player variant).
* Limit the mix of the two Nobel buildings in the game to one each (Villa and Jeweler), instead of two. This way, players will likely only get one of the two, instead of both. If a player gets both, more power to them.
All and all, a good twist on the original, but don't see it as something I play all the time.
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Tibs
United States
Baltimore
Maryland
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I said it before, but it bears repeating:
Don't allow both Villa and Jeweler in the same game. Especially, since they are designed to be in play together every time, what is the incentive to get a Factory or Specialty Factory?
Also, look into price adjustments to further calibrate building strengths:
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/63089/puerto-rico-price-ad...
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