Cuba takes mechanisms that are found in other games and pulls them all together into one game. The game is well constructed and has great parts, my personal favs being the Rum Jugs. Probably the game that Cuba most reminds me of is Puerto Rico....given the choice though I would play Cuba over Puerto Rico any day.

Like Puerto Rico there are role cards, but unlike in Puerto Rico(PR) everyone has there own set of cards. You get to choose which card you want to play each turn. Each card lets you do different things, but they also have another use. Once you have played your last card that rounds ends and the person who played the highest value card (1-5) gets to choose which Duties and Laws are passed and take effect in the next round. This adds another dimension to the game as if you have lots of sugar cane and there is a duty on sugar cane you may want to take control so that you can change that duty.

I prefer the game boards and play in Cuba to PR. The game boards are reversible. On one side they are all the same and on the other side they are random. In Cuba your game board is already seeded so on your turn when you activate your worker you are going to produce resources. If you buy a building it goes on top of one of your water spots or resources, so early on you are forced to choose a strategy.

There is a market in Cuba where you can buy and sell stuff. The market works like Power Grid, so as you buy or sell in the market the cost or price of goods goes up and down. You can also ship goods. Shipping is another thing that I think Cuba does better than PR. In Cuba there are a number of docks in the harbour. There are ship cards with different goods and products on each card. As the ships come into the harbour you get a chance to load them. The ships cycle down the docks and each dock has a different value.

Those are just some of the things that to me at least sets it apart from PR. I played PR a few times before buying Cuba, and I find every time my friends pull out PR I wish that I had brought Cuba with me.

I would recommend a couple of dry runs with 2-3 players before trying a 4 or 5 player game as with 5 players the game can drag on especially if it is the first time all 5 people have played it.

I love this game and would highly recommend it to anyone that like Puerto Rico or Agricola.
(Posted on 2/2/10)