Anybody play Puerto Rico?

I’ve played this game a couple of dozen times, and I like it, but I’ve only won once. That’s because we found out we had interpreted the rules wrong about quarries. So, I built quarries, saw I didn’t need to accumulate money as much, and won the game because I created the most buildings.

But, everybody else now goes for quarries, so that strategy is kaput. It seems to me the people who win are the ones that go the route no one else is going. A friend of mine who played for the first time won just by producing corn and getting bookoo victory points every time the captain got chosen. But that strategy doesn’t work any more either.

So any more winning strategies for Puerto Rico?

Here’s a couple of online looks at Puerto Rico strategy.

http://www.pyro.net/~bankler/strat_puerto.html

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewarticle.php3?articleid=18215