Havana

Havana is a board game with a difference...There is no board. You start the game by shuffling building cards. These are a variety of buildings, anything from a path, house to a casino or restaurant. The idea is to build these buildings using various resources and be the first to amass 25 points (less points if more than 2 players are playing). The building cards are shuffled and placed in a large pile. You then take some of the cards and arrange them in two rows in the middle of your table (you WILL need a table or floor to play on!). The set is not much but then needs you to give out some money to each player to start with, little card pesos (1 each I think) and then each player takes some building material from a bag. A cloth bag filled with building material (little coloured wooden blocks) sits on the side of your table. Finally the set up needs some pesos and building materials to be in the centre of the table. Each player has the same action cards each. Every round players decide which actions they want in play. For example the 'debris' card allows players to take all the debris or grey blocks from the centre of the table. The 'worker' card allows a player to take two workers (little wooden men) to their own stock. Placing action cards is easy to understand but you do have to read the rules a couple of times when you are new to the game or you can make mistakes in who goes first. The whole point of the game is to build those buildings. But you can only take buildings from the outer edges of those two rows. And each building has a requirement such as '3 workers and 2 debris' or 'one red block and an architect'. Every building has a value and during your turn if you can build it you discard your blocks and men and any other requirements and take the building to your own stock. Every new round sees each player discarding their action cards one at a time until you run out of them all and can have them back to start again so it's important to think strategically which cards to play when. The game ends when one player gets enough buildings to make up 25 points/ 20 points -depending on number of players. The game although very different and requiring a good read of the rules at the beginning is actually a LOT of fun to play. I was surprised with how quickly the rules became ingrained in my mind and how much fun a board game with no board can be! The replay value is huge as each time you can have different buildings in the buildings pile (there are far more buildings than the game needs) and you will be presented with different buiding materials and will choose different action cards each time, which really means that no two games are ever the same. The games rules come on a lovely glossy colour paper with clear explanations of all the action cards that you can keep referring to throughout your game. The rules are also very easy to read due to the way it's arranged, with pictures and not just mass blocks of plain text. The rules I have also come in both german and either French or Spanish (will check and edit this when I do) as well as english. The game itself is very durable. The deck of action cards you get are like regular cards and each player also gets a little card with mini rules of the key points to refer to. The rest of the game is even more durable. The pesos are little card discs, the buildings cards are made of a very hard cardboard, and the other components are all wooden making this game very durable and personally I like the smell of wooden tokens! :) The images on all the cards of the buildings and action cards are all very pretty too. So detailed almost like paintings - it just adds to the great feel of this game! The game depends on strategy and both adults and kids will enjoy playing this game, although I believe younger kids may not quite understand the rules. The whole game has been such a gem for me. I never thought it would be as fun to play as it has turned out to be. I'd really recommend this game to anyone of any age, it's for 2-4 players and just be patient the first time you play. Once the rules are understood (and they're really not that hard) you've got a really great game!

*Disclaimer: I am a serious board gamer who plays big strategy games, and my review is from that point of view. Havana is a game about the construction of the city of Havana. As a builder, you get rewarded for building the most and best structures. To do that, you need to collect resources like money and workers by careful selection of action cards. Havana plays quick, especially with two players, and has fairly simple rules. In a turn each player selects 2 action cards, reveals them and take the actions, buy buildings, and then restock the resources. A player wins by buying enough buildings to reach a certain point total. What makes Havana surprisingly deep and fun is the action cards. Everyone has the same action cards to choose from and everyone chooses at once. The turn order changes depending on which card each player chooses. So the decisions become complex as one decides which action will gain the best resources, but at the same time happen early enough in the turn order to still have resources to take. You will play your opponents more than the game. You must guess what they will do and act accordingly in order to succeed. The game plays very different with different people, and stays interesting in replays. It is also very easy to teach and quick to play. I would say this is a great 'gateway' game, or game to introduce people into the heavier strategy games. The math and process of the game is schoolchildren friendly, but the strategy is tougher. The game components and box are of high quality. Very sturdy and attractive game. The oversize box seems to say 'this is a serious strategy game', which it is, but the components could fit in a much smaller box. Havana is a resource-management game (meaning you collect money/tokens and then trade those in for points to win) with role selection (you have many choices for actions, but only take one or two actions/roles in a turn). This game is then often compared with Puerto Rico, which is another excellent resource/role game with a similar theme. The main difference between these two, is that Havana is shorter, slightly more random, and simpler than Puerto Rico. This makes it much better for new boardgamers or people who like a lighter quicker game. Havana is quickly becoming a favorite for packing many fun decisions into a short time. Update: This game is finally going away. Role selection has evolved and other options like Vaalbara do this same job. Havana does not really do so well with bigger player counts, and I have a family. Havana depicts a slave-era colonial society in which you, a plantation owner, buys and spends pitch-black meeples like a resource. Its fine as no one asks questions, but I have a family.

Not as fun as I hoped it would be, although the way in which the role cards are used has a unique twist that was interesting.

Easy to learn fun game. Beautiful cards.

This is a great European style board game. The rules are simple, but there is a lot of room for depth of strategy. It only takes 45 minutes or so to play, so we can get it to the table more often than some other Euro games. It has the same art style as Cuba but a totally different feel, unlike any other game I've played. I really enjoy it.

This is a great city building game with an interesting implementation of the role selection mechanic and some resource management. Highly recommended!