Che Guecrocker

2nd play for Jimmy and Luke 1st for Matt, Tom and newbie Oliver. The game was very close all the way through, with the lead changing hands often. That said Matt and Oliver where more often than not the players setting the pace. Oliver got his hands cigars and was combo-ing them for victory points, Matt was getting extra blue cubes and exchange any for victory points, Tom was raking in money, Luke had control of the electorate and was trying to emulate Oliver's cigars but with rum, Jimmy's buildings yielded straight victory points. When the game finished Oliver was 1 space ahead of Luke and Matt with Jimmy one further space behind, incredibly tight, Tom was 3 more spaces away but still could have won. Oliver was quietly pleased thoughts of a victory in his first ever time at the Norwich boardgamers......”but wait” someone squealed, we had forgotten to award the two Vps per building, this changed the landscape one final time, Oliver had one fewer building so Luke and Matt leapfrogged into first place. Money was the tie breaker and Crocker was victorious.

I like the choices in this game, you need to be careful that you get value from any buildings constructed as the game only lasts six rounds and you need to save resources in order to afford build costs. There are many routes to victory points and several still untested approaches, with no obvious game wining strategy Cuba allows more personal approaches and opportunities. At the same time having too much choice leaves you confused over what your best approach will be. I enjoyed Cuba and its high rank is deserved but having played it twice with each game being so tight, the question on everyone's lips is – Is the game amazingly balanced, allowing so many routes to possible victory OR pointless broken so that whatever you do your in with a shout of winning???