Cuba: El Presidente Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Materials
• Set-up
• Overview of the action phase
• Playing the Cuban cards
• The Cuban's actions
  • The dancer gives a player the right to be the starting player
  • The musician gives a player money
  • The day laborer stores products
  • The harbor master changes ship positions
  • The lawyer uses a building
  • The revolutionary gives a player 1 victory point
• End of the action phase
  • The president triggers an event
  • When does the event take effect?
• The events
  • Space 1
  • Space 2
  • Space 3
  • Space 4
  • Space 5
  • Space 6
• From one round to another
• Appendix
  • The new ships
  • The 5 new buildings
  • The new acts
  • Tactical hints

Materials

• 1 gameboard
• 1 president's car
• 6 "Cuban" cards (big)
• 2 donkey cards (big)
• 6 ship cards (big)
• 8 statute cards (small): 2 other acts, 2 duty acts, 2 subsidy acts, 2 tax acts
• 5 building tiles (example: Newspaper publishing house)
• 1 press tile

Set-up

First, set up the basic game.

1. Gameboard: place the new game board so that it's touching the upper edge of the "Cuba" game board in such a way that you create 4 complete spaces for the bills above the Capitol.

2. Car: put the car in front of the first space on the "Avenida del Presidente" (President Boulevard).

3. Ships: shuffle the 6 new ship cards into the ship card pile.

4. Buildings: place the 5 new buildings, along with the buildings from the basic game, face up to the right of the game board. If you'd rather play with the original number of buildings, you can choose to replace any 5 buildings of the basic game with the new ones.

5. Cubans: shuffle the 6 new Cuban cards and randomly distribute them face up on the 6 big spaces of the new game board, putting 1 card on each of the 6 spaces.

   With fewer than 5 players, replace some Cuban cards with donkey cards:

   • The players can choose which Cuban cards shall be replaced.

   • The female dancer must be included in all games!

   • 5 players: All Cubans cards are used.

   • 4 players: Replace 1 Cuban with 1 donkey.

   • 3 players: Replace 2 Cubans with 2 donkeys.

Overview of the action phase

On his turn, a player can choose a Cuban card from the game board instead of a character card from his hand. After that, he immediately does the action indicated on the chosen card.

Each player has one more turn in total (five turns) during the action phase than in the basic game. Exception: in a two-player game, the players will each play a card six times, since each player selects 2 Cuban cards.

At the end of the action phase, there is always one Cuban card left. The president rides in his car to this remaining Cuban and thereby triggers a specific event.

Playing the Cuban cards

• Sometime during the round, each player must take 1 Cuban (except in a two-player game).
• No player may take a donkey.
• Each Cuban may be used only once per round.
• When a player chooses to take a Cuban, he removes the card from the layout, puts it in his play area (on the table near him), and does the action immediately. After that, he puts the card aside until the next round.
• A player may never use a Cuban in the same turn that he uses a hand card (worker, tradeswoman, etc.), but only instead of it.
• Each player is free to decide in which turn he will play a Cuban.

Note on layout: in the printed rulebook the last two bullets above sit in the right-hand column at the top of page 4, beside the start of "The Cuban's actions"; they are placed here with the other "Playing the Cuban cards" bullets because they govern when a Cuban may be taken.

The Cuban's actions

The dancer gives a player the right to be the starting player

When a player chooses the dancer, he immediately becomes the new starting player; as such, he moves the starting player card to his play area. Therefore, the starting player rule of the basic game is not used with El Presidente.

• If nobody chooses the dancer, the starting player passes the card to his left neighbor at the end of the action phase.

The musician gives a player money

When a player chooses the musician, he immediately takes 2 pesos.

The day laborer stores products

When a player chooses the day laborer, he may immediately store all his products (citrus fruit, sugar cane, and tobacco). This does not apply to products that he gets later.

The harbor master changes ship positions

When a player chooses the harbor master, he may immediately exchange 2 neighboring ships in the harbor with one another.

• This does not apply to a ship at sea.
• The harbor master can exchange the ship on position 2 in the harbor with either of the two other neighboring ships (position 1 or 3).
• The player may forego an exchange.

The lawyer uses a building

When a player chooses the lawyer, he may immediately use one of his own buildings once.

• First, he must pay 1 peso.
• The worker's position is irrelevant.

The revolutionary gives a player 1 victory point

When a player chooses the revolutionary, he immediately scores 1 victory point.

End of the action phase

The president triggers an event

At the end of the action phase, the president rides in his car to the Cuban that has not been chosen by the players.

This Cuban is of no further importance, but the space on which he is standing, is. Each of the spaces shows a symbol that stands for an event.

• When the president reaches the space, he triggers the respective event.
• The car moves along the 6 spaces of the "Avenida del Presidente" (President Boulevard).
• The president never drives to a donkey.
• It is not possible for the car to not move at the end of an action phase. If a card is left on the same space as in the previous round, the car "moves" to the same space and the event is repeated.

When does the event take effect?

Some events are effective immediately, some later; others do not become effective until the next round.

The events

Space 1

In the next round, each player sends 2 (not 1) of his characters (hand cards) to parliament. That means that in the next round each player has one less action. Thus, in the respective parliament phase, each player has the total number of votes for both of their characters sent to parliament.

Space 2

All current bills for this round are passed automatically. The next parliament phase is omitted since voting is not necessary.

• If the church owner has used the church for his veto, all 3 remaining bills are passed.

Space 3

Every player who plays his foreman during the next action phase may move his worker at the same time. So everybody has the possibility to move his worker twice – with the worker (as usual) and with the foreman. This is of great advantage particularly for the use of buildings.

Space 4

Each player may immediately pay 1 peso and overbuild one of his own buildings. Beginning with the starting player, each player may take a building from the layout and build it on top of an already existing building on his plantation board. To pay the building costs for the new building, the player has to pay only the difference in resources.

Example: Anna wants to overbuild the cement factory with a hotel. She has to pay 1 wood and 1 water, in addition to the obligatory 1 peso. However, building costs are not reimbursed. So, if Anna overbuilds a saw mill with a small bank, she pays just 1 peso, but does not get back the difference in wood from the saw mill.

Overbuilt buildings do not give a player any additional victory points in the final scoring and have no influence on taxes or subsidies.

Space 5

The leading player immediately loses 2 victory points. If two or more players are tied for the lead, each of them loses 2 victory points.

Space 6

Beginning with the starting player, each player, in turn, may take a piece of any one kind of merchandise (citrus fruit, sugar cane, tobacco, rum, or cigars) from the market:

• They may take merchandise only from the market, not from the stock.
• The players take the chosen pieces from the market from right to left, i.e., always the cheapest tobacco, rum, etc. first.
• When a player chooses a product, he may store it immediately; he need not put in the lot first.
• If, on a player's turn to take something, nothing is left, he gets nothing.

From one round to another

• Car: the car remains at its new location until the president drives at the end of the next action phase. This is important to remember for spaces 1 and 3, as those events take effect later.
• Cuban cards: at the beginning of each round, reshuffle all Cuban cards and distributed them anew on the 6 spaces (as during the set-up).
• Final round: in the final round, the events of spaces 1, 3, and 4 do not have any effect on the game.

Appendix

The new ships

The 6 new ships are self-explanatory to a large extent. They act in the same way as the 15 ships in the basic game. However, the wood freighter is the only ship that declares wood as merchandise (while it is lying in the harbor). (Important for the features of mayor and branch offices.)

The 5 new buildings

Casino Building costs: 1 stone, 1 water + 1 wood

If a player uses his casino with the foreman, he either pays 5 pesos to get 2 victory points, or vice versa. That means that the casino owner can also give up 2 victory points to get 5 pesos. This feature can be used twice per round.

Customs office Building costs: 1 wood

If a player uses his customs office with the foreman, he can load any one piece of merchandise from the general stock onto any one ship in the harbor. He does not get victory points for it; it just blocks the loading spot.

Instead, the owner of the customs office may also take off any one piece of merchandise from a ship of his choice in the harbor and put it in the general stock. In this way, he vacates a loading spot on a ship that has already been occupied. Again, he does not get victory points for this. This feature can be used once per round.

Beach café Building costs: 1 stone + 1 wood

The beach café has a special status. It can be used anytime you want to do a second action with one of your cards, including without a foreman. The owner of the beach café may use the alternative features of his tradeswoman, his architect, and his mayor, even if they have already been used by another player (have been marked "occupied").

Statue Building costs: 1 water + 5 stone

During the game, the statue is not of any concrete use. At the end of the game, however, it gives its owner 1 additional victory point per building, i.e., 3 instead of 2 victory points. This also applies to the statue itself and the warehouse that is already printed on the plantation board. The foreman has to activate it in the final round for the statue to take effect.

Typo note: the printed text reads "prnted"; it is rendered here as "printed".

Newspaper publishing house Building costs: 2 stone + 2 wood

When a player uses his newspaper publishing house with the foreman, he gets the press tile. He immediately puts it on one of the 4 current bills. If this marked bill does not pass in the following parliament phase, the owner of the newspaper publishing house earns 1 victory point and 1 peso. This also applies if it belongs to the player who passes the bills (and selects 2 other bills).

The new acts

There are 2 new acts per type of act.

Tax acts

• One act requires 6 pesos tax
• The other act requires 1 peso for every 10 earned victory points.

Duty acts

• One act requires, as duty, pesos as high as the current tax.
• The other act requires, as duty, any one product and any one resource.

Subsidy acts

• One act gives 1 victory point for each unit of rum and/or cigars that a player owns.

• The other act gives the non-leading players advantages. The players get victory points according to their position on the victory point track: position 1 gives 1 victory point, position 2 gives 2 victory points, position 3 gives 3 victory points, etc. If several players are in the same position, they get the same number of victory points; however, they occupy one place each (as in a horse race).

  Example: one player gets 1 point for 1st place. One player gets 2 points for 2nd place. Two players are in 3rd place; they both get 3 victory points each, but occupy positions 3 and 4, so the player in 5th place gets 5 victory points..

Other acts

• Export act: when a player supplies a ship, he gets 2 victory points for each piece of merchandise supplied, regardless of the position of the ship in the harbor.
• Control act: the alternative features of tradeswoman, architect, and mayor do not apply; this also affects the use of the beach café.

Note on layout: the printed rulebook places the Control act bullet in the right-hand column at the top of page 8, separated from the Export act by the "Tactical hints" heading; it is placed here as the second "Other acts" bullet because the two form one list of two acts.

Tactical hints

Depending on the playing situation, the Cubans' actions differ in strength:

• When a player makes an early decision, he has more choices.
• If some Cubans have already been chosen, players have fewer choices left, but more influence, instead, on which event the president will trigger next.

Important to consider: when a player chooses a Cuban card, he automatically prevents the event of the respective space.