La Habana

About this board game

La Habana is a board game for 2–4 players that takes about 45 minutes, combining building construction, changing turn order, and interactive card play.

In Havana, you acquire victory points by constructing building tiles displayed on the table. Each building requires a combination of money, workers, and building materials, with more difficult combinations offering more victory points. However, only the buildings on the left and right borders of two rows are available to select.

Each player has an identical deck of 13 cards, but only two cards are played per round. These cards determine both your available roles and your position in the turn order: combine their numerical values, such as 3 and 4 becoming 34, and the player with the lowest total acts first.

• Choose roles that let you collect resources, affect other players, or protect against certain effects.
• Judge whether another player may use the same role before you, changing how powerful some actions will be.
• Decide when to play an architect, which may be needed for some building combinations.
• Plan around limited card choices while adapting to a constantly changing start player.

Because roles can be used by multiple players while others may already have been taken, a planned action might no longer be available. Some effects tax or steal from opponents, while defensive cards can protect against them, ensuring that players are not simply collecting pieces in isolation.

What to choose, when to choose it, who to hinder, and which buildings to pursue form the heart of La Habana. These ideas give it a distinctive identity while keeping the experience shorter and lighter than many similar games.