Le Havre

I was really keen to try this one out, since I loved Agricola. And yes, it really feels like Agricola a few centuries later. The basic concept is the same, that is you pick one of too many options (meaning that you constantly feel you don’t have the time to do all the stuff you want to do), and just as in Agricola the components have mutliple use and can be collected and converted, so there are many roads to success.

Basicly you do the following on your turn:

1. Resupply
On the game board there are a row of “offers”, and on each players turn you resupply some of them (they accumulate just as many of the things in Agricola). That’s what the tiles on the water does that you place your little ship on if you’ve peeked on the images.

2. You pick an action which is basicly:

Grab an offer, that is take all the accumulated goods there

or

Make another action like building some sort of building or a ship. Some buildings are used to refine your goods (like turning hides to leather) others are used to build other stuff (like the wharf that is used to build ships).

Just like Agricola you need to provide food at certain times in the game, and a key to this is to build ships, because they will reduce the needed food.

The game is tight and I guess if all players are good it will be really hard to make the right choices. It also takes some time, and I recommend only playing this with people that stay focused on the game. But if you liked Agricola this has the same “feel”. But I must be clear, this is NOT Agricola, there are many other mechanics and even though both games are about timing this is a different beast. I liked it alot, but I do think this is not for everyone.

Le Havre is not for the faint of heart. It’s a fairly long game, and not terribly forgiving. There aren’t any random factors to blame when everything inevitably goes sideways two or three hours in. But it’s definitely worth playing.

If you’re unfamiliar with the game, this is a game in the worker-placement idiom: on many of your turns, you’ll play a piece somewhere in the playing area to choose a particular action. In Le Havre the set of those possible actions increases as the game goes along. At the beginning of the game, you’ll be able to see the potential actions that will be available later – but you won’t (quite) know in what order they’ll arrive, or when.

Your goal is to have the most assets. Buying or producing goods, then selling them locally will make you money. Building or purchasing a ship or building will increase your portfolio. Shipping goods to far markets can be still more lucrative. And while that sounds easy enough, there are lots of potential resources to manipulate, and many ways to manipulate them.

In the end, the game is about opportunity and timing. You’ll want to manipulate the choices of the other players to ensure that the goods and resources you need are available to you; that the buildings you need to use are constructed in a timely manner; that the others find greater potential in colliding with one another than with you. It’s not remotely a multiplayer-solitaire game: everything you do has repercussions to the others in the game.

My bottom line? After 20 plays, it’s still something I’m wanting to get to the table.

This game is one of 3 connected games and is my favorite of the 3 by this designer. The first was Agricola. This game was, as I understand it, brought about because of the criticisms of Agricola. If you are not a fan of Agricola you should check it out, if you are a fan you will probably consider it Agricola light.
There are a number of rounds based on the # of players. In each round you will get to do a number of actions dependent on the number of players. The game is about earning victory points through building buildings that have game effects and earning additional money through shipping and “renting” the buildings to other players or using buildings that generate money. All money=victory points. The resources are wheat, fish, francs, wood, clay, iron, coal, and cattle. On the board are spaces for each resource and you start the game with2 francs, 2 wood, 1 clay, and 2 fish on there respective spaces. There are 7 markers in a row on the board. These are placed randomly face down on the board and will not change order when revealed for the rest of the game. Additionally there are 3 building slots on the board. The buildings for the game are shuffled and divided randomly between the slots. They are numbered and placed in ascending order on the slots. Each player starts with 5 francs and 1 coal. The 1st player then places their token(a small wooden ship) on the 1st marker revealing it. Each marker adds 1 each of 2 different to the proper spot on the board, i.e. 1 clay and 1 wood, or 1 franc and 1 iron, etc… The player then takes an action. The actions are 1)claim all of a resource that is on a space on the board, 2)visit a building, pay the rent if any(gold or food), and then use the building’s ability. You may additionally buy as many buildings as you can afford or purchase ships(this does not happen often), pay off loans and sell buildings for 1/2 their value. There are 3 buildings that start the game owned by “The town”. These are all places that allow you to build buildings. Buildings require a combination of wood and clay and sometimes iron to be built. To use a building you have a disk you place on that location, pay it’s rent to the owner, then use the action indicated. Besides building, actions include gathering extra resources, earning money through selling resources, converting resources, etc… All resources have enhanced versions of themselves that can be created for game purposes by visiting the proper building. Once all players have their ship token on a marker, let’s use 4 players as an example, the 1st player moves his to the next unrevealed marker and takes an action, followed by the 2nd, and the third. In this way the 1st,2nd, and 3rd get 2 actions in the first round and the 4th gets 1 action.(7 markers) The 2nd round the boats are moved in order that they are on the board to the beginning of the row of markers, so the 4th player is now 1st, 1st is 2nd, etc… There are enough rounds that each player gets an equal number of turns. At the end of each round you have to feed your workers. The amount depends on the 3 of players. At the beginning of the game there is only fish, but whenever food is required gold can be substituted. If you cannot feed them you can take a loan to make up the difference. The card indicating the amount needed is then flipped over and reveals a ship that can be built. Ships allow you to automatically provide some food at the end of each round and they are used to ship goods to earn additional money. Additionally , at the end of the round if you have at least 2 cattle or 1 wheat you will get an additional 1 of the appropriate type if it is a harvest round. These are the basic rules of the game. As well as being a great 3-4 player game, it is an excellent solo player game.