Le Havre: The Inland Port

I have played the game twice now and there is good news and bad news. First we will deal with the basics and the good news. The game is fun. If you liked Le Havre and/or Ora & Labora you should like this game. It is easy to learn and easy to teach, but there is plenty of challenge in the decision making process.

To start with you will sort out the building tokens by the letter on the back of each one into 12 groups. Each player takes a wheel with a spinner and a counter board as well as a set of counters-you have the choice of 2 sided counters or matching colored cubes- and 3 francs.

Then place each of the counters on it’s matching color coded start space. Brown=wood; blue=fish; yellow=wheat; and red=clay.

The A buildings are placed face up in the play area between the players. The spinners on the wheels are placed at the top of the wheel(A for player 1 and G for player 2). Under each letter is the total # of actions the players get to take that round. The number of actions is odd and ingreases by 2 after every 3 rounds i.e. 3-5-7-9. The start player for any round has a sunburst at the top of their letter and yellow line around the letter. On the inner part of each player’s spinner is a circle divided in 6 sections. the sections are 0-2-3-4-4 with a money symbol and a building silhouette with an exclamation mark.

The first player now starts. You have 2 choices-A) build a building. At the top of each building token is a cost, in the main area of the token is the game effect. Buildings require wood or clay or both, food(fish or wheat or combination), or money to build. When you build a building to pay for it move the counter to the proper spot on the counter board. The bosrd is numbered 0-10 across the columns and each level is numbered starting at 0 and increasing by 3 for each level. After paying you place the token in the 0 section of your wheel. B)The second Action you can take is to use a building. to use your building look at the section it is in and use the effect(per the instructions) that many times and then place the building in the 0 section. To use your opponent’s building you must first pay him 1 franc. In the 1st round there are 3 actions so the players will alternate 1-2-1. After that each player moves their spinner counter-clockwise 1 space. Player 1 will be on B and 2 on H. The B buildings will be added to the play area and you will see that there are 3 actions and player 2 goes first so play will be 2-1-2. You will also notice that buildings placed in the 0 sector are now in the 2 sector.

This repeats until the last round when all buildings are now available for play. The winner has the most money from building values and unspent money. Warning if on a turn any buildings end up in the section showing the special symbol you can take the action to sell them to the bank for 1/2 of their value and they are open for either player to buy on their next turn. If the spinner would pass them back to the 0 they go back to the playing field and you lose them and have to rebuy them. The pressure of when to buy buildings and how long to let them ride, to long and your opponent might pay you to get the game effect help make the game challenging and fun with a good replay value.

Now for the bad news I mentioned. The game tokens are small. I understand why they probably did it- any larger and they wouldn’t fit on the wheel- but I would have paid a couple of more bucks for a larger set up. Secondly, there is only 1 copy of the building effects at the back of the rule book. I recommend making 2 reference cards , 1 for each player. Overall, I am glad I got the game and with a play time of about 30 minutes I will take the game with me as a filler.