Tabletopper Friday - Le Havre (2008)

We had another chance to play Le Havre (2008) last week and so we did, once again.  Always a treat to play this game as it continues to be challenging as an individual and as a competitor among other players.  It's not often we get a full five players for this game, so we had to squeeze onto two Culver's tables a bit but we were all game to do so.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

In Le Havre, a player’s turn consists of two parts: First, distribute newly supplied goods onto the offer spaces; then take an action. As an action, players may choose either to take all goods of one type from an offer space or to use one of the available buildings. Building actions allow players to upgrade goods, sell them or use them to build their own buildings and ships. Buildings are both an investment opportunity and a revenue stream, as players must pay an entry fee to use buildings that they do not own. Ships, on the other hand, are primarily used to provide the food that is needed to feed the workers.

After every seven turns, the round ends: players’ cattle and grain may multiply through a Harvest, and players must feed their workers. After a fixed number of rounds, each player may carry out one final action, and then the game ends. Players add the value of their buildings and ships to their cash reserves. The player who has amassed the largest fortune is the winner.

I'd almost forgotten how much easier it is to feed your own populace in a five player game of Le Havre but glancing at the player mats, I noticed that this considerably eased my "No Ships" strategy.  I urge folks to print the player mats up for their own game from the BGG downloads.  They make refreshing oneself to the particulars of the variations for a particular number of players very simple which in turn speeds up the game.  You'll find them in the file section here and named as "Le Havre Player Aids (2 Players)" and so on up to five players.  Despite having some buildings that were very much in demand, I got edged out on this game and probably should have allowed for a bit of debt in favor of exploiting my fishing prowess to amass a larger fortune along the way.  I really must learn that a little debt in Le Havre is not the end of the world.

Tabletopper Friday on MFWARS.com 

Mostly about card games and board games,
unless they have a decidedly wargamey feel.

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