''Le Havre'' is a
board game
A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...
about the development of the town of
Le Havre
Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
. It was inspired by the games ''
Caylus'' and ''
Agricola
Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to:
People Cognomen or given name
:''In chronological order''
* Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85)
* Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the m ...
'' and was developed in December 2007.
The game was edited by
Uwe Rosenberg and Hanno Girke and the former gets the main cover credit. The illustrator was Klemens Franz while the English translator was Melissa Rogerson. Numerous credits are given to others who assisted with playtesting and other tasks. The game was published by Lookout Games and distributed by Heidelberger Spieleverlag.
The game was released at
Spiel 2008 in both
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
and
Australian English
Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language. While Australia has no of ...
, with both editions published by Lookout Games. It did not do as well as its predecessor ''
Agricola
Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to:
People Cognomen or given name
:''In chronological order''
* Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85)
* Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the m ...
'' in the Fairplay polls, with a rating of 2.51 (1 is best), but has a high rating of 7.9/10 at
BoardGameGeek
BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition t ...
(a different rating system), ranking among the top 100 games and is generally considered to be highly regarded by critics.
The game was adapted into an
iOS
Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
app by
Codito Development Inc. and released on June 21, 2012. The game has a
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
rating of 82% based on 6 critic reviews.
A two player version called ''Le Havre: The Inland Port'' was released in 2012. There is also a corresponding iOS app.
Gameplay
The gameplay takes place in the harbour of
Le Havre
Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
, where
players take goods such as fish and wood from the
wharves
A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( ...
. These goods are used either to feed the players' community, to construct buildings and ships, or are processed into
finished good
Finished goods are goods that have completed the manufacturing process but have not yet been sold or distributed to the end user.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing has three classes of inventory:
# Raw material
# Work in process
# Finished goods
A ...
s. For example, a
smokehouse
A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.[smoked fish
Smoked fish is fish that has been cured by smoking. Foods have been smoked by humans throughout history. Originally this was done as a preservative. In more recent times, fish is readily preserved by refrigeration and freezing and the smoking o ...]
, which is more valuable.
The game is played for a set number of rounds. The winner is the player with the greatest net wealth at the end.
Points are earned by making money, building buildings and ships (which each have their own values), and selling goods. At the end of each round, players must be able to give food to their workers. The amount of food depends on the round number and the number of players, starting out low and gradually increasing as the game progresses. Players not planning ahead will soon find themselves with a shortage of food which will require taking loans from the Bank. Building ships can help with this food problem, as each ship will give the player a discount on their food each round (they count as trade routes which give the player more sources of food).
References
External links
* Lookout Games
''Le Havre'' homepage*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Havre, le
Board games introduced in 2008
Board games about history
Uwe Rosenberg games
Worker placement board games