''Le Havre'' is a

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

about the development of the town of

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

. 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 mid ...

'' and was developed in December 2007. The game was edited by

Uwe Rosenberg Uwe Rosenberg (born 27 March 1970) is a German game designer and the co-founder of Lookout Games. He initially became known for his card game ''Bohnanza'', which was successful both in Germany and internationally. He is known for complex economic ...

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 Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day boardgame trade fair which is also open to the public held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen e ...

2008 in both

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

and

Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...

, with both editions published by Lookout Games. It did not do as well as its predecessor ''

'' 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 to ...

(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 app by Codito Development Inc. and released on June 21, 2012. The game has a Metacritic 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, where players take goods such as fish and wood from the

wharves A wharf, 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 (mooring location ...

. 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 cured with smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with t ...

building may be constructed in which players may process fish into

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 of ...

, 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 number of players; it starts out low and steadily increases to high values towards the end of the game. 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