by gameon3948
Le Havre is probably my favorite game. It is not a strategy game of balancing mutually exclusive specializations like many people like (I go for the blue cards, you go for the green cards, etc).Steel and Coke are the most expensive goods, so OF COURSE the end game is about capitalizing on them. You should be fighting to build or buy the Wharf, the Ironworks and the Colliery EVERY GAME. You should know what's too much to sacrifice to get them and then don't be afraid to just pay the cost to use them. Too many people are like "oh, I don't want to give you two food, so I'm just going to ignore the Colliery". And then they use some terribly inefficient building instead when giving their opponent two food doesn't really even hurt them or help their opponent.
This game is all about actions. That's the cost of loans, not money. In 3+ players you have to spend an action to repay your loans and money wise even paying off 2x loans = 10 gold isn't as efficient as getting 4 x Coal you're going to later turn into Coke in one fell swoop. In 2+ players, the only way to pay back the loans is with money so you lose 1xnumber of loans + number of rounds. If that's worth it to you, do it, if not, don't. I usually don't take loans but I do sometimes. Every game is different.
Some special buildings can offer viable income sources especially early in the game and there are some alternative victory paths like building lots of stuff and getting combo buildings etc, but really the game is all about ships and shipping the most expensive goods. And why shouldn't it be? It's highly competitive, enjoyable, and replayable to do just that.
But I love tactics and greatly dislike mutually exclusive specialization paths in games.