by Mools
steveg700 wrote:
So, I'm gearing up for my first game of Le Havre, and I watched Rahdo to give me an idea Wanted to run a couple of things he said past some diehard players, as they are potential concerns for a newb.
1) He commented that the game encourages players to rack up lots of loans, and that the income was well worth the end-game requirement of paying them off. Is this the case? Doesn't that sort of undermine the point of the feeding requirement?
2) He said the endgame is always very rote, as players are building ships and cashing in steel and coke. He said that going for leather wasn't really competitive, and implied that as a resource it was a waste of time.
So, what you guys think?
1) He commented that the game encourages players to rack up lots of loans, and that the income was well worth the end-game requirement of paying them off. Is this the case? Doesn't that sort of undermine the point of the feeding requirement?
2) He said the endgame is always very rote, as players are building ships and cashing in steel and coke. He said that going for leather wasn't really competitive, and implied that as a resource it was a waste of time.
So, what you guys think?
I find the loan stragegy to be so-so. I have definitely crushed games using it, but there has also been games where I got loans but couldn't get the actions I needed and ultimately lost badly because I was too far behind to pay them off. I'm not sure if this is due to player number or because the loan strategy can be easily blocked if people catch on to how you plan on paying them off.
The same is true of the "coke" strategy. Ultimately, Le Havre is a game about shipping and you will do very well if you build up your ships and high value goods to ship for money near the end game. Coke is the highest value good (also provides lots of energy for paying for shipping) that can be easy to stock up. However, again, if you keep getting blocked by others doing the same thing or with the same plan, then you could end up losing. Again, this may be an issue with player number as a 2p game means you can pretty much alternate getting coal then coke then shipping. A larger player number makes it tougher to jump on the spot when needed or easier to block someone from taking the actions they need.
Also, I've found that someone who does well without loans can do quite well against someone stocking up loans so long as you own the buildings they need to pay off the loans AND/OR block their ability to ship.
I am sort of inclined to agree that leather is a waste of time. It is always an option as you pretty much get hides for free, along with lots of food, but it is very much an outsider resource. There are special cards that can make it a good resource, but you can't really count on any special card even being in the game at all. I have played one game where my wife won by stockpiling all the cattle, getting tons of food and hides and then cashing in on the leather, but other than that one game I can't remember any other where leather was used at all.