by davypi
farmergiles wrote:
I've been testing the theory that you don't need a bunch of ships to win and can manage with any loans or ships. Now after many games, I can see that even though you can SURVIVE a game without any ships or loans, doing so will tank the game for you.
For what I'm about to say, it bears pointing out that this thread is over four years old now.
When you say "many games" my question is, at what player counts? As Brian pointed out early in the thread, handling feeding with fish/bread/cow is feasible with higher player counts. I have seen a no-boat/no-loan strategy work at the five player level. At four players, I think you still need at least one boat, but you can become less dependent upon them. However, both situations do require having access to "standard" forms of food and it also requires outbuilding all of the other players in order to keep pace with other player's shipping empires. I usually only play a 3 player game and tend to score extremely well, but the last time I got into a 4 player game, my usual strategies starting falling apart because I wasn't used to having fewer turns or having more competition for key actions in the game. Player count definitely has a more pronounced effect on strategy in Le Havre than it does in most other games that I play.