by marcuslind1
Shipping the most valuable goods gives the most money. Is this then a broken strategy? I´d say no. Because this strategy is fairly obvious - you can make multiple shippings in one turn and the goods values are clearly listed. So dominant yes, broken no.Other things you can do, like getting some kind of food engine - be it rushing wooden ships or cooking lots of fish/wheat/meat - is a means to succeed with shipping. You also need things to do to get som extra points when buildingss are blocked etc.
As others have pointed out, things can change with higher player counts when it´s harder to plan forward and more people block buildings.
However, if the lots of loans strategy is as strong as some mean it is, then I´d say that it goes against the spirit and intent of the game. Which is probably the reason that the designer added the Expert Loan rule. I prefer to play with this rule myself. It´s interesting to see how loan-heavy players with early 2 franc interest payments fare against loan-light players who scramble for food (hey, 16 fish is 16 fish). But I´m hardly an expert or some kind of tournament player.