Le Havre (board game)

Le Havre is an economic resource management board game designed by Uwe Rosenberg and published by Lookout Games, developed in 2007 and released at the Spiel fair in 2008. One to five players take the role of merchants developing the French port town of Le Havre, drawing on earlier Rosenberg designs such as Agricola and on Caylus. On each turn a player either takes the single available good from a harbor space, such as fish, wood, clay, or iron, or uses one existing building to process or trade goods already in hand. Buildings convert raw materials into higher value goods, for example a smokehouse that turns fish into more valuable smoked fish, and a turn can instead be spent constructing new buildings or ships. At the end of every round each player must feed their workers, with the food requirement growing as the game progresses, and a player unable to pay it must take an expensive loan that drains later scoring. Ships bought during play grant ongoing discounts on trade routes, easing the constant pressure to keep enough food on hand. The game ends after a fixed number of rounds tied to player count, and final scores combine cash on hand, the value of owned buildings and ships, and any goods still held.