How to Play

Le Havre

1-5 players 30-150 min 7.8 Board Game Geek Rating

Players collect goods and use buildings to upgrade materials, construct ships, or develop their own structures. Buildings generate income through entry fees from other players, while ships provide essential food for workers. After every seven turns, players must feed their workforce during harvest phases. Victory goes to whoever accumulates the greatest total wealth through cash, buildings, and ships.

Published 2008

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Arrange short game round cards carefully

For the 12-round short game, do not intuitively remove round cards 13-18; check the rulebook for hollow checkmarks corresponding to your player count, as the final round numbers may skip rather than increase sequentially by +1

Understand building/ship acquisition options

Players can obtain buildings or ships through either construction (using resources) or purchase (using money), providing flexibility when resources are insufficient but money is available, or vice versa

Identify resource tiles by border color

Distinguish upgraded vs. non-upgraded resources by examining the border background color - lighter borders indicate basic resources while darker/deeper borders indicate upgraded tiles

Differentiate similar resource graphics

Some upgraded and non-upgraded resources look very similar (e.g., fur vs. leather, clay vs. bricks have nearly identical silhouettes), so always verify the border color first before confirming the resource type

Prepare visual aids

Have a magnifying glass or clear reading glasses ready, as the game requires vision of 2.0 or better to read the small text and icons on components

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Use the Shipping Line card for selling goods

You cannot place workers directly on owned ships to sell goods; first access the Shipping Line card (through building, purchasing, or when it's placed in town at round end), then the worker-placing player can sell goods according to each owned ship's maximum cargo capacity

Sell goods from all ships simultaneously

When using the Shipping Line, you can execute selling from all owned ships at once, choosing which goods and quantities to sell from each

Reference goods values on the Shipping Line card

Each good's selling price is listed on the Shipping Line card (matching the small text on resource tiles, e.g., "4f" means 4 francs), eliminating the need to strain eyes reading individual tiles

Look up buildings in Chinese edition by number

The Chinese version sorts buildings by card number but lists names first without highlighting the numbers; locate the number after the building name for proper reference

Interpret the lightbulb icon as energy

The lightbulb symbol represents energy resources despite the weak thematic connection

Read "1/2" as conversion ratios

This notation typically means every 2 of XX yields 1 of YY

Identify action limits on arrows/lines

Execution limits appear as bold numbers printed directly on arrows or lines, appearing as thick dark marks in the middle

Understand the lock icon

A lock symbol indicates the card cannot be used by non-owners (e.g., ship selling abilities and per-round food distribution are restricted to owners only)

Borrow money only when forced

You cannot voluntarily take loans when you have food or money; loans are only permitted when both your food and money combined cannot cover required food payments

Carefully distinguish clay from bricks

Since the first player to build a non-wooden ship must pay one brick to modernize the shipyard, carefully identify whether red-colored tiles are clay or bricks, or you may be limited to building only wooden ships

Winning

How to claim victory.

Follow harvest restrictions for cattle

Regardless of how many cattle (N>1) a player owns, harvest always yields only one cattle

Follow harvest restrictions for grain

Regardless of how many grain (N>0) a player owns, harvest always yields only one grain

Manage loans strategically

If you take too many loans, try to access the Local Judge card; if unavailable, consider building or purchasing it yourself, or face severe consequences in late game

Note important rules in sidebars

Critical rules like harvest limits are placed in rulebook sidebars, which are easily overlooked but essential for correct play