Hey - just a few quick notes on Le Havre…
The app has a fairly extensive tutorial with multiple chapters, but if video is more your style, there’s always Rahdo to count on:
In terms of strategy, there are two main ways to win:
- build/buy ships and ship goods for money, or
- build/buy buildings for their value.
You can play a mixed strategy as well, but that tends not to score as well. Maximum points tend to come from a shipping strategy, particularly because ships also have value and allow you to feed your people. Building can rack up points too, but tends to require building a lot and getting either the Town Hall or the Bank for end of game bonus points.
One thing that players of Agricola tend to have a challenge with is the idea of taking loans - specifically, taking loans in Le Havre to pay Francs for end of round food requirements is nowhere near as punitive as not feeding your family in Agricola. In fact, the highest scores tend to come when players allow themselves to take loans (sometimes many) and then pay them off at the end of the game.
This is because you only need to pay 1 Franc per round if you have any loans (so taking additional loans is no worse than the first) and because of the math of loan repayment: paying off a loan during the game costs 5 Francs, but having a loan at the end of the game costs you 7 Francs of value. In other words, if you can turn the loan into 5 Francs and pay it off, you come out 2 Francs ahead in final scoring.
I’m happy to answer any other questions, and I’m sure there are a few other experienced players in the group too…