Gamehelplehavre

Develop the harbour of Le Havre by collecting goods, constructing buildings and acquiring ships. Buildings provide actions and income; ships reduce your food requirements. The player with the greatest wealth at the end wins.

The playing area

• Seven offer spaces contain francs, fish, wood, clay, iron, grain and cattle. Resources accumulate until someone takes them.
• Three building proposals show future buildings. Only the top card of each pile is currently available to build or buy.
• Town buildings and players’ buildings have already been constructed. Anyone may use their actions, subject to occupancy and entry fees. A padlock means a building has no action to visit.
• Ships become available as rounds end. Only the top ship of each type is available to build or buy.
• Round cards show food requirements, harvests, town construction and upcoming ships. Your goods, francs, buildings, ships and loans are public information.

Your turn

Each round contains seven individual player turns in total, not seven turns per player. Play continues in player order across round boundaries.

1. Supply

Advance to the next supply tile and add one of each of its two depicted resources to the corresponding offers. Supply tiles are revealed on their first use; their order then stays the same throughout the game. On BGA, supply is automatic.

On the interest tile, everyone with at least one loan pays 1 franc in total, regardless of their number of loans.

2. Main action

Choose one:

• Take an offer: collect everything from one offer space. Your person disc stays where it is.
• Use a building: move your person disc to an unoccupied, already-constructed building and perform its action. You cannot stay in your current building to use it again. Buildings still in the proposals cannot be visited.

You may visit your own buildings, the town’s or another player’s. Your own buildings are free to enter. Otherwise, pay the printed entry fee to the owner, or to the reserve for a town building. A slash between food and francs means you choose one payment. You must be able to pay and perform the action.

Buying, selling and constructing

Buying is an additional action, not your main action. During your turn, you may buy available buildings or ships with francs, before or after your main action. A building’s purchase price is its printed value unless a separate price is shown. Ships have a separate purchase price; luxury liners cannot be bought.

Constructing uses a building action and materials. Visit a suitable construction building to construct an exposed proposal. Town buildings are already constructed and can only be bought. To construct a ship, visit a wharf and pay its materials plus 3 energy. Buying a ship needs neither a wharf nor energy.

The first non-wooden ship constructed at a particular wharf also requires 1 brick to modernise that wharf. Modernisation remains in place for everyone.

You may sell owned buildings and ships to the town for half their printed base value. Building bonuses do not increase this price. Selling and loan repayment are also allowed outside your turn, between actions. Buying or selling a building sends its occupants home. A building sold during a turn cannot be bought back during that same turn. Players cannot trade goods, money, buildings or ships with one another.

Food, energy and conversions

• Food: fish 1; smoked fish 2; bread 2; meat 3. Grain and cattle are not food until processed.
• Energy: wood 1; charcoal 3; coal 3; coke 10.
• 1 franc can replace 1 food, including for entry fees. Food cannot replace a payment required in francs.
• Brick can replace clay; steel can replace iron. The reverse substitutions are not allowed.
• Upgrading or selling goods requires a suitable building action. Goods cannot simply be flipped or sold to the reserve.
• Food and energy are payment values, not separate resources you can save. Excess food or energy is lost; there is no change. Round receipts down and costs up when necessary.

Building arrows show conversions. Respect the limits and check whether energy is charged per conversion or for the whole visit. Owning a building does not let you use its action without visiting it.

End of a round

After the seventh turn, resolve the round card:

1. Harvest, if indicated: anyone with at least 1 grain gains 1 grain; anyone with at least 2 cattle gains 1 cattle. Each gain is limited to one per harvest.
2. Feeding: pay the food requirement, reduced by your ships’ food supply. Ships reduce the bill each round; they do not produce goods to store. Excess supply gives no reward.
3. Town construction, if indicated: for a standard building, take the exposed proposal with the lowest sort number; for a special building, reveal the next special card.
4. New ship: turn over the resolved round card and add its ship to the appropriate pile.

Loans

A normal loan is compulsory only when you cannot meet feeding or interest payments; you cannot borrow voluntarily to finance a purchase or entry fee. Use available payment resources first. You may sell assets to avoid borrowing, but are not obliged to.

Each loan provides 4 francs, costs 5 francs to repay, and deducts 7 points if still unpaid at game end. Interest is still only 1 franc per interest tile, not per loan. Special building effects may create exceptions.

Final actions and scoring

After the last round is fully resolved, each player takes one final main action, starting with the original starting player. There is no supply, interest or buying. Selling and loan repayment remain possible. You may enter a building occupied by others, but cannot reuse the building your own disc already occupies. Card effects can modify these rules.

Your score is:

• Francs held;
• Plus the printed values of your buildings and ships;
• Plus applicable building bonuses;
• Minus 7 per unpaid loan.

Goods have no inherent end-game value, although specific building bonuses may count them. Ties are shared victories. If live scoring is disabled, scores remain hidden until final scoring.

Shortened game

The shortened game uses fewer rounds, different starting resources and a different building selection, with some buildings already in town and starting ships where specified. It does not use special buildings. BGA prepares the appropriate setup automatically; the turn, feeding and scoring principles remain the same.