The thing I love most about this edition, is that it is completely faithful to the hard copy, but plays so quickly! I can knock out a game in around 20 minutes which is fantastic. But: The screen is definitely dense on iPhone. Retina for iPad 3 is still forthcoming. The speed makes me play somewhat haphazardly. On the plus side though, there ate actually two levels of undo: single turn, and complete round. This really helps with developing the foresight needed to optimize your moves. It's a nice touch that really adds to the teaching value.
Best board game implementation yet! Le Havre is one of my favorite boardgames, but I've only played it 5-6 times due to the time investment. I can usually knock out 2-3 games of Agricola in the same amount of time and that's what I usually do. But with this amazingly faithful port, AIs, and asynch support, that has all changed! This is as close to Agricola as you will get on an iPad for the moment and it's sweet. Be warned though, the game is complex for new players. Your time would be well-spent spending 30 minutes on boardgamegeek.com reading some strategy posts. Once you've mastered basic strategy, a couple of AI games will have you ready to jump into some asynch play. I do find it a little cumbersome to play on my iPhone, but familiarity with the game or playing on the iPad first will help. In fact, I'm amazed Codito managed to build a usable UI on the iPhone. The game when played in person eats a 3' x 2' space on my table! The price is cheap, buy now, and send me a game invite (greengriggs) whether you're new to Le Havre or a pro. ** I am not affiliated in any way with the devs. I simply love Le Havre.
Agricola is coming soon from Playdek, and given their pedigree it should be an excellent translation.
Game Impressions I played through the tutorial and clearly have a grasp of play which reminds me a lot of a hybrid between Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan. While I know HOW to play, much like knowing how each of the chess pieces moves about on the board, I have no idea what I should be doing at any given moment (the fish sure look tasty...but if I don't quickly grab the bakehouse my opponent will own it...but then again is that such a bad thing?). You need to snag resources and then either run them through another player's building (for a fee) or construct the building yourself if it didn't already exist in town (saving you money and making so if anyone else wants to perform that action they'll need to pay you). While trying to maximize your profit potential you also need to deal with feeding an ever growing crew of workers. Not only do the worker require to be fed every couple of turns, most of these buildings require energy (also gained from those raw resources) to convert materials for you. So you need to keep all of your resources in balance, be able to look down the road several turns to see which resources you'll need to convert into what to then build some key building down the line, and all the while make doing the same very difficult for your opponents (golly, you're pretty low on food so I guess *I* better take those fish you were about to snag on your next turn ).
I guess it's time I bought this, I'll probably play only AI matches the first day but look out for invites from me soon.
I think you'll really like it. It's a great physical game, and this is a really good port. It's a lot deeper than Ascension or Nightfall, but I can definitely see an overlap in the types of people who like them.
Just played the tutorial and this games reminds me a lot of puerto rico. But there is so much going on. So many buildings and possibility that makes it a much more complex game. But I am not sure this is so suited for such a small screen. All is so little and cards barely visible.
I've just played a few short 2p games and it's pretty hectic how many things you have to keep track of but the amount of choices make it a very enjoyable game.
Are the initial building plans always in the same order (I'd almost guess they have to be as you can't have buildings requiring steel on top of the plans for the clay mound)?
Each building has a sort order printed on the top-right, which defines where they will be in in a pile.
Lord Gek, sent you an invite for a short game... but when I started it, it turned out to be a long game. I tried it twice but I can't seem to start a short game online. Very odd.
Looks really good but I think it may be worth waiting on a retina update for the new iPad before playing this - sounds like this would make a significant difference... Jamie
This is just too difficult. I keep playng fast games with one easy AI and I get slaughtered. First game where the complexity of things to keep track is too high and the screen is to crowded.
Early losses can be a little discouraging but while learning you should make extensive use of undo and round undo to figure out why you weren't able to get enough food or materials to build etc. There is a LOT to keep track of and Le Havre is a heavy game that requires a lot of strategy despite looking deceptively simple at the start. In order to compete you can follow some basic strategies like hoarding coke and steel to build steel ships at the end. Although these simple strategies can be countered by competitive players.
I guess I will learn ... The game is fun even if I am playing short games. But I am not sure I like it more than others (like puerto rico or the just out magic). However I seem to have problems with online games.: random plays always end up against an empty opponent and, despite I tick for a short game, I hate always normal ones. Pity. Knowing codito speed of fixing bugs ... It will take an eternity. So I hope it is user error ...
I noticed that too... No online short games Is a tad annoying. Also, I wish that any players that drop out of a 3+ player game would be replaced with bots. It is kind of galling to see a whole game canceled because someone gets impatient.
