The Inland Port is a shorter, two-player version of La Havre. The Inland Port App lets you play against the AI, online with friends or a pass and play game.

La Havre – The Inland Port App Description:

La Havre The Inland Port takes place over 12 rounds (tracked as days). At the end of the game you want to earn more Francs than your opponent.

On your turn you may build a building or use a building. Buildings cost resources and once built may be used by either player. If you use your opponent’s building you must pay them one Franc. On the day it is built a building grants no bonuses. Each round a building goes unused it gives more resources. But once it goes unused for four days it is discarded and the owner is paid half its value in Francs. Once a building is used it returns to the first spot on the track with the buildings that were just built.

The four resources include clay, wood, fish and grain. They are tracked on a tiered resource grid. Buildings that give you more of these resources have an arrow on them. When you use a building to get resources you move the resource marker upward on the grid. Each step up gets you two, three or four more of a resource depending on the direction. Diagonally left gets two, straight up gets three and up to the right nets you four.

As the days go by more and more powerful buildings are available to build. And after 12 days the game ends and the player with the most Francs wins.

Quick Review of La Havre – The Inland Port App:

I haven’t played the physical board game, but La Havre – The Inland Port App is a fun 2-player game. It takes care of what would seem to be fiddly about the analog version and helps move things along.

The tutorial is very good and you should be playing The Inland Port about 15 minutes after installing it. The interface can be tricky on smaller screens. But once you figure out how to find things and how to navigate back to the main screen, it is fairly straightforward.

The game has an interesting spatial element with the way you manage your resources. It matters which building you use to gain resources and how you choose to pay for things.

I have not played the game enough but it might not have the staying power of some other titles. Since the buildings come out in the same order games feel the same. This might differ if you play with a lot of different friends online. But against the AI it may lack replay value.

If you enjoy this game in its physical form or it’s older brother, Le Havre, then pick up this app. You can play across different systems including iOS, Android, or a Windows Phone.