We are excited to announce that Land vs Sea will be released in North America, Australia and New Zealand on October 6, 2021, and in other regions in the weeks following.
Land vs Sea is a beautiful 2, 3, and 4 player tile laying game where you take turns placing tiles to build a map of land and sea areas filled with delightful details from historic cartography. This is a fresh take on tile laying games with intriguing and innovative components, simple gameplay with surprising depth, and optional extra scoring layers that add strategy as desired.
Features
- Easy to learn core gameplay suitable for new or lighter gamers, to get them playing fast.
- Scoring that starts simple but goes deep – Land players must complete land areas for 1 point per tile, and likewise for Sea players with sea areas, with players vying for bonus points along the way. But every tile you add to the map is an opportunity for your rivals to score from too.
- Double-sided map tiles. One side is public and the other is for your eyes only - creating a unique puzzle game filled with options, agency, and surprise moments.
- Optional scoring layers that activate art on the tiles to score for you in different ways, adding depth and strategy for experienced gamers.
- 3 Different player modes for 2, 3 and 4 players
Aesthetic pleasures
Australian designer-artist Jon-Paul Jacques has made a labour of love rich with whimsical and enticing art. Players explore and score a medieval map filled with marginalia from historic cartography from around the world. Eagle-eyed players will be rewarded as they browse the tiles for even more hidden details.
Like other good tile laying games Land vs Sea is an aesthetic pleasure to play, but it brings some refreshing innovation, tension, and agency with its double-sided hex map tiles.
Simple innovative gameplay
The gameplay is simple, but your choices are multi-layered and each map tile you place offers your rivals opportunities to score from too. The top side of the double-sided map tiles are public, and rivals must pay attention to each other’s tiles while playing their own. ‘What can they do? What do they want to do?’ But the hidden side of your tiles are for your eyes only - can you spot the best play to outmanoeuver or surprise your rivals?
Special Play again and Steal tiles add spice by altering the game tempo tactically.
When your turn is done, choose which tile to replenish your hand of 2 tiles with from the face up tiles on top of the 2 tile stacks. This extra choice adds agency for a satisfying and tighter tile laying game experience.
Optional scoring layers add strategy
Are you ready to go deeper? Unlock two more layers to score in new ways from the same tiles.
Connect increasingly long Mountain (land) or Coral (sea) sections to score incrementally greater points each time.
Place Caravans or Ships adjacent to each other for points while scoring from other layers of each tile, all while you play for majority control over trade routes to score enough end game points for the win.
These optional scoring layers ease Land vs Sea players in from a delightful gateway map making game into a multi layered thinky puzzle game.
3 modes of play
Finally, Land vs Sea comes with 3 modes of play for different player counts:
2 players - play head to head as Land vs Sea, shaping your rival’s moves while completing your own areas.
4 players - do the same, but with teams: 2 land players vs 2 sea players... with an added wrinkle of limiting all communication to hinting ideal plays to your partner by placing bonus-point scoring Waypoint tokens on the map, while trying to disrupt your rival team’s signalled plans. This communication limit intensifies the team play aspect of the game while stopping alpha gamers playing for their partners.
3 players - experienced players can add the Cartographer player for an asymmetric game. They score mainly by connecting Mountain & Coral sections of tiles, and at the end of the game by ensuring there are even counts of Caravans and Ships in trade routes, and finally by helping players complete areas to score their bonus points for themselves. This intriguing asymmetric mode leads to all sorts of shifting alliances as trailing players work together to catch the leading player.
3 scoring layers and 3 modes of play to suit a range of styles and tastes. But no matter how you play, at the end of the game you lean back to take in the little world you’ve made together.
Land vs Sea will be at Gen Con 2021 in Indianapolis and online.
Land vs Sea game details
Ages 14+
2 / 3 / 4 player modes
40 minutes