Land vs Sea– First Impressions
Review copy provided by the publisher
Good Games Publishing has a bit of a tightrope to walk. They have to publish good games. It’s in the name. If they don’t…
But they’ve successfully navigated those waters before with the deep replayability of theme-park machinations in Unfair, the socially devious and strategically munchy adventuring of Guild Master, and then the un-evil stepsister Funfair, which riffs on the legacy of its predecessor with some seriously chill but decidedly fun amusement park amuse-bouche.
Those games do what they do well. And that may sound silly, but I mean it in an endearing way. I like those three games for what they promise and then what they offer. They’re not overselling. They’re not underperforming. Unfair really doesn’t let on about how good it is until you get several plays in and you’ve started to sense the potential thematic combinations floating above you, ready to be snatched like airy cotton candy waiting for a clamoring hand. And Guild Master builds a tug-of-war sensation between player interactions, with profitable collaborations and opportunistic betrayals, all while delivering satisfying quest-completion gameplay. And then Funfair takes away any criticism that someone could muster about Unfair and serves up rollercoaster highs with low overhead and in just the right amount of time.
That’s a winning streak there for Good Games Publishing. One you don’t want to mess up. So, if we’re talking about what is promised and what is offered…
Then Land vs Sea might be the best one yet. Maybe because you don’t expect it. Maybe because it compresses so many good things into such a small box. Or maybe because I just love spatial puzzlers and this hits the right note for me. This sings… as Quackalope is wont to say. This is a game… as BoardGameCo frequently prefaces. And I agree fully. This is a game that sings. It sings a lovely little tune full of pep about a world of possibility. One of land. One of the sea. And one of the fights between the two. And it’s the shifting terrain. The tectonic friction between those two forces where players will unearth what is so special.
What It Does
From designer and artist Jon-Paul Jacques, Land vs Sea encourages players to not stop until every tile is on the table. Only then will you sit back and revel in what was made. Before that, you’re too busy. Players must solve the puzzle. It’s a tricky little game of finagling tiles to further your own goals while obstructing the progress of your opponent(s).
Playing as either Land or Sea (except in a 3-player game where someone will be the Cartographer), players will work to complete intact visual bodies on the table of either islands or seas. You don’t want connections to more of the same. You want finished products. That’s how you score. That’s how you accrue victory. That’s how you beat the other team.
In this 2-4 player experience, you’ll be hunched over the table, peering at the soul of the tiles in front of you (and likely examining the hidden facedown side as well) and wondering what’s the best configuration to finish off that mountain-heavy island or that coral-flooded sea. It’s all about those points. But only finished projects score points. Completion overrides ambition here.
Players take turns placing a tile down on the map, refreshing their personal supply of two tiles at the end of it. Certain special abilities, like playing a second tile or stealing from other players, add nuance to that decision-making process, though, because it may determine where something is placed, what side of the tile is used, what tiles are drawn from the remaining pile, or which masses of land or bodies of water should be targeted.
If it sounds like a lot for such a small game, it is. But it also isn’t. It’s the right amount of depth without much of the complexity that usually accompanies it. The typical trade-off is replaced with a dive into trenches or a hike up the mountains without the need for so much oxygen either way.
How It Does It
Place a tile every turn. Sometimes place two.
Each tile is double-sided, but only the player who owns the tile will be able to look at the opposite side and when players are refreshing their supply from the main stack, they can only see 50% of what’s possible with that tile.
Land wants to finish islands. Sea wants to finish… is-seas? You get the point. Once an island or an isolated body of water is complete, it’s scored. Every tile involved adds a point. And then bonus points are awarded for the little metal jacks (black on land and white on sea) on each tile and any Waypoint tokens in the scored territory.
With half a tile hidden, players operate with partial information on what everyone else has but with full information as to what they personally are capable of. It’s a slick little layer of player interaction and it makes for exciting moves when you’re able to close off that space you needed, perform a two-tile maneuver that gives an edge, or steal a good move right from under the nose of the other team.
When all the tiles are gone, whoever has scored the most wins.
Until you start including all the optional goodie bags.
That’s when Land vs Sea gets a little frisky. Pour yourself a nice glass of whatever you consider to be a nice glass of something and start looking at all the other visual layers to throw on the canvas.
Mountains and Coral reefs score for cumulative chains. Land will score Mountains even if Sea is the only placing them. And vice-versa. It’s rock versus reef.
Caravans and Ships make Trade Routes and the active player will score 2 pointswhen adding to the Trade Route but final scoring will give bonus points to whoever has the most of their type—Land earning if Caravans win and Sea earning if Ships win. So short-term and long-term strategy comes into play.
Waypoints are the secret sauce for talking to teammates without talking to them. And encouraging people to score sections that you want complete. If you complete one of your sections, you’ll get the tile points, bonus points, and Waypoint… points. But if the other team completes one of your sections, they’ll be able to steal the bonus points and Waypoint points, leaving you with just the regular old point-points. Confused yet. You shouldn’t be. I’m making it more complicated than the game does.
Then, if you’ve got three players, you’re not even screwed out of a game. You’ve got your own special game inside of the game. It’s Land vs Sea-ception. One player will take control of the Cartographer who goes after Mountain and Coral and other stuff that I don’t know because I haven’t played that mode yet. I’m excited to try it out, though.
Here’s how it all works:
First, distract opponent...
Then block their land grab... counter with two jacks to left sea. Discombobulate.
Dazed, will attempt wild haymaker play with a bad tile. Employ whirlpool block... and big points. Block feral left-side play, weaken right-side... now fracture their central island.
Break mountain ranges. Traumatize veteran player... dislocate their strategy entirely.
Sea kick to their emotional diaphragm.
In summary: Sea’s winning, Land’s fractured, three points gained, four stolen, emotional diaphragm hemorrhaging. Physical recovery: six minutes. Full psychological recovery: six months. Capacity to play effectively in Land vs Sea... neutralized.
Why You Might Like It
This game is light on rules but heavy on gameplay. It doesn’t take much to understand what needs to happen, but it may take a while to discover the best ways to help set up turns with a lot of substance and potency. That dichotomy is exciting to explore as a player and it makes Land vs Sea a sleeper. You don’t expect it to be packing so much in it.
The visuals of the game are delightful. Sinewy islands stretch across the tiles like rumpled and aged parchment. Hypnotic waves wash against those shorelines to create inlets, seas, and bodies of turquoise possibility. And all of it is covered with mountains, coral, caravans, ships, and so much personality from Jon-Paul Jacques.
Why You Might Not
If you are not familiar with spatial puzzles or if you simply don’t enjoy them, then much of the clever design and joy of playing Land vs Sea may be lost on you. The game can really slow down when someone is hesitantly orienting their available tiles all over the map trying to find a good spot for them. Even though what other players do can disrupt your strategy, the game plays most smoothly when you’re discovering where to play next while the other players are going. If you’re not doing that, the game can extend past where it needs to.
And be cautious about jumping into the game with all of the optional scoring elements added in. For players who enjoy strategy and don’t mind the mental hurdle at the outset, it can be a thrilling experience, but it can just as easily be overwhelming for players who need to digest the game’s mechanics one bite at a time. Too much at once could ruin their first impressions of Land vs Sea.
Final Thoughts
I’ve really enjoyed my plays of Land vs Sea and I’m eager to see how my opinion strengthens or evolves as I explore 2-player and 3-player sessions. Going head to head seems like a lot of fun, but I also want to discover how the Cartographer role in a 3-player game takes shape and what influence it has on scoring strategy.
This is a game that I could easily introduce to different types of gamers looking for distinct experiences. Two- and four-player games without any of the optional scoring rules could be a welcome respite from other introductory games with more involved rulesets and player expectations. But the more nuanced and visually pregnant methods of playing Land vs Sea will be very enticing for other players that I know who want something more to chew on.
And while I typically am frustrated by physical productions that take into account shelf presence at the expense of logistics for home storage, I’m very happy with the quality of what Good Games Publishing has done with the game. It’s in a small box. It could be in an even smaller one. But instead of leaving the wasted space empty for components to move around and for my visual anxiety to overflow, they integrated the scoring board into the box so that the components snugly fit into the lower channel and the players can actively use the box and scoring markers to track the victory points in the game. This design choice doubles as an opportunity to embellish the box with the artistic flourishes of Jon-Paul Jacques and keep everything as user-friendly as possible.
Even the sides of the box have reference icons for things to remember while playing!
So, I liked Land vs Sea when I played the digital prototype, but having the physical copy in my hands is special. I’ve gradually shifted away from thinking of games as to how they serve me as an individual player and started to focus more on how a game achieves what it intends for its audience, whether I’m a part of that or not. Thankfully, I’m firmly in the camp of being the target audience for Land vs Sea. And, truly, I think that a wide variety of gamers with varying preferences are also the target audience.
This is a game that can be as light as you want it to be with the core conceit of making islands and making seas until the tiles are gone and one person wins. But it can also be a spiderweb of possibility with silken threads stretching one way and the other, catching fragments of water and earth in its sticky gossamer until a tapestry forms and one element rises above the other in terrestrial triumph. And that dual-edged promise makes this a game to watch.
If you want to check out Land vs Sea, you can learn more about Good Games Publishing or read what the community thinks on BoardGameGeek.
Do you like Carcassone? Could this new game be a potential favorite tile-laying game for you?
Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.