Land vs. Sea review – Boats? Caravans? Head to Head exploration!

My wife and I are always looking for great week-night games. We both work in education and after a day hanging around kids, we usually aren’t in the mood for a 2-3 hour heavy euro game experience. Something that takes under an hour, features some great art, and a little bit of puzzle? Sounds right up our alley.

Land vs. Sea is a tile drafting/laying puzzle game designed and illustrated by Jon-Paul Jacques and distributed by Good Games Publishing. The game is designed for mainly 2-players, but can play up to three and four players with altered rules. Players will take on the role of either Sea or Land and place tiles on a communal map to complete scoring patterns, take extra actions, or even steal tiles. Each player starts the game with two tiles taken from the top of one of two stacks. Play starts with the “Land” player and alternates back and forth between players until the last tile is placed on the map. The player with the most points, wins!

On a player turn, they will choose one of their two tiles to place onto the communal map at the center of the table, using either side of the tile. The only stipulation is that edges must match up to like edges; land to land and sea to sea. If the placed tile has an action symbol, steal or play again, the player will execute the action by either placing their second tile or stealing a tile away from the other player. If placing the tile completed an area of enclosed sea or land areas, the player will score the area. Finally the player will draw up to two tiles, using either stack.

When scoring an area, whether land or sea, the player who owns the area type will get one point per tile included in the completed area. The player who placed the tile will score bonus points based on the number of “x” symbols located on the area. In this way, the sea player could complete the land area to give the land player points, but also score the bonus points for themselves.

The game includes a special volcano/whirlpool tile that is used if a hole is made in the map with surrounding edges of one type: six sea edges or six land edges. This tile includes five bonus markers for whoever completes the area it is in.

Additional Scoring Options & Player Counts

After playing through the basic game, Land vs. Sea also includes some more scoring options for players.

Mountain & Coral

Some tiles are printed with mountainscapes (land) and coral reefs (sea). When connecting two like edges together, regardless of who places the tile, the joined sides score the player one point per section in the range/reef. Players can score multiple points by stringing together larger areas of mountains or coral on a single turn.

Caravan & Ship

These tiles can score immediate and end game points. When placing a tile with a ship or caravan symbol next to another tile with a ship or caravan, the player will score two points regardless of their player type. At the end of the game, players will search for groupings of ships and/or caravans. Each symbol is worth one point, however, who gets the points depends on the majority type in the grouping. If more caravans, land gets the points and if more ships, sea gets the points. If a tie, no one gets points for that specific grouping.

Waypoints

These special tokens can encourage other players to interact with you and score bonus points. The tokens are encouraged with a four person game but can be used in other player counts as well. Before drawing up to their tile limit, a player may place their waypoint on a tile with an open edge matching their type. Waypoints score a point for the player who returns the token to their owner in one of two ways: The area the waypoint is placed is completed and scored or the waypoint tile is completely surrounded on all six sides by other tiles.

3-Player Mode - The Cartographer

In this mode, the third player is known as the Cartographer and scores a bulk of their points by completing areas and scoring bonus points. The gameplay works just like in the two player game described above, but players are required to sit in Land - Sea - Cartographer turn order.

When playing with the Caravan and Ship scoring system, the cartographer wants even numbers of ships and caravans in each grouping and will score one point for each. 

4-Player Mode - Teams

This mode also plays just like the two player game with teammates going in alternating turns. Teammates are not allowed to communicate with their partner about what tiles they have or what they want them to do on a turn. Waypoints serve as the only communication tool, indicating where tiles might be placed for the other player. Waypoints may end up in the same area, but cannot be placed on the same tile.

Overall Thoughts

The production of Land vs. Sea is fantastic. The rulebook is easy to follow and does a great job of providing in-game examples to help explain scoring conditions. The artwork on the tiles is fantastic with little easter eggs sprinkled throughout the game. If you look closely you might find two goats locked in a sword battle, a mermaid with two tails, a sea monster attacking a coastal village, and even a white tiger with a prototype cloth sack jet pack? Another great feature is that the box serves as a player guide and a scoring track which decreases extra fluff needed in the box. The game comes with scoring reminders for each player as well.

The gameplay is puzzly and fun. The basic game helps players dip their toes in the water before adding in more complex scoring conditions. As the map grows, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of all the tiles and different groupings needed for end game scoring. The nice part about the game is that players can use any combination of scoring conditions they want, leveling the game to the right level of brain burning for them. After a day of kindergarten classes, my wife wants basic rules, but on a good day a full compliment of scoring conditions is just what the doctor ordered. 

For the initiated, this game does feel a lot like another classic tile laying game, Carcassone, which comes with different iterations and expansions of its own, but Land vs. Sea could be a great game for a couple looking for their own tile laying experience. The higher player count modes were not as much fun as the two player experience. The Cartographer 3rd-Player felt like they were left out of the fun and didn’t have as many opportunities to score when playing with the basic rules, and as a new player weren’t ready for the expanded gameplay. The four player game seemed to go too quickly with each player taking half of their turns and was lacking the depth that a two player game can bring.