Will you create epic lands filled with unicorns and pigs that fly? Or boundless seas with krakens and mermaids? Can you make long trade routes of caravans and ships for massive points? Or are you more partial to matching mountain ranges and coral reefs? Whatever path you take, there’s loads to explore in Land vs Sea!

What Is It?

A puzzley tile laying game where players work to build out a shared map and are trying to close off areas of land or sea. They score points for enclosed areas of their type, and whoever places the closing tile scores the bonus points in the area (even if it’s the other side’s area). Some tiles have special actions to play an extra tile, or steal a tile from an opponent, which players will want to use strategically to get ahead. Players can add in additional scoring options for extra points through connecting caravans and ships, or mountains and coral. The player/team with the most points once all the tiles are played win(s)!

Who Is It For?

  • 2 -4 Players (4 is played in teams, so if you don’t like team play, stick to 2-3)
  • Ages 12 +
  • Fans of tile laying / route building
  • Fans of various ways to score

Variants

3 Player – The 2 and 4 player games are very similar as the roles are just land and sea in both. The 3 player game is a bit different. This variant adds in the Cartographer role which can score bonus points on completed areas, but not for the areas themselves since they are playing as neither land nor sea, and can score for caravans/ships (placing them, or for trade route ties at the game’s end), and for all mountains and coral.

It was a neat twist on the game to play with an odd number, but I felt the game worked better at 2 or in teams. The 3 player game seemed to give the land and sea players a feeling of less control, as they still had to focus on completing areas, and not letting other players extend their areas too much, but the cartographer was able to score consistently while other players couldn’t do much to hinder them. Worth a shot, but I preferred it in even numbers.

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Fun art, bright colors, really nice looking
  • Components – Nice quality tiles, nice wooden player pieces; love the score track as being part of the insert, really nice.
  • Simple rules / mechanics, but still provide you with plenty of puzzle / challenge
  • Well-written rules
  • Bonus points are a cool way of incentivizing players to close off the other side’s areas

CONS

  • Luck of the Draw – It’s more apparent in something like this where there are special abilities. It’s very possible one side gets many more abilities than the other just by chance, and it can be frustrating when that happens
  • Aesthetics – Though it’s pretty, for me, this was visually overwhelming. It was often hard for me to see where a tile would best fit, or clearly see where some areas started and ended because it was all a bit busy

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought this was a solid tile laying game; seems a strategic step up from a welcoming base game like Carcassonne. I’d recommend 2 or 4 players more than 3, but 3 was a unique experience that I’m sure some players will really be drawn to.

For me, it was just a little bit too visually overwhelming, which lead to some long, analysis-paralysis-prone turns, and made it a longer game than it should have been. But, if you don’t have that visual issue, you might really enjoy it!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating: 6/10
Designer – Jon-Paul Jacques
Artist – Jon-Paul Jacques
Publisher – Good Games Publishing
MSRP – $30.00
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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