Land vs Sea is a game that I picked up because some reviewers were talking about it and raving about it. I figured, like some other games that get really popular, it might not be for me, but I do want to try it. And Land vs Sea from Good Games Publishing will be wanted by other people if I don’t want it. Now, this is an impression off of the first play of the game.

How to Play Land Vs Sea

Land Vs Sea is a simple tile laying game. You have two tiles in hand, and you try and complete groups of land or sea, closing them off kind of like the cities in Carcassonne. But the twist on this is that one person scores for sea sections closed off and the other for land sections. One point per tile used.

Now, this just seems like it’d be all about not closing off your opponents section. But in the basic version of the game, there are X’s on some of the tiles. The person who closes off the land or water mass scores for the X’s on the tiles. So even though I might be giving you points, if you are sea for example, if there are enough X’s, it makes it worthwhile for me to close it.

At the end of the game, the person who has scored the most points is the winner. There are advanced versions of the game, or versions for more than two players, but I haven’t played those yet.

What Doesn’t Work?

I have two issues with the game. One is minor, the other is a bit bigger. So let’s start with the minor one. I think that figuring out the scoring during the game is fine. But I also think that no one will ever play a game where they don’t mess up the scoring sometime. A large land or water mass is just hard to remember if you’ve already counted a tile. It’s not a major issue because scores are high enough it shouldn’t matter.

The one thing for me that is a downside is that as you build out this map, the game slows down. When you start there are two or three options that are good for you. The longer you go, the more options you have, and the slower the game goes. This might be fun for some people. But at that point in time, I want the game to feel like it’s ramping up, or something. And really it’s just the same game as before.

What Works?

Firstly, the scoring works. I like that one player is land and one player is sea. It adds in strategy that you just wouldn’t get if whomever closed off the section could score it. But because of the X’s on the board, it isn’t like you just try and avoid scoring anything at all costs. You want to close stuff off to get points. So the game doesn’t skimp on points which is nice.

I also like that the tiles are two sided. That means that even though you only have two tiles in hand, you have a lot of options. Now, I just said that there were too many options, but that’s on the map. I don’t mind having options in my hand. It’s just trickier when those options are also on the board with so much to look at. But double sided tiles means that you can look and think about options but not too many options in your hand. And you can maybe bluff your opponent.

Who Is This For?

I think the people who like a fairly easy game to get into, it at it’s basic level is a gateway game or an inviting game. It is also going to be a game that works well for couples or a date night. Or people who really like that head to head abstract game.

Final Thoughts on Land vs Sea

I need to play this one more, and in particular with some of the other rules in place. But I suspect my opinion might not massively change on it. Why, because it’s an abstract game that lends itself to going slower and slower as you play.

In my head, I put this game kind of in the same category as Calico. Some of that is the tile shape, but some is also because there is that abstract puzzle piece to the games. But with Calico, when you get closer to the end of the game, it moves faster. Fewer choices and you know what you want to do. In Land vs Sea, it just gets slower and slower and slower as you play. Decisions might matter more at the end of the game, but the game suffers with that slowdown.

But let me know if you think I’m missing something in the game? Or what do you think of Land vs Sea. It’s one I plan on coming back to, to try at least one more time, but I”m not sure if it’s for me.

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