Game: Sword and Sail

Thread: Re: Review of Sword and Sail

awakener76 — 2008-11-06T14:23:46+00:00

Played 6 2p games of this the other weekend and must say I'm very impressed. Printed the board on glossy paper at about 1.5x scale and stuck to nice thick card and that provides a nice sized board (around 11-12 inches square).

The first couple games I won easily and were over in 10 mins each, but as my opponent got into the game our matches lasted longer and were much closer. One tactic I found useful was, if cards and position allow, to make a feint towards one empire, drawing your opponent in, and then rapidly striking out in a different direction, catching them off balance.

All in all a very good game and I look forward to the other games BigLittleGames have in development.

Thread: Re: Two minor modifications

magnitt — 2008-10-06T16:23:35+00:00

What a shame! ))) Thank you, corrected it in the post.

Thread: Re: Two minor modifications

Howitzer_120mm — 2008-10-06T14:19:04+00:00

Check the first line - I can't find this game "Sword and Sale"

Thread: Two minor modifications

magnitt — 2008-10-05T20:24:52+00:00

"Sword and Sail" is one of our favorite games. We enjoy playing it because it's usually both quite fast and strategic. There were just two little drawbacks for us:

(1) Winning by occupying Germania is often too easy.
(2) While playing one-on-one, drawing many Voyage cards early can often lead to quick defeat.

Problem (1) may be solved in 2 ways:

(1a) Players agree that occupation of Germania does not lead to victory.

This house-rule is OK, but we actually prefer another way of solving this:

(1b) We have modified the game map by splitting Germania Magna (Germania) region - a new border now runs from Vandalla (Scandia) south to Noricum (Italy). Thus a new region is formed in Germania: it is the lower left part that kind of sticks out from Germania Magna - we have called it Marcomanni (it borders Vandalla, Chattia, Rhaetia, Noricum and Germania Magna).

This modification balances the map, still leaving Germania the easiest region to conquer (which means that this modification really is necessary). We play the game this way for more than a year.

Besides, we recently solved problem (2) by allowing players to play Voyage cards for free (i.e., playing Voyage cards becomes a free action - it does not count towards the 3 actions limit each turn). This idea has not been play-tested long, but it already seems that this is exactly what we were looking for.

I hope that these little amendments will help you enjoy this great game still more!

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Howitzer_120mm — 2008-09-06T07:11:15+00:00

Only 3 Voyage cards - these upgrade land units so they become sea units - can go on land OR Sea!

Thread: Re: Review of Sword and Sail

Head_Rat — 2008-07-12T20:10:48+00:00

I have played this 2p with my wife. It was very quick and we could get several games done in an hour... good light fun with much trash talking.

I played it once with four players. Much longer play time (around 2 hours) but was still great fun. Will definitely play this again.

My only real problem with it is the size of the components. I would recommend anyone who is printing this to double the size if you can.

Great game.

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mothertruckin — 2008-06-19T00:08:06+00:00

Blue ships invade Scandia.

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mothertruckin — 2008-06-19T00:00:11+00:00

Red makes a play for Britannia.

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mothertruckin — 2008-06-18T23:49:36+00:00

Showdown in Germania.

Thread: Re: Win condition?

Andrew Jaster — 2007-12-31T19:38:50+00:00

From the game designer: You are correct, the instructions should read "unit". as any piece can be used to win an area.

Thread: Re: Is attacking one action or two?

abodi — 2007-11-11T23:28:04+00:00

I'm hoping to print up this games today too. it does seem alot more logical that an attack should be one 1 action.

or that attacks should be written like this you use 1 action to move attacking unit onto an enemy unit and both are removed, then if you wish, you can move another unit in to take over the space.

that being said great graphics on this game, and it does seems rather good.

Thread: Re: Review of Sword and Sail

grosmorne — 2007-08-08T20:30:25+00:00

if you ended up playing with 2p, how was it?

Thread: First play and my first session report

metalchorus — 2007-07-11T14:44:00+00:00

After printing and mounting Sword and Sail, which took about 30 minutes (mostly to allow the glue to set), cutting out the counters (another 5-10 minute proposition) my son and I started our game.

My son (7 years old) quickly decided on the noble but difficult "control Italia" tactic. Italia has eight areas to control, whereas my tactic to control Iberia seemed a bit more realistic...Iberia has four areas to conrtol.

I played my armies to Africa to due to card draws, then converted them to navies using my voyage cards

My son started playing his armies to Italia and Hellas.

I moved my navies to Iberia from Africa and my armies from Gallia.

My son tried to defend against my rapidly increasing control of Iberia by moving armies across Gallia to Iberia, this was where most of the conflict took place.

With him focusing on such a large area like Italia it was just a matter of time before I was able to Control the much smaller Iberia and win the game.

Game was quick - 20 minutes or so and very fun and shows promise for plenty of strategy as we play the game more.

Two players seemed to make it much easier to avoid conflict due to the map having so many areas to control, some very far apart and hard to attack if someone started to gain control and you need to move your armies long distances. I think a 4 player game would increase the conflict and strategy considerably.

Overall a very worthwhile print and play game which we will play again. Artwork is some of the best i've seen in a pnp game.

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josephc4 — 2007-03-05T01:43:58+00:00

A tallship prepares to help the blue player take Germany in one turn.

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josephc4 — 2007-03-05T01:39:50+00:00

Large sized version of the board....4 times as big.

Thread: Piece suggestion: Antike or Mare Nostrum Meeple and Boats

LordBobbio — 2006-09-01T21:36:54+00:00

I decided I didn't want to print, mount and cut a bunch of counters for this. Antike ships with wooden meeple and boats in enough colors, as does Mare Nostrum. Interestingly enough, they and Sword & Sail each deal with the Mediteranean.

ANTIKE:
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MARE NOSTRUM:
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I doubled the size of the board to allow the Antike pieces to fit. I was also thinking of printing a second deck of the original cards, so that folks can't "card count" as easily.

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1Aspielerin — 2006-08-30T11:34:08+00:00

using wooden tokens for better grip

Thread: Re: Is attacking one action or two?

Liumas — 2006-08-03T22:19:03+00:00

This 'Tuesday' rule does not mesh with the elegant simplicity and elegant logic that is this game. This rule is printed on the board as a single action, and the rules say 'this counts as one action'. It's very clearly worded that way to us. Are you sure you're not remembering this wrongly?

Lukily it happily works well where attacking is a single action. I highly recommend this 'Variant'.

Great graphics in this game! Nice job.

Thread: Re: Is attacking one action or two?

ajaster — 2006-08-03T21:27:00+00:00

Andrew here (The Game designer).

This scenario would cost two actions. For Exapmple "Move in attacking unit one (one action). Move in attacking unit two (one action). Resolve battle."

Hope you enjoyed the game!

Thread: Re: Review of Sword and Sail

BoB3K — 2006-08-03T14:46:11+00:00

Nice Review. I think I'll try it out. I'll probably play 2-player.

Thread: Re: Win condition?

Liumas — 2006-08-03T14:36:31+00:00

A navy counts as an 'army' in every way, and can be one of the units that occupy an empire for the win.

We call these 'amphibious units'.

Thread: Re: Is attacking one action or two?

Liumas — 2006-08-03T14:31:23+00:00

~~An attack is a single action.~~

(the first bgg msg i've ever edited)

Thread: Win condition?

rafial — 2006-08-03T08:52:30+00:00

The win condition says have an "army" on every region of an empire. Does this mean if I occupy an entire empire, but one of the occupying units is a navy, I have *not* yet won? Or should the win condition be "a unit on every region of an empire" ?

Thread: Is attacking one action or two?

rafial — 2006-08-03T08:43:59+00:00

The rules sheet is ambiguous. Does conducting an attack cost one or two actions?

That is, is it:

a) Move in attacking unit one (one action). Move in attacking unit two (one action). Resolve battle.

or

b) Move in two adjacent units (once action). Resolve battle.

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josephcwtnet — 2006-07-12T20:55:33+00:00

Here is a page of CardBacks that I made. Email me for full resolution file.

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Surya — 2006-03-02T09:16:22+00:00

My homemade board

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HermitSinister — 2005-10-20T12:38:46+00:00

2 Player End Game

Thread: # of players: just right with 4

havoc110 — 2005-07-26T20:59:09+00:00

I did some mock-ups of the game today:

The game is very balanced with 4. It seems that the game will last about the 30 minutes per the listing.

With 3 the game is very quick to end. Someone will
swoop into Iberia, France or Germany to get a quick
win.

And my group's game with 5 left us wondering if the
game would end at all.

Thread: Review of Sword and Sail

havoc110 — 2005-07-26T00:10:55+00:00

(user's first review)

I saw this on the Canonical list of P&P games. I was intrigued by it, intrigued enough to add it to the "P&P games that might actually be worth it" list.

1) Printing/Assembly
The game fits onto 3 sheets of letter size paper.
1 page is the rules. 1 page is board/counters.
last page is cards/counters. I printed everything
actual size, figuring if it was a hit with the group,
a Mark II version could be made a a larger scale.

I did make a generic set of card backs, because you
can see through a sheet of xerox grade bond to read
the card. I did this using AutoCad. I put the 16 cards and the backs in some leftover card sleeves. I mounted the board to a piece of cardboard and "laminated" it with packing tape. The board depicts Western Europe and Norther Africa, a classic "empire building" stage.

The counters are tiny, only 3/8" square. All the graphics are vibrant and pretty easy to read. I was impressed so far.

Total time to assemble: 1.5 hours
Total cost: less than $5 of materials.

2) The rules
The rules sheet is very brief and very clear. The object of the game is to occupy an entire Empire on the board. There are 8 empires on the board. They vary in size from 4 to 8 regions.

Each turn a player gets 3 actions to do any of the
following:
- draw a card
- play a card
- discard
- move/attack

3) Gameplay
It is the playing of cards that allows the playing of units on the board. Most of the cards have the name of an Empire on it, and you place an army in an unoccupied space in that Empire. A few of the cards upgrade an existing army into a navy (allowing sea movement, but retaining land movement).

Combat is a simple 2 vs. 1 even exchange. The active player uses 2 actions to move 2 tokens into an occupied region. Each player loses 1 token. Very simple, but the rub is you create 2 unoccupied provinces just vacated by your attacking armies. It makes maintaining a presence in one area difficult, especially if you consider the attrition that combat adds.

The game play decisions are surprisingly deep considering the simplicity of it. Resource management is the key skill, both cards and tokens. The combat can be describes as "tidal". Pieces sweep in, only to be swept out by the next wave. People hoard cards critical to other player's victory. The one thing we never saw was discarding as an action. This could be a problem if none of your cards are playable, as you cannot hold more than 3. I would use combat to open up space to make my cards playable, rather than discard.

Now to the problem: we were playing with 5 players. This is the maximum compliment given the components, and it caused a "revolving stalemate". With card hoarding and the fact that 4 players get a chance to sabotage your next winning move you set up, it seems the game would never end. Printing up a double set of cards will fix this, as it will reduce the effect card hoarding has in the game. Everyone seemed to like it, but we got tired at about an hour, where one player gave up blocking an upcoming player's victory. Everyone thinks it will be a much better 4 player game and I agree.

It is too easy for 4 opponents to "passively collude" by using their 12 action points to keep everyone at the table more than 3 action points away from victory, even considering optimal card holdings. I will post a follow up on how this works with 4, but I can imagine that with only 9 opponent action points between you and your next turn, along with a much bigger average number of regions occupied by each player, victory will be much easier to acheive.

4) Basic Strategic Concepts
From what I have seen, avoiding combat as much as possible is the way to play. Let other players wear down the opposing armies on the board. Use cards to play tokens as keep them around until an opportunity arises to sprint to the finish. This will almost always be a 1-turn kill, as the table will "actively collude" to prevent a near victory by your next turn. Amphibious assaults are also key, because you do not have to give up currently occupied regions in order to conqure regions needed for victory.

5) Summary
This game was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed it much more than Bang!, which also debuted at this session. I billed it to the group as "Civ-Zero". We are a group on the "grail quest" for the "Civ-Lite" game. This game was actually better recieved by the group than Mare Nostrum (which I like BTW). Don't play this with 5, and you should get a lot of bang for your gaming buck.

I need to add that this game is DonationWare. The publishers, Big Little Games, look like they have a "TI3-Zero" game in the works.

Looking at this review, I think it is longer than the sheet of rules that comes with the game.