Air, Land, & Sea
Release Date Developer Publisher 2019 Jon Perry Arcane Wonders
Overview
Air, Land, & Sea is a two-player WWII-themed game where each player is attempting to control two of the three theaters (Air, Land, or Sea) over a series of battles until they can declare victory!
With only 18 cards, the game is deceptively simple at first glace, but the complexity is built from the order in which you play your cards:
Cards can be played face-up to their corresponding theater, where they will trigger a powerful Tactical Ability. However, face-down cards can be played to any theater and can later be flipped by other cards to trigger their ability and provide additional reinforcement to that theater.
At the start of each battle, players are dealt six cards and will not draw any more unless specified by a Tactical Ability. To win a theater, a player must have the most Strength, determined by the large number at the top-left of each card.
Withdrawal
The defining aspect of the game, though, is the ability to withdraw. At any point (on their turn), an opponent can give up the battle with the hopes of eventually winning the war.
Players are incentivized to make this choice, since the opposition will get fewer points than if playing out the entire hand, based on how many cards are the surrending party still holds. The table below describes how many points are earned by the opponent when retreating:
| Points | 1st Player (cards) | 2nd Player (cards) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 4-6 | 5-6 |
| 3 | 2-3 | 3-4 |
| 4 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | 0 | 0-1 |
Not only is this extremely thematic, since a calculated retreat will yield more resources for a future battle, it’s also a good balance to the randomness of the cards dealt each round. Players who are dealt a bad hand can concede without feeling a huge loss.
And it gets better! The real genius in design comes from the tension between players as they select cards from their hand. Playing strong cards early might scare off your opponent and award less points. But players can also bluff by dropping big cards while keeping their smallest cards hidden back in their hand.
As a result, players have to read their opponents carefully, as in a real war, in order to determine if their opponent actually has the nuts.
It’s very easy to over-commit to a battle, with all of the fun combos between cards and machinations you’ve prepared in-hand. But cautious play with constant re-evaluation of withdrawal is often rewarded.
Card Analysis
Below are the 18 different cards included with Air, Land, & Sea:
| # | Air | Land | Sea |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | You gain +3 strength in each adjacent theater. | Look at the top card of the battle deck. You may play it face-down to an adjacent theater | You may move 1 of your battle cards to a different theater. |
| 2 | On your next turn, you may play a battle card to a non-matching theater. | Flip a battle card in any theater. | All of your face-down battle cards are now strength 4. |
| 3 | Flip a battle card in an adjacent theater. | Flip a battle card in an adjacent theater. | Flip a battle card in an adjacent theater. |
| 4 | You may play battle cards of strength 3 or less to non-matching theaters. | All battle cards covered by this card are now strength 4. | Return 1 of your face-down battle cards to your hand. If you do, gain an extra turn. |
| 5 | If either player plays a battle card face-down, immediately discard that card. | Your opponent chooses and flips 1 of their battle cards. Then you flip 1 of yours. | If a battle card is played in an adjacent theater with 3 or more cards already in it (counting both players’ cards), discard that card with no effect. |
| 6 | (none, high card) | (none, high card) | (none, high card) |
When you consider that all of the 3s and 6s are the same, there are really only 12 unique cards, plus the three 3s and three 6s. But, much like Seiji Kanai’s Love Letter, there’s an impressive amount of depth packed into in a small, portable deck.
I’m not going to be giving an in-depth analysis of every card in the game, but there are some favorites that I want to highlight:
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Containment
In my opinion, no card changes the meta game for a single battle more than Containment. Once players can no longer deploy cards face-down, many of their options are removed.
Setting up cards to flip in a non-matching theater is no longer possible. Even just using the card as a 2 for some extra strength won’t work, either.
Players are forced to either deal with Containment by flipping it, or commit to playing cards face-up to their matching theater. Both will stretch resources thin, though Containment doesn’t come without drawbacks.
Despite its power, Containment will also work against the person who played it. I’ve definitely bitten myself in the butt using Containment, especially as plans change once more cards are played. In some cases, you’ll need to flip your own Containment, which never feels great either!
Cover Fire
This card is a punny and powerful late-game card that can swing the Land theater (or another, if you’re able to use something like Air 2, Air Drop) back in your favor. It’s especially powerful after you’ve used utility cards like Reinforce (Land 1) or Ambush (Land 2) and now want some big numbers to secure the theater.
While it’s susceptible to being flipped and losing big points, it’s typically larger than Heavy Tanks (Land 6) as long as it covers one card. This means you can often leverage multiple threats to secure victory in Land by, for example, letting your Heavy Tanks get flipped before plopping a Cover Fire on top of it for an even larger swing in your favor!
Escalation
There are two primary ways that Escalation can be used to swing a game.
With a bad hand, an early deploy can signal a threat to start dropping all of your future cards face-down, since they’ll be worth more than your opponent can likely push back against. And worse, if they try to flip your cards to deminish their Strength, you get the active effects as a bonus!
But it can also be used as a finisher. If you have multiple cards already face-down, playing Escalation as your final card can be a devastating swing across multiple theaters, netting a victory!
The biggest concern for users of Escalation will be Containment (Air 5), which can shut out future face-down cards. But while Escalation is otherwise powerful, players shouldn’t rely on it alone to win a battle.
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Maneuver
The prevalence of Maneuver in each theater illustrates the importance of flipping cards on the game’s design. Some other cards explore the space, too, but none as simply as Maneuver.
Its flexibility is a key part of its strength, as users can use Maneuver offensively to flip over cards in non-matching theaters after being deployed face-down or defensively to flip their opponent’s cards or perhaps re-flip cards their opponents may have flipped, too.
The final component of the design, which requires that the flipped card is in an adjacent theater, makes for interesting decisions or plans with more steps. For example, a player might put a Manuever face-down in a non-matching theater so that they can flip it later or perhaps flip a card they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to reach.
To me, Maneuver illustrates the deep strategy of the game despite the simplicity of each card. Each card is able to interact with one another to form a complex decision tree which keeps the game exciting, even after many playthroughs.
Reinforce
This card is a great first turn play, since it enables players to establish Strength in multiple theaters. It also encourages new players to understand and interact with the flipping mechanic of the game. If the drawn card is powerful, you can turn the tide by flipping it over!
I can imagine playing this card in later stages of the game, but the information gained from the drawn card as well as the ability to flip it, if possible, feels preferrable to playing earlier in the battle.
The Expansion: Spies, Lies, & Supplies
Recently, an expansion to the game titled, Spies, Lies, & Supplies was released, also designed by Jon Perry. The expansion includes 18 new cards evenly distributed across 3 new theaters.
The game can be played independently using the three new theaters as a standalone game, or, since they use the same concepts, shuffled to play with three randomly selected theaters from either game.
This expansion has slightly weaker themes, since the theaters are more conceptual (Intelligence, Diplomacy, and Economics) though since it’s an expansion, the designer has added some complexity which helps round out the game, while also building on the theme of each theater.
For example, the Intelligence theater relies on revealing cards in your opponent’s hand. The Diplomacy cards have powers that benefit both players. And the Economics cards add Supply Tokens which grant permanent strength to theaters.
While I wouldn’t recommend Spies, Lies, & Supplies as a standalone game, it pairs well with the original for added longevity on the table, even introducing some new modes.
Epic Mode
The added Epic Mode uses five of the six theaters, chosen randomly, with players being dealt ten cards per battle instead of six. Like the standard mode, the goal is still to win the majority of theaters, in this case, three of the five.
The points table for Withdrawl has changed slightly, but the end goal of 12 Points is the same. Typically, the number of battles is comparable to a Standard game, but each battle takes much longer.
| Points | 1st Player (cards) | 2nd Player (cards) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 6+ | 7+ |
| 3 | 3-5 | 4-6 |
| 4 | 1-2 | 2-3 |
| 6 | 0 | 0-1 |
When I played, we rotated one theater out each round, to keep things balanced and semi-predictable. But otherwise, the game has much added chaos, as convoluted combos are now possible with ten cards in hand. Though this, without a doubt, makes each battle feel much more “epic”!
In addition, the balance of certain cards changes drastically in Epic Mode. Cards that enable players to deploy to any theater, like Aerodrome (Air 4) or the newly-introduced Supply Lines (Economics 2) become exceptionally more powerful, since there are now two more theaters to be able to flex to.
The biggest downside of Epic Mode in my experience was the increase in time. With a much larger decision tree, players may spend a lot more time contemplating their moves. A turn timer worked well for this, and even added some good flavor, since inaction in a war is not a viable strategy!
3-4 Player Mode
Epic Mode also adds support for playing with three or four. Players team up, with up to two members on each side. The hand is split so that each player gets five of the ten cards. Turns between players on the same team don’t necessarily alternate, but whichever teammate has more cards must play (or, if you and your partner are tied, it’s up to you to decide).
At the beginning, players may exchange one card from their hand, but all other communication about player hands must be public, so the enemy can try and listen in to strategize. When playing, we found it valuable to talk in code using the passed card as a “known secret”.
For example, you might say, “The card I passed you is my lowest Strength card,” or “I don’t have any other cards matching the Theater of that card.” It’s fun to keep your plans hidden as much as possible from your opponent, and it also adds another thematic element to the game, a sort of cryptography-adjacent side to each battle.
Due to talking in code or strategizing your next move, playing with three or four increases the game’s play time further, but I felt it was a more worthy consideration. It’s much more fun to plan your move with a partner where you each only have half of the information about your resources, and there’s often less to consider than when playing with all ten cards on your own.
Conclusion
I’ve been very impressed by Air, Land, & Sea. It was easy to pick up, but there’s deep thought that goes into each battle, which keeps the game fresh. The expansion adds additional longevity and let’s you expand to play with three or four players, which is uncommon for most two-player games.
Furthermore, the small size makes it an easy game to take wherever you go, with the expansion nesting easily into the original game box. *Chef’s Kiss* If my friend didn’t already own a copy, I would go out and buy a copy for myself.