Hands in the Sea

What is Hands in the Sea

Hands in the Sea is a two-player deck building wargame on the First Punic War, between Rome and Carthage, 264–241 BC.

Each player has a starting deck of cards they use to perform various actions, up to two per round. Actions range from colonization, to naval movement, to battle, with most activity centered in and around Sicily and Sardinia/Corsica. Players may also purchase additional cards from their own custom decks, or from a set of neutral cards that either player may purchase. There are also Strategy cards that each player can purchase (one, max) that give the owning player some special advantage.

The game is played over the course of several turns, up to a maximum of twelve. At the end of each turn, players resolve random events, collect income and score victory points. There are several paths to victory, ranging from simply having the highest score at the end of the game, to capturing the opposing player's capital.

Inspired by A Few Acres of Snow, this game features several new elements, including navies, naval battles, cavalry superiority, mercenaries, field battles, sieges, manpower, strategy cards, random events, turn based scoring, bribery and tactical bonuses.

Game details

Players

2

Age

+14

Duration

120 min

Difficulty

Heavy

Type

Board game

Year

2016

Mechanics

Deck, Bag, and Pool Building · Hand Management · Point to Point Movement

Categories

Ancient · Wargame

Designer

Daniel Berger (I)

Publisher

Do it games · Knight Works, LLC · PHALANX