Air, Land & Sea: Critters at War

• Designer: Jon Perry
• Publisher: Arcane Wonders
• Players: 2
• Age: 14+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/41ZK9ql
• Amazon affiliate link: (expansion)  https://amzn.to/4l2xDyV
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

As Supreme Commander of your country’s military forces in Air, Land, & Sea, you must carefully deploy your forces across three theaters of war: air, land, and sea. At the start of each battle, you’re dealt a hand of six cards. Players take turns playing cards one at a time, until all cards have been played — or one player decides to withdraw. The order in which you play your cards is critical, as is whether you play them face up or face down. Playing a card face up triggers its tactical ability, but the card must be played in its corresponding theater. Face-down cards can be played to any theater, but have a strength of only 2 and do not grant tactical abilities.

Sometimes, it may be best to withdraw in order to deny your opponent complete victory as points are awarded at the end of each battle based on the results. The first player to 12 points wins!  Air, Land, & Sea: Critters at War features the same gameplay as in Air, Land, & Sea, but with 100% critters and more vibrant colors.

So this game first came out in 2019, and somehow, I managed to miss it.  The game was re-released in 2023 by Arcane Wonders with a new art direction, and I finally had a two-player day to get this one to the table.

There really isn’t much more to the game other than the brief description above, but let me elaborate a bit – the game is a 2p game fought in a number of rounds, with players able to win as many as 6 points in a particular round.  The winner is the first player to 12.

The game has three theaters – Air (white), Land (green), and Sea (blue) and each has a 6 card deck (numbered 1 to 6).  Each card valued 1-5 comes with a special ability on it.  In each round, players are dealt a hand of six cards and play alternates between players.  You have three options on a turn: play a card face up, play a card face down or pass (retreat).

If you play a card face-up, it must be played in the theater matching the card’s color.  The strength of the card is shown in the number on the card, and then the special ability of the card is resolved.  Some actions are one-time immediate effects while others are ongoing.

If you play a card face down, it can go in any theatre, and as the card back shows, the card is worth 2 points when face down.  Cards could be flipped over later in the round, and if this happens, it is OK if the color of the card does not match the theater where it is played.

Finally, if you think you’re losing, you could simply pass and give up.  Your opponent will win the round, but the value of the win is determined by how many cards are left in the hand of the player who gave up.  The sooner you give up, the fewer points your opponent will score!

If no one gives up, the three theatres are resolved once all the cards have been played – the player who wins two or more of the theaters gets 6VPs.  If someone has 12 VPs, the game is won by that player. Otherwise, shuffle up the cards and play again.

My thoughts on the game

When I first read the rules to the game, I didn’t think there was going to be much to it – however, after getting a couple of games under my belt – the magic sauce here is in the special actions on the cards.  You can definitely come up with multiple interesting strategies with the card actions.  Some actions let you move/remove cards from play, while others let you flip cards over.  When you flip an opponent’s card over, you change the strength value to 2, and you might also cause a permanent action to become inactive (as it is no longer visible).  On your own side, you could first place a card down in a non-matching color, and then use a later action to flip it over… In this way, you can get around the possibility of not getting dealt the “right” cards.

Each individual round in the game is quick, probably only taking 5-10 minutes.  At most there are 12 card plays, and it shouldn’t take that long to go through the whole process.  Rounds can also end prematurely if one of the players realizes that they are in a bad spot – and the sooner this decision is made, the less valuable the win will be for the opponent…

It is certainly possible that your opponent will just be dealt better cards than you – only two thirds of the cards are in play at the start of any hand – but the withdrawal rules help mitigate that luck of the draw.   However, I’ve been surprised more than once at the effect that some of the actions on the lower valued cards can have – and I’ve learned to not give up on a fight just because I didn’t get many 5s and 6s.

The artwork is cartoony though still military in nature.  I have looked online at the original version, and that one has more traditional WW2 planes, ships and infantry depicted on the cards as opposed to the somewhat more humorous cartoon anthropomorphic battle scenes in this new version.

Once you have played the game a bit, you can choose to add in the expansion – Air, Land and Sea: Flies, Lies and Supplies.  This gives you three more theaters (and corresponding decks of cards) to play with.  You can mix and match these OR set up a larger game which uses 5 different theatres at a time instead of 3.

There is a lot of game here in a small package, and this one will likely make it into the permanent (albeit small) collection of 2-player games here.  

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it.  Dale Y
• Neutral. Steph H
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/41ZK9ql

Amazon affiliate link: (expansion)  https://amzn.to/4l2xDyV