In the midst of the greatest conflict humanity has ever known, victory will be claimed by the military that can overcome their enemies in every battleground. Do you have the skills to lead your nation's best and bravest in the Air, Land, & Sea?
Components
- 1 Rulebook
- 18 Battle Cards
- 2 Supreme Commander Cards
- 14 Score Markers
- 3 Theater Boards
- 14 Score Markers
- Instructions
Setup
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Randomly place the three Theater boards in any order to create a row.
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Shuffle the Battle cards and deal 6 to each player to form their starting hands. Players should keep their hands secret from each other.
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Set the rest of the Battle cards to one side of the play area without revealing them.
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Put all the tokens in a pile on the other side of the play area.
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Shuffle the two Supreme Commander cards and deal one face-down in front of each player. Players then turn their Supreme Commander cards face-up. The player who received the red Supreme Commander card (1st Player) will take the first turn.
Object of the Game
The first player to reach 12 VPs wins the game!
Game Play
Air, Land, & Sea is played over a series of rounds called Battles. To win a Battle, you must either:
- Control more Theaters than your opponent after both players have played all of their Battle cards; or
- Convince your opponent to withdraw.
If you win a Battle, you earn Victory Points (VPs) represented by tokens.
Structure of a Battle
During a Battle, the players take turns playing one Battle card at a time, trying to control more Theaters than their opponent.
You do not draw cards during a Battle, so be sure to plan carefully and make the most of the 6 cards you are dealt.
Theaters
Each of the three Theater boards creates a "column" between the players: one for Air, one for Land, and one for Sea. These columns are called Theaters. Battle cards are always played into these three Theaters. If a card is in a particular Theater's column, we say that the Battle card is "in that Theater".
Theaters that are next to each other are called adjacent Theaters.
A player owns all of the Battle cards on their side of the Theater boards. During your turn, you will play cards only on your side of the Theaters.
Let's examine a typical game in mid-Battle. In this example, there are three cards in the Sea Theater-one owned by the 1st Player and two owned by the 2nd Player
Notice that the Land Theater and the Sea Theater are adjacent to each other, while the Air Theater and the Land Theater are not adjacent.
Battle Cards
Battle cards are played to advance your war effort and how they are played will ultimately determine who wins the war (the game).
Strength: The large number on each card is the Battle card's Strength 1. If the total Strength of all the Battle cards on your side of a Theater is higher than the total Strength of all the Battle cards on your opponent's side of that Theater, you control that Theater.
Tactical Abilities: Most Battle cards have a Tactical Ability 2 next to their Strength, which takes effect as soon as the Battle card is played face-up to a Theater. These abilities are either Instant 3 or Ongoing 4, which is explained in greater detail on page 7.
Type: There are three types of Battle cards which are represented by color: Gray for Air, Green for Land, and Blue for Sea, which relate to the three Theaters. Normally, you may only play a Battle card face-up to its matching Theater: Air Battle cards in the Air Theater, and so on.
Face-down Cards: Battle cards can also be played face-down as a "wild card" in any Theater. Face-down cards always have a Strength of 2. Face-down cards do not have any Tactical Abilities.
You may examine your own face-down cards at any time, but you may not examine any owned by your opponent.
Covered Cards: When a Battle card is played to a Theater that already contains cards, the newly played Battle card is placed so that it overlaps the previously played card, while still showing the top portion of it.
Any Battle card overlapped by another is called a covered J' card. Covered cards can still move and use their Tactical Abilities, but a covered card can never be flipped by an ability.
Resolving a Battle
During a Battle, players take turns starting with the player who has the 1st Player Supreme Commander card.
On your turn, you must take only one of these three actions: Deploy, Improvise, Withdraw.
Deploy: Play one Battle card from your hand, face-up. When you play a card, you must follow these deployment restrictions:
You can only play Battle cards on your side of the Theater boards.
The Battle card must be the same type as the Theater you play it to (so an Air Battle card can only be played to the Air Theater).
If you have other cards in that Theater already, you must place the new card so that it covers (partially overlaps) those cards.
Remember: When you play a Battle card face-up,. any Tactical Ability of that card takes effect immediately.
Example: For your turn, you decide to play the Strength 3 Sea Battle card from your hand 1, placing it face-up in the Sea Theater 2.
You already had two cards in that Theater, so you must play the Strength 3 card so that it covers the Strength 2 and Strength 1 cards.
Then, you immediately use the Tactical Ability on the Strength 3 card, which allows you to flip over one card in an adjacent Theater 3.
Improvise: Play one Battle card from your hand, face-down, to any Theater. Face-down cards are treated as "wild cards", and can be played to any Theater regardless of which type they are.
Example: On your next turn, you play a Strength 5 Land Battle card face-down to the Air Theater. You can do this because a face-down card can be played to any Theater.
You do not get to use your card's Tactical Ability, and it only counts as a Strength of 2 instead of a Strength of5.
Withdraw: If you think your chances of winning the current Battle are low, you may withdraw. If you do, your opponent wins the battle (see page 9).
Strategy Tip: Sometimes, it may be best to withdraw in order to deny your opponent Victory Points!
Once you have finished your action, your opponent begins their turn. The players continue to alternate taking turns until one of them withdraws or both players have played all of their Battle cards.
Remember: You do not draw cards from the Battle deck during a battle unless a Tactical Ability allows you to do so.
Tactical Abilities
Most Battle cards have Tactical Abilities described on the card. When you play a card face-up from your hand. or. if a face-down card is flipped over, its Tactical Ability takes effect immediately.
There are two kinds of Tactical Abilities: Instant and Ongoing, indicated by the symbol next to the ability.
Instant Abilities: These take effect immediately after the Battle card is played or if the card is revealed by being flipped face-up.
Once the Instant Ability is resolved, it has no further effect [unless somehow that card is played or revealed again),
Example: The Transport Tactical Ability allows you to move any card you own to a different Theater immediately after you play the Transport card.
Ongoing Abilities: These are always in effect as long as the card is face-up. If a card with an Ongoing Ability is flipped face-down, the ability no longer has any effect (unless that card is revealed again).
Example: The Escalation Tactical Ability increases the Strength of all of your face-down cards to 4 as long as the Escalation card remains face-up. If that card were flipped over by another Tactical Ability, your face-down cards would go back to being Strength 2
You must carry out the effects of a Tactical ability unless they contain the word "may".
Note: If a card with an Instant Ability is flipped 2 face-down before its ability is fully resolved, then that ability is interrupted and immediately stops taking effect.
Tactical Ability Effects
Flipping: Many Tactical Abilities allow you to flip a card. Flipping a card means either turning a face-up card so it is face-down or turning a face-down card so it is face-up.
Unless the ability states otherwise, you may flip any card-yours or your opponent's.
Example: The Maneuver card reads "Flip one Battle card in an adjacent Theater" Since it doesn't specify, you could use this ability to flip over one of your own cards or one of your opponent's.
Important: Covered cards can never be flipped.
Example: In the Sea Theater shown, the first two cards played are covered by the Strength 6 Battle card, so they cannot be flipped. The Strength 6 card, however, is not covered, so it could be Pipped by the Maneuver ability.
Moving: Some Tactical Abilities allow you to move a Battle card to a different Theater. You can move a card whether it is covered or not.
When a card moves, it stays on the same side of the Theaters it was already on and remains owned by the same player. Always place the moved card on top of any other cards already in the Theater it was moved to, so that it covers those cards.
Note: Moving a card is not the same as playing a card, so abilities that prevent you from playing cards do not prevent you from moving cards.
Cards In Non-Matching Theaters: It is possible that, as a result of Tactical Abilities, a card may end up in a Theater that does not match the card's type.
When this happens, the Battle card does not suffer any penalty for being in the "wrong" Theater. The card remains where it is, and its Strength is counted towards control of that Theater.
Discarding: Some tactical abilities instruct you to discard a card. Discarded cards are always placed face-down on the bottom of the Battle deck.
Ending Battles
There are two ways that a Battle can end:
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If either player withdraws.
If you withdraw, your opponent wins the battle. -or-
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If both players have played all of the cards in their hand.
At this point, the player who controls the most Theaters wins the Battle.
In order to control a Theater, you must have a higher total Strength there than your opponent has in that Theater.
If your Strengths are tied, the 1st Player wins the tie and controls that Theater. If there are no cards on either side of a Theater, the 1st player controls that Theater.
Example: 1st Player controls the Air Theater because they have a higher total Strength there (6 to 3). The 2nd Player controls the Land Theater thanks to their Strength advantage (4 to 1).
Both players have the same Strength in the Sea Theater (3), leaving them tied. Since the 1st Player wins ties, they control two Theaters so they win the Battle!
Scoring Victory Points
If you win a battle, you score Victory Points, which are tracked with Score Markers.
The number of VPs you score depends on if and when your opponent withdraws:
if neither player withdraws before both players have played all of their cards, the winner of the Battle scores 6 VPs.
If one of the players withdraws, the other player scores die VPs shown on the withdrawing player's Supreme Commander card, based on how many cards the withdrawing player has left in their hand. The longer you wait to withdraw, the more VPs your opponent will score!
After scoring, check to see if the victor has enough VPs to win the game. If not, set up and fight another Battle.
Setting Up for the Next Battle
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Collect all of the Battle cards and shuffle them together to create a new deck. Deal each player a new hand of six cards, and set the rest of the deck off to the side of the play area just like you did at the beginning of the game.
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Next, rotate the position of the Theater cards as shown below:
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Finally, the players exchange Supreme Commander cards. The player who was the 1st Player will be 2nd Player in the next Battle.__
End of the Game
After each Gattie, you must check if the winner of the Battle has enough Victory Points to declare victory. The first player to reach a total of 12 VPs wins the war (and the game).
Playing Hint: You can adjust the length of the game by changing the number of points you need to win. If you want to play a longer game, play until one player reaches 18 points.
Beginner Mode
When you ate first learning how to play Air, Land, & Sea, you can use this simplified method of scoring:
- The winner of each Battle scores 1 VP.
- The first player to reach 3 VPs wins the game.
Ignore the Withdraw chart on the Supreme Commander cards when you are playing Beginner Mode.
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