About Narrow Seas
Narrow Seas is a two-player naval wargame by Felix Livni, set in the Age of Sail and played on a small hex board in about 30 minutes. Each player commands two ships. At the start of a round you secretly put your crew to work on each ship card: sailing, returning the wounded to duty, keeping a lookout or manning the guns. Then you take turns playing one card at a time, and every card’s suit must match the colour of the hex your ship sits on, so where you sail decides what you can do next.
The designer cites Avalon Hill’s Up Front and Sails of Glory as influences. The game placed third for Best Overall at the BoardGameGeek 2025 Two-Player Print and Play Contest and second for Best Theme. The rules also include a four-player team mode. The files are free from the designer, with a personal print-and-play licence, and the rules are kept up to date on a web page. It suits two players who want high interaction and tactical depth in a small footprint.
How to play in one minute
- Shuffle the action cards and deal a 3-card market. Each player places their two ships at a distance from the enemy, and the second player sets the wind.
- Plan: secretly put each ship’s crew cubes on its Sail, Return to Duty, Lookout and Fire areas. You may only take actions you planned.
- Draw: whoever planned the most lookouts draws first. Players alternate drawing until they hold 6 cards, either blind from the deck or by spending a lookout to take a card from the market.
- Act: take turns playing one card (its suit must match your ship’s hex), discarding, or passing. Sailing must respect the wind; hits send enemy crew to the sick bay.
- A ship with no crew left sinks. Sink both enemy ships, or lead by 4 crew at the end of a round, to win.
What’s in the PDF
- A ZIP of PDFs: the hex board on one Letter page and the card fronts on 4 landscape Letter pages, with the wind, ship and crew tokens on the last page.
- Card backs and a first player marker (optional), plus a low-ink version of the card fronts.
- A one-page printing and construction guide. Mount the tokens on heavy card; wooden blocks work too.
In the PDF
- Hex board (1 Letter page)
- Card fronts: action cards and ship cards, plus wind, ship and crew tokens (4 Letter pages)
- Card backs and first player marker (optional)
- Low-ink card fronts (4 pages) and a printing guide
