Sail

Sail is a cooperative trick-taking game designed specifically for two players, where every hand represents another desperate stretch of ocean between your pirate crew and safety. Exchange a little information before the round begins, then fall silent and use the cards themselves to steer your ship, fire on the Kraken, and communicate what you need your partner to understand. Winning a trick is only part of the puzzle: the symbols on both cards determine what actually happens at sea, and sometimes deliberately giving the trick away is the only way to point the ship in the right direction.

You Know the Plan. Your Partner Probably Knows a Different Plan.

Sail takes one of trick-taking's oldest pleasures, trying to infer what another player is holding, and turns that player into your teammate.

Once the action phase begins, tactical discussion stops. You cannot simply announce that you need your partner to play a low card with a wheel or save a cannon for the Kraken. You have to communicate through legal plays, suit-following, the cards you exchanged before the round, and whatever shared understanding the two of you have developed.

That makes successful hands feel remarkably cooperative even though nobody is allowed to say what they are actually trying to do.

How the Game Works

Before each round, the two pirates exchange cards, giving each player one precious clue about what their partner may be planning. Once play begins, communication about cards and tactics is restricted.

One player leads a card and the other follows suit when able. Instead of caring only about who wins the trick, compare the icons on the two played cards. Matching helm symbols can move the ship, with direction influenced by the trick winner. Cannon combinations can attack the Kraken. Other combinations manipulate the dangers surrounding the voyage.

Each pirate also has an asymmetric ability that changes how the partnership approaches the hand. The team has only a limited number of rounds to guide the ship through the scenario before the Kraken catches it, reaches the fatal end of its track, or exhausts the resources keeping your crew alive.

Different scenarios reshape the ocean with islands, storms, Kraken threats, and new navigation problems, allowing the partnership to grow as the challenges become harder.

Why You’ll Love It

• A cooperative trick-taking game built specifically around two-player teamwork.
• Winning tricks matters less than creating the right combinations of symbols between two players' cards.
• Communication limits make reading your partner an actual game skill.
• Asymmetric pirate powers give each pairing a different tactical personality.
• Scenario-based maps gradually increase the challenge as you learn to coordinate more effectively.
• Delivers the satisfaction of a tightly synchronized cooperative game in roughly 20 minutes.

Game Details

🧩 Players: 2
⏱️ Playtime: About 20 minutes
🎂 Age: 11+
🗂️ Genre: Cooperative trick-taking, pirates, limited communication, scenario puzzle
🎯 Complexity: Medium-light — compact rules with a deep partnership and inference puzzle
🔁 Replayability: Very high — changing scenarios, pirate abilities, shuffled hands, and the growing skill of the partnership make repeated voyages increasingly rewarding
🎮 Great for fans of: The Crew, Sky Team, Fox in the Forest Duet, two-player cooperative games, and trick-taking that cares about far more than who wins the hand

What's in the Box

• 27 Playing Cards
• 6 Pirate Cards
• 1 Kraken Card
• 4 Player Aids
• Ocean, Kraken, and Play-Area Boards
• Kraken and Ship Trackers
• Round and Trick Trackers
• Start, End, Island, Kraken, and Storm Tokens
• Scenario Book
• Rules