Sail

To set up the game of Sail, assemble the ocean board between both players, placing the play area and Kraken board at either end. Choose a scenario and position tokens accordingly. Each player selects a pirate character granting special powers. Place the Kraken meeple on the lowest left space, and set the trick cubes and round discs on their respective tracks. Shuffle all ones and twos together to place on top of the Kraken card, forming the Kraken deck, and shuffle the remaining cards to create the player deck. Players are prohibited from talking about the game from card-dealing until the final trick of the round is played.

The main objective in Sail is a cooperative two-player trick-taking experience where you must navigate your ship across the ocean board to reach the finish line within five rounds while avoiding destruction by the Kraken.

Each round consists of dealing nine cards to both players, who then look at their cards and secretly pass one card to each other without looking at received cards until passed. Each round features four tricks where players play one card each. The round marker indicates who leads the first trick, and subsequent tricks are led by the winner of the previous trick. The lead player plays a card, and the second player must follow suit if able. The highest number matching the lead suit wins the trick. Winning allows players to advance track cubes, discard cards, and perform specific actions based on the card pairs played.

Scoring in Sail is scenario-based rather than point-driven, where success is measured by navigating your ship through various challenges across five rounds without hitting obstacles or getting defeated by the Kraken.

The game ends immediately in a win if you sail your ship onto the end token. You lose immediately if round five ends, if round two or four ends without advancing past the respective storm, if the Kraken card is the only card left in the deck, or if the Kraken meeple reaches the final space.