Enemy in Sight
Enemy in Sight Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
- Shuffle, deal each player 6 Ships and 6 Action cards.
- Put the Ship deck face up; the next ship is always visible.
- Each player forms a line with their ships in value order: lowest on the left, highest on the right.
- Hand capacity = number of ships in your Line (see Draw Action Cards, under Turn Sequence).
High roller deals and goes first.
Turn Sequence
Play multiple rounds until anyone reaches 100 Victory Points and wins. A round ends when a player can't draw Action cards because the Action deck is empty — each player scores and a new round begins by shuffling the Action deck. The dealer shifts to the next player left each round; the dealer plays first in each round.
The dealer goes first each round. Do each step in order, then the next player clockwise goes.
- Remove Refuse Battle card — remove the Refuse Battle card you played last turn, if any.
- Fire damage — add +1 fire damage for each Fire card on your ships.
- Draw Action cards (up to hand capacity) — Hand Capacity = number of ships in your Line (minimum 4), or 1 if you have no ships in your Line. If the deck is empty, the current round ends; score and switch dealer.
- Play or pass Red Action card — if you have any Red Action card, you must choose one and play it now as your only action this turn. If it doesn't affect you, pass it to the next player and your turn ends. The receiver's sole card draw and action on their turn is this Red Action. If it has no effect on them, they pass it to the next player, and so on, until the card is played or gets back to the original player, who discards it as their only action that turn.
- Play or discard Action card(s) — play or discard one Action card. The only multiples that can be played are Rake or Boarding Party.
End of Round Scoring
Award Victory Points at the end of each round. Scores are public.
- Line maintenance — anyone with no Line ships at round end loses 15 VP.
- Sunk ships — keep the ships you sink in a secret face-down pile. VP = Hull + Rigging factor. Ships sunk by Running Aground or Fire Explosion are worth zero.
- Prize ships — captured Prize ships withdrawn to Port immediately earn double VP. Prize ships still at sea at round end are worth the sum of their current remaining undamaged Hull and Rigging factors.
Red Action Cards
Play on yourself if possible, else pass the card left and end your turn.
Admiralty's Orders
A random non-Struck mobile ship in your Line instantly returns to Port, ignoring other played cards.
Fire
Applies to one of your damaged ships at sea, chosen randomly, including Struck ships and Prizes. Fire hits Hull or Rigging: roll a d6 as per the Fire card. The ship takes 1 damage now and 1 damage each turn until it explodes or the fire is removed by Bucket Brigade or by returning the ship to Port. Each Fire causes 1 damage per turn at turn start. Fire in a dismasted ship spreads next turn to Hull, but back to Rigging if Rigging damage is repaired while the ship remains on fire. Once Hull damage completes, the ship explodes and is now worth zero VP.
Run Aground
A random ship among all of your ships at sea sinks on a d6 roll ≥ its Rating. Zero VPs.
Strike
Roll a d6 for each Hull-damaged Line ship with less than 6 Hull. Strike occurs if the result ≥ remaining Hull; place a Strike chit on the ship. Remove Strike only if the ship is captured or returns to Port. Struck ships can't attack, can't be attacked by gunfire, are unaffected by Break The Line, automatically surrender to a Boarding Party, and don't count for hand capacity or Blockading force.
Weathergauge
Discard all Break The Line, Blockade, and Refuse Battle cards in play from all players. Reshuffle the Ship deck.
Black Action Cards
May play only 1 each turn, except for Rake and Boarding Party.
Additional Ship
Take the top Ship deck card and add it to your Line or your Port.
Blockade
Play against a Port. The card remains in front of the target until removed. For each ship the blockaded player wishes to move from Port to Sea or Sea to Port, that player rolls a d6 (for each Blockade card); the move succeeds if the roll is greater than the number of mobile Line ships of the blockading player. Blockade is discarded by Weathergauge, or when the blockader plays Refuse Battle, or when the blockader has no mobile Line ships. Each player can block only 1 Port, but a Port may be blocked by multiple players.
Boarding Party
Play alone against a dismasted ship, or with a Broadside which dismasts the target ship. Choose a mobile ship in your Line to attempt a capture. Both players secretly choose Grape Shot: a valid Broadside and/or Rake, or no card, or another card as a bluff (bluff cards are not discarded; you can't use a valid Broadside as a bluff); reveal simultaneously (this is not applied to the ship as damage). The attacker rolls a d6, plus the attacker's valid Broadsides/Rake, minus the defender's valid Broadsides/Rake.
- d6 result ≥ 5: boarding attempt succeeds.
- d6 result 2–4: no effect.
- d6 result ≤ 1: defender captures the attacking ship.
The capturer of the ship removes the smallest damage card from the ship's Rigging and declares whether they will add the ship to their Line (zero VP) or make it a Prize. A Prize stays behind the Line and can't be fired at unless that Line is broken. A Prize immediately scores double VP when taken to Port.
Broadsides
Damage Hull or Rigging of the target ship. Fire from any mobile Line ship with Rating ≤ the card's rating. Can't target Prizes behind a Line unless the target player's Line is broken and the firing ship is of the Line Breaker's nationality.
Bucket Brigade
Remove one Fire card from a ship. Existing damage remains; repair only by return to Port via Refuse Battle.
Fire Ship
Target any ship at sea or all ships in the same Port. Roll a d6 for each target, adding +1 if the target is in Port or dismasted. The target sinks if the result ≥ 6. Put sunk ships in your victory pile.
Break The Line
Put this in front of the target player. Select up to 3 mobile ships as Line Breakers (up to ½ your Line, or 1 if only 1 ship in your Line); put flag chits of this card's flag on them. Each non-Struck ship in and behind the broken Line loses 2 Hull and Rigging. The target player can't play Refuse Battle to take ships to Port, but can discard it to add ships from Port to the broken line; these also suffer -2/-2 damage. The Line Breakers and all ships of that nation owned by any player may attack Prizes behind the broken Line (and ships in that Line normally). Line Breakers can only attack the target player; others can fire on anyone. Line Breakers can't break other Lines, but the target player's mobile ships can. This card remains until removed by Weathergauge, or the breaking player plays (not discards) Refuse Battle, or all concerned Line Breakers are sunk, captured, struck, or dismasted. Repairing a dismasted Line Breaker does not make it a Line Breaker again. Struck ships are unaffected by this card.
Rake
Can fire from any mobile Line ship, alone or along with Broadsides, to the same or a different ship or ship location. Max 1 Rake per turn. Can't target Prizes behind Lines unless the Prize is affected by Break The Line and the firer is of the Line Breaker's nationality.
Repair
Discard 1 Broadside or Rake from a ship. Can't remove Fire or Break The Line damage. The other ways to repair damage are: a successful Boarding Party, return to Port via Refuse Battle, or escaping Break The Line (-2/-2 ends it).
Refuse Battle
Discard or play.
Discard to bring back ships from Port to Line, even if the Line is broken.
Can play only if the Line is not broken. The card remains in front of you until your next turn. Remove all your Break The Line and Blockade cards in play. Your mobile ships are now immune to any kind of attack. You can move ships from Port to Line and/or withdraw ships from Line to Port, but not the same ship both ways. Dismasted ships can withdraw to Port if accompanied by any mobile ship returning to Port. Discard all damage on ships withdrawn to Port. Prizes withdrawn to Port immediately score double VPs.