Gray Harbor Games
Saltwake
A Game of Tides, Trade, and Treachery
The tide turns twice a night in Gray Harbor, and everything you own rides on it. You run one of five guilds fighting for the docks before the storm closes the mouth of the bay.
Load cargo, read the water, and get your ships home ahead of the weather. Pay the harbormaster to look the other way, or cut a rival's rope and watch their season sink. Every round the storm track climbs. When it breaks, the harbor counts its coins and its wrecks.
- 01 Players
- 2 to 5
- 02 Play time
- 90 to 120 min
- 03 Ages
- 13 and up
- 04 Designer
- Maren Kołodziej
A short game with a long memory
Saltwake plays in under two hours, but the harbor remembers. The debts you take in the first storm come due in the last. There is no catch-up mechanic. There is only the tide, and whether you read it better than the guild across the dock.
Each guild starts with the same three ships and a different reason to win. The Coopers want the warehouses. The Lantern Guild wants the harbormaster's ear. The rest want both, and will trade one for the other when the water rises.
In the box
- A double-sided harbor board that changes the tide pattern each game
- 5 guild boards with unique starting decks
- 75 hand-painted-style wooden ship and cargo pieces
- 110 cards: contracts, weather, and harbormaster favors
- A rising-storm track with a wooden squall marker
- A cloth coin bag and 60 metal-look coins
- Two solo scenarios against the harbor itself
- A 16-page rulebook and a one-page quick start
"I wanted a game where the weather is the strongest player at the table, and nobody gets to argue with it."
Ready to run the tide?
Saltwake ships worldwide from Gray Harbor Games. $65.