Ebb Tide: Pirate Tactics

A mad cartographer is erasing the sea from the map. Sail, raid and fight while there is still water.

You captain the brig *Magpie*, stolen from the Salt Company, with a crew of six officers and a wooden figurehead that sometimes talks back. Emeran Grau, the Dry Cartographer, wipes the Misty Sea off the map with the Ebb Quill, and the water really disappears: bays turn to salt, rivers run dry. Win the war on the water, choose who to save, and decide how the story ends.

Play free in your browser. The whole game is free. If you enjoy it, pay what you want: a tip pays for new missions and fixes.

What is in the game

• Story campaign: three acts, 15 missions, choices that come back later, three endings ("Break the Quill", "Draw Liena", "Keep the Quill").
• Free Voyage: no story, no menus to dig through. Your first fight is already at the cannon; then pick a job (bounty hunt, tournament of cannon duels, convoy raid, monster hunt, fort assault, 4-on-4 brawl). The ship sails to the mark by itself and your crew buys gear and repairs for you.
• Six kinds of fights: naval battles with wind, broadsides and rams; boarding on a grid deck (kick enemies overboard, blow up powder kegs, topple masts); close-quarters fights in four ranks; artillery duels against forts; monster hunts (kraken, river serpent, living storm); and "Gunner" - you aim the cannon yourself.
• Single Battles: jump into any fight mode for a short session.
• A crew with personalities: six officers who grow smarter with every fight, banter with each other and make their own choices on the ship.
• Plays on PC and on phones and tablets (landscape). Mouse or touch.
• No ads. No sign-up. No tracking. Progress is saved in your browser after every fight. Sound effects only (no music yet).
• Languages: English, Russian, Spanish (button on the title screen).

Controls

• Mouse or touch. Map: click or tap the sea to set a course, Space pauses.
• Naval battle: pick how to approach, then one of four strategies each turn (Volley, Ram, Board, Escape); once per battle you can take the gun yourself.
• Boarding: pick a hero, click a blue tile to move, click an enemy to attack, K kicks.
• Gunner: the mouse aims, left click or Space fires, 1 / 2 / 3 pick the shot (ball, chain, grape).
• Enter ends a turn, 1-9 pick in a window, Esc closes a window, "?" shows the rules of every fight.
• Phone: tap everything; hold the phone sideways (the game asks you to rotate).

Pay what you want

The game is free to play in your browser. There is no paywall. If you enjoyed it, you can leave any amount (even $1): it pays for new missions and fixes. Thank you!

Saves

Your progress is saved in this browser (three story slots and three Free Voyage slots). If you clear site data or switch browser or device, the save does not follow you (itch.io has no cloud saves for web games). Safari may forget saves of embedded games: use Chrome or Firefox if that happens. The game never overwrites a bigger save with a smaller one.

Credits

Game design, code and story text: the author together with Claude (Anthropic) AI agents. 3D models: Kenney (pirate kit, ships), Quaternius and KayKit (characters and creatures), all CC0; the cannon, the gun deck and the Corvette, Galleon and Ship of the Line are our own (CC0). Textures: ambientCG (CC0). Icons: game-icons.net by Delapouite, Lorc, Skoll, Sbed, John Colburn, Carl Olsen, Felbrigg, Cathelineau (CC BY 3.0). Font: Rubik (SIL Open Font License). Sound effects are generated by the game itself.

AI disclosure

• Code: written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) under the author's direction.
• Story, dialogue, interface text and the English / Spanish translations: written by AI (Claude) under the author's direction.
• Art: no generative AI images. 3D models and textures come from CC0 packs (Kenney, Quaternius, KayKit, ambientCG); a few models are built by our own Blender scripts (procedural, no generative model); icons are by human artists (game-icons.net). Portraits and story backgrounds are rendered from the game's own 3D models.
• Sound: sound effects are synthesized in real time by the game's code (Web Audio); there are no recorded or AI-generated sound files. This build has no music.