Overview
Sky Team is a cooperative board game for 2-4 players where you work together to successfully land an airplane. Published by Scorpion Masqué and designed by Luc Rémond, Sky Team combines communication, risk management, and press-your-luck dice rolling into an immersive and tense gameplay experience.
How It Works
Each player takes on the role of a pilot or co-pilot, with blue and orange dice representing their respective actions. On your turn, you roll 4 dice behind a screen and then take turns placing them on the central control panel to take actions like communicating with air traffic control, managing flaps and landing gear, controlling speed, and keeping the plane steady.
The key is cooperating with your teammate to land the plane safely amidst dice randomness and potential crises. If you go too fast, crash into another plane, tilt the airplane axis too far, or miss the runway, you lose! The rules start simple but the Flight Log expansion adds weather conditions, malfunctions, and other variables.
Components & Presentation
Sky Team nails the airplane cockpit aesthetic. The big central control panel has switches, screens, and dials along with clearly-marked spaces for dice placement. The moldable axis wheel for tracking tilt is genius. Thick cardboard components, colorful dice, and charming airplane illustrations give it an immersive feel.
While the symbols take some learning, the flowcharts and player aids make the well-written rules easy to pick up. Setup takes 5 minutes and you’re off to the (runway) races. The whole package oozes style and quality.
Gameplay & Experience
Our games started cautiously as we tested maneuvers and then became engrossingly tense as crises mounted. The dice bring luck but it’s managing risk that matters. The axis tilt mechanic in particular ramps up the pressure – one wrong move can end it all!
Cooperation and communication are essential. Our best games came through developing plans, playing off each other’s dice rolls, and coping with unpredictable situations together. While it lasts 30-45 minutes, it remained engaging across multiple plays.
The simple rules provide a steady learning curve while the expansions allow for customization. We had epic crash landings, heartbreaking near-misses, and triumphant high-fives. The theme is integral to the experience – you really feel like pilots cooperating to stick the landing!
Verdict
Sky Team takes a novel theme and nails the execution with easy-to-learn rules, quality components, dice-based dilemmas, and outstanding cooperation mechanics. It provides interactive, thematic, press-your-luck fun in a trim 30-45 minute package. This is a cooperative game that soars. I’d highly recommend Sky Team for any game group that enjoys working together under pressure or appreciates an aviation theme. It’s cleared for takeoff to my game shelf!
