In one paragraph
One of you is the pilot with 4 blue dice. The other is the co-pilot with 4 orange dice. Each round you roll in secret behind screens, then take turns placing one die at a time on the cockpit board, without talking. Dice keep the plane level, set your speed, clear other aircraft, lower the gear and flaps, and apply the brakes. You win together if you touch down within seven rounds with every landing check met.
The basics
| Players | 2 (co-op) |
|---|---|
| Play time | 15 min |
| Age | 12+ |
| Dice | 4 per player |
| Rounds | Up to 7 (6000 ft to the ground) |
| First scenario | Montreal (YUL) |
Setup
Use the Montreal approach for your first flight. The other airports add traffic, wind and other twists later.
- Pick seats. Decide who is pilot (blue) and who is co-pilot (orange). Each takes their 4 dice and a screen.
- Altitude track. Set it to show 6000 ft. Put a reroll token on each space with a reroll symbol.
- Approach track. Slide the Montreal track into its slot until the starting icon shows in the position window. Put one airplane token on the track for every traffic icon printed on each space.
- Cockpit markers. Point the axis straight up (level). Put the blue aerodynamics marker between 4 and 5, the orange one between 8 and 9, and the red brake marker to the left of 2.
- Switches. Make sure every landing gear and flaps switch is covering its green light.
- Coffee. Keep the coffee tokens in a pile beside the board.
A round, step by step
- Talk, then roll. Discuss the plan for the round. Plans like "we need to slow down" are fine. Anything about the dice themselves, such as which value should go where, is off limits. Then both roll your 4 dice behind your screens.
- Go silent. From the roll to the end of the round, no talking about the game. The only exception is pointing out a rules mistake.
- Place dice in turn. The arrow on the current altitude space shows who goes first. The pilot starts round one. Take turns placing one die each on an empty space you're allowed to use: blue spaces for the pilot, orange for the co-pilot, two-tone spaces for either.
- End the round. Once all 8 dice are placed, take them back, move the altitude track down 1,000 ft, and see if you're ready to land.
Your dice placements are your only conversation. Putting a 6 on the engines tells your partner a lot without a word.
The instrument panel
This is the part to keep open on a phone during your first game.
| Instrument | Who | Required? | What a die does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Axis | Both, one each | Yes, every round | The two dice are compared and the plane tilts toward whoever played higher. See below. |
| Engines | Both, one each | Yes, every round | The two dice are added to give your speed, which decides how far you move along the approach. |
| Radio | Pilot 1 space, co-pilot 2 | No | Removes one airplane token. A 1 clears your current space, a 2 clears the next one, and so on. |
| Landing gear | Pilot | All must be down to land | Each switch you flip moves the blue aerodynamics marker up one. Any order. |
| Flaps | Co-pilot | All must be down to land | Each switch moves the orange aerodynamics marker up one. Top to bottom, in order. |
| Brakes | Pilot | Not all, but they decide the landing | The three spaces take a 2, then a 4, then a 6, in that order. Each moves the red brake marker up one. Only matters on the final round. |
| Concentration | Either | No | Any value works. Gain one coffee token (3 max). |
Gear, flaps and brake spaces only accept the die values printed on them. Radio spaces only care about color, and concentration spaces take anything.
Speed and the approach track. Compare your engine total to the two aerodynamics markers. Below the blue marker, you don't move. Between the markers, you move 1 space. Above the orange marker, you move 2. Deploying gear and flaps pushes those markers higher, which is how the plane slows down as you descend.
Coffee. When placing a die, either player can spend coffee tokens to change its value by 1 per token. You can't go below 1 or above 6, and you can't wrap a 6 round to a 1. Unspent coffee carries over.
Rerolls. When the altitude track reaches a space that holds a reroll token, it joins your shared pool. Either of you can spend one mid-round, and then each of you may reroll some or all of the dice still behind your screen, one time.
The axis explained
The axis is the one that crashes most first flights. It works like a seesaw, and it never resets between rounds.
- Once both axis dice are down, find the difference between them.
- Same value: the plane stays where it is.
- Different values: the plane tilts by the difference, toward the player who placed the higher die. A pilot 5 and co-pilot 2 tilts it 3 marks toward the pilot.
- If the arrow reaches or passes an X mark, the plane spins out and you both lose.
Because the tilt carries over, a lean from round two still needs correcting in round three. The plane must be dead level at the end of the final round to land.
Landing: win or lose
When the airport is your current position on the approach track and the altitude track reaches the ground, the next round is the final round. On it, compare your engine speed to the brake marker instead of the aerodynamics markers.
You land safely only if, at the end of that round, all four of these are true:
- No airplane tokens are left on the approach track.
- Every landing gear and flaps switch is green.
- The axis is perfectly level.
- Your engine speed was lower than your brake marker.
You lose straight away if any of these happen:
- The axis arrow hits an X.
- A round ends without both colors on the axis and on the engines.
- You have to move forward into a space with an airplane token (collision).
- You have to move forward while the airport is your current position (overshoot).
- You run out of altitude before reaching the airport.
Reaching the airport early isn't a loss by itself, but you then have to keep your speed low enough not to move until the altitude catches up.
Common mistakes
- Talking after the roll. No hints, sighs or pointed looks either. The silence is the whole game.
- Forgetting a mandatory die. Each of you must place on both the axis and the engines every round. Save a die for them.
- Leaving traffic too late. Clear airplane tokens with the radio early. Blocked spaces near the airport are hard to fix in the last two rounds.
- Flaps out of order. Flaps go top to bottom. Gear can go in any order.
- Skipping brakes. With no brakes deployed you can't land at all, and every extra brake raises the speed you can get away with. Get at least the 2 and 4 in before the last round.
- Spending all the coffee early. Coffee is your fix for a bad final roll. Try to land with some left.
Sky Team is one of the best co-op games for a pair. See where it sits among our best 2-player board games.
Corin Ashdown is the pen name of the editor who writes and checks every guide on Vorbelutrioperbir. How we write and check guides.