Sky Team Second Opinion

Do you ever sit with your other half thinking about how nice it would be if you didn’t have to talk to them?

No, just me?

Just in case I’m not alone on this, I might have a recommendation for a two-player game where communication is limited, but fun isn’t.

Sky Team is a 2023 release from Luc Remond, and is a two-player only game of dice placement, cooperation and tension. One player acts a pilot, the other as co-pilot. Each player secretly rolls their four dice behind a screen and then takes it in turn to place them on the main central board. By the end of the game, you need to make sure that the landing gear is ready, the plane is level, and the sky is traffic-free. Whilst all of this might sound reasonably straightforward, the wrinkle of the game is that players cannot discuss their dice or where they’re going to place them.

Can You Hea-throw Some Good Numbers?

Some of you might be still wondering where the challenge is in Sky Team. It’s worth noting that of the four dice you’ll place, two of them must be used on the axis and the engine, meaning that realistically you only have a maximum of two other dice to get landing gear sorted and other planes moved… and that’s just on the starting scenario.

When you buy Sky Team, you’re not just buying a game. You’re buying a series of scenarios which get gradually harder. You may have an intern to train (which can be quite useful if you roll poorly) or have a kerosene leak. You might be approaching an icy runway, or have to contend with the wind. The absolute worst thing is trying to deal with additional traffic getting in the way of landing safely.

As a means of mitigating bad dice rolls, you can use dice to gain coffee cups. This allows you to adjust the number of a dice roll by one. You also have at least one reroll token in a game, but not being able to discuss your dice may mean using it when you don’t have to. Even worse, your partner scowling at you and saying, “I’m not going to reroll because my dice are FINE.”

Finally, some scenarios give you help cards which can be used either once a game or once a round, depending on their ability. These can allow players to swap dice, gain an extra dice or gain extra rerolls. This can be the difference between a safe landing or a wobbly engagement with terra firma.

Expect Some Turbulence…

Before I wax lyrical about what made Sky Team one of my favourite 2023 releases, I’ll delve into why this game may not be for everyone. First of all its entirely possible to just lose a game purely from bad dice rolls. In one game, we were in the last round and needed to roll dice numbers as low as possible. I rolled four sixes, used the reroll token and rolled a five and three sixes. Some people may not like a game which can be won or lost on luck. On top of this, the idea of not communicating may not sit well with some. This is only a game you should play with someone who you know well. For some, the joy of cooperative play is talking and hypothesising, and whilst you can do this between rounds, there’s no opportunity to discuss changes and reactions.

…Before Getting To A Cruising Altitude

If you’re still with me and aren’t put off by either of those things, then I can safely say that you’ll have a great time with Sky Team for several reasons.

Although communication isn’t allowed, there are ways to communicate with your partner without using words or actions. You can do it through your dice placement. Sometimes I might avoid placing a die on either the engine or axis because I want to see what my partner has first. The more you play Sky Team with the same person, you can start to see their thought process. There’s a method which could get repetitive, but doesn’t because Sky Team has so much variability. There’s even variability to be found when doing some scenarios over again, through the help cards and the traffic dice.

Sky Team is also short enough to not overstay its welcome. From set up to tear down, you can realistically play through a scenario in about 20-30 minutes. This brevity means that you’ll often have a case of “just one more.” Even if you fail a scenario, there’ll be a temptation to try again straight away. Moreover, Sky Team has one more ace up its sleeve, an ace which led to some of my funniest gaming memories last year: the real-time scenarios.

It's Not Always Plane Sailing

That’s right, Sky Team has real-time scenarios and I’ve honestly never seen a game devolve as much as it did when we tried them. Whether it be my partner forgetting to use a die for the engine and therefore causing an instant loss, or me getting so panicked that I ended up just dropping my dice all over the floor, many laughs were had. I think this is what sets Sky Team apart from other cooperative games with limited communication. Games like The Mind and The Crew give tension and often relief, but I don’t always feel they bring joy. Sky Team does. There is joy to be found in its simplicity.

Final Thoughts

Sky Team gets the seal of approval from me without question. It’s a prospect that seems daunting when you see the sheer number of ways to lose a game, but it’s just pure fun. Despite only owning a copy for about four months, Sky Team has found its way onto our table upwards of thirty times, as well as games we’ve played on Board Game Arena. It’s currently flying up the BoardGameGeek rankings, and I really wouldn’t be surprised to see it land in the top 100 soon!