OBJECTIVE OF SKY TEAM: Work together as pilot and co-pilot to land your plane safely, without saying a single number out loud once the dice are rolled.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Exactly 2 players (cooperative, one pilot and one co-pilot)
MATERIALS: A Control Panel board, 4 blue dice, 4 orange dice, player screens, an Airplane Axis Disc, an Altitude Track, an Approach Track, airplane tokens, aerodynamics markers, a brake marker, coffee tokens, and switches
TYPE OF GAME: Cooperative dice-placement board game
AUDIENCE: 12+
OVERVIEW OF SKY TEAM
Luc Rémond built this one during COVID lockdowns as a solo game, and only added the two-player communication twist once playtesting resumed afterward. That twist turned out to be the entire point. In 2024, Sky Team became the first strictly two-player game to ever win the Spiel des Jahres in the award’s 45-year history, beating out family classics that usually dominate that category.
One of you takes the pilot’s dice, the other takes the co-pilot’s, and together you’re landing a commercial airliner using nothing but silently placed dice. You can talk all you want before the dice come out. Once they’re rolled, the only thing left to communicate with is where you choose to put them.
SETUP
Set the Control Panel between you, with the Pilot’s spaces on the left and the Co-Pilot’s on the right. Place the Airplane Axis Disc in its slot at the center, and slide the Approach Track for your first airport, Montreal, into place alongside the Altitude Track. Each player takes a screen to hide their dice from the other, along with the 4 dice in their own color.
Read through the scenario for your chosen airport before you begin. Every airport plays a little differently, and later ones introduce new hazards the Montreal starter airport doesn’t have.
HOW TO PLAY SKY TEAM
The game runs across a fixed number of rounds, counted down on the Altitude Track. Every round follows the same three-part rhythm.
THE BRIEFING
Talk it out. Before anyone rolls, you and your co-pilot can discuss strategy freely, plan ahead, and agree on priorities for the coming round. This is your only window for real conversation.
ROLLING AND PLACING DICE
Once the briefing ends, both players roll their four dice behind their screens. From here on, no discussing numbers out loud. Taking turns, each of you places one die at a time onto an open space on the Control Panel, and the only information you get from your partner is which space they chose.
AXIS AND ENGINES
Two spaces are mandatory every single round: Axis and Engines. Each of you places exactly one die on each. On the Axis, the plane tilts toward whoever placed the higher number, by the exact difference between the two dice. Tilt too far and the plane spins out, ending the game on the spot. On Engines, the two dice get added together, and depending on where that total falls against your current aerodynamics setting, the plane advances 0, 1, or 2 spaces down the Approach Track. Skip either space by the end of a round and you lose immediately.
LANDING GEAR AND FLAPS
The pilot alone controls Landing Gear, and the co-pilot alone controls Flaps. Both need every one of their switches lit green before you’re allowed to land, and each switch only accepts a die matching its printed number. Landing Gear switches can go in any order you like. Flaps, on the other hand, only deploy top to bottom, no skipping ahead.
RADIO AND COFFEE
The Radio space clears incoming traffic. Play a die there and its value determines exactly which airplane token gets pulled off the Approach Track ahead of you. Concentration works differently, generating a coffee token instead of doing anything directly. Either of you can spend a banked coffee token later to nudge any die up or down by 1, though it can never push a value past 1 or past 6.
BRAKES AND THE FINAL ROUND
Only the pilot can work the Brakes, and their switches also deploy in strict order. Once you hit the final round, your Engines dice stop moving you down the track and instead get compared straight against your Brakes value. Come in faster than your Brakes can handle, and the landing fails.
WINNING AND LOSING
You only find out whether you’ve landed at the very end of the final round, and every one of these has to be true at once:
- No airplane tokens remain anywhere on the Approach Track.
- Every Landing Gear and Flaps switch shows green.
- The Axis sits perfectly level.
- Your final speed comes in lower than your Brakes value.
Miss even one of those and it’s a crash, not a landing. Plenty of other mistakes end the game early too: forgetting to place a die on the Axis or Engines, tilting past the limit, colliding with a plane you failed to clear, or running out of Altitude Track before you’re actually at the airport.
CAMPAIGN AND DIFFICULTY
Land Montreal successfully and the included Flight Log booklet opens up new airports, ranked from Green (routine landings) up through Yellow, Red, and finally Black for genuinely brutal approaches. Later airports layer in extra modules like kerosene management, wind drift, or a ticking real-time element, so the puzzle keeps evolving well past your first few flights.
FAQ
No. The game is built exclusively for two, one pilot and one co-pilot, with no official rules for solo play or larger groups.
That silence is the entire design. Losing the ability to say “I rolled a 5” forces you to communicate through where you place things instead, which is what makes coordinating under pressure so tense.
You simply can’t modify any dice that round. Coffee tokens are limited and persist between rounds if unused, so banking one early instead of spending it immediately is often the smarter play.
No. You can spread their switches across several rounds, as long as every single one shows green before your final landing attempt.
The core actions take one explanation to understand, but knowing when to prioritize Flaps versus Radio versus Brakes takes a few landings to click. Most pairs crash their first attempt or two before things start clicking into place.
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