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About Sky Team
Sky Team is a two-player cooperative game about landing an aeroplane, and its central rule is that you cannot talk about it. You roll dice behind a screen and place them on a shared cockpit board, covering axis, engines, flaps, landing gear and brakes, and you have to read your partner rather than instruct them. It won the Spiel des Jahres in 2024 and deserved it.
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Is Sky Team Right for You?
Best for
Sky Team is the best two-player cooperative game to come out in years, and it is specifically a two-player game rather than a game that tolerates two. A full landing takes about fifteen minutes, so it fits into an evening around other things, and the campaign of increasingly awkward airports gives it a long tail. Couples and regular gaming partners get the most out of it.
Maybe skip it if…
It is strictly two players, with no variant for more, so it is no use as a group game. And the no-talking rule frustrates some people rather than delighting them; if your partner finds silent coordination stressful rather than funny, this will be a short-lived purchase.
How to Play Sky Team
Setup
Set the cockpit board between the two players, choose an airport module, and place the aeroplane on the approach track. Each player takes their own dice and screen.
On Your Turn
- Both players roll their dice behind their screens. No discussion of values is allowed from this point.
- Alternate placing one die at a time into the cockpit spaces, each of which belongs to the pilot, the co-pilot, or both.
- Resolve the round: adjust the axis, manage engines and altitude, and check that the approach is still survivable.
How to Win
Land the plane safely at the end of the approach track with the gear down, flaps set and brakes sufficient. Any crash condition loses immediately.
💡 Strategy Tips
Place into the spaces that constrain your partner most, earliest. The last die placed is almost never a free choice.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Talking. It sounds obvious, but the rule covers hinting, sighing meaningfully and pointing at spaces, and a table that lets it slide loses the entire game.
- Leaving the axis unbalanced until late in the round. If the two axis dice do not roughly cancel, the plane tilts and you lose before altitude ever becomes the problem.
- Forgetting the landing gear and flaps have to be fully deployed by the end, not just started. Both are multi-turn commitments that new crews leave too late.
- Placing your best die first. Your opening placement should usually be the one that tells your partner the most, not the one that scores the most.
Advanced Strategy
- Build a placement convention with your partner over several games. Nothing in the rules stops you from agreeing beforehand that an early engine die means a specific thing.
- Watch the radar traffic before you commit to altitude. Descending into an occupied space is the most common late loss.
- When you hold two similar dice, place the one your partner cannot cover. Redundancy in your own hand is worth less than flexibility in theirs.
- Track brake capacity from the first turn on the harder airports. Arriving at the runway correctly aligned and unable to stop is a genuinely common way to lose.
Variants & House Rules
The airport modules
The base box includes a sequence of airports that layer in new hazards: wind, ice, traffic and reduced brake capacity. They are effectively a campaign and are best played in order.
Sky Team: Turbulence
An expansion adding further scenarios and mechanisms for crews who have cleared the base airports and want the difficulty raised again.
Video Guides
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Our Verdict
Sky Team is a small box that does one thing almost perfectly. The silence turns a straightforward dice-placement puzzle into a study of how well you actually know the person opposite you, and the fifteen-minute length means a crash just makes you deal again. For two players it is the first game we recommend, and its Spiel des Jahres win was thoroughly earned.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Sky Team be played with more than two?
No. It is designed exclusively for two and there is no official variant for other counts. That focus is why it works.
Are you really not allowed to talk at all?
You may talk between rounds about strategy in general terms, but once the dice are rolled you cannot communicate the values or where you intend to place them.
Is it too hard for casual players?
The first airport is genuinely gentle and the rules fit on one page. The difficulty ramps through the module sequence, so you choose your own ceiling.