Teaming With Fun

As much as my husband and I enjoy playing board games, it's not generally something we turn to when it's just the two of us. So I don't generally pay much attention to whether a game is said to play well with two players. And I very rarely check out games meant for only two players. But every now and then, a two-player game is so celebrated in the gaming community that I feel almost obligated to check it out. Which is how I came to try Sky Team.

Two players take on the roles of pilot and co-pilot for a jumbo jet. An "instrumental panel" board between them shows various slots for dice, where specific numbers must be placed to control pitch and air speed, radio the tower to clear other planes, deploy flaps and brakes, and so forth. Your shared job is to land the plane safely within a limited number of rounds. Your method for doing this is to each roll four dice on every round, then alternate placing them in specific slots on the panel to get the plane ready in time.

Sky Team is a cooperative game, which will immediately make some wary gamers ask if it deals well with the "quarterbacking" problem of cooperative games -- does the system prevent one assertive player from stepping in to dictate decisions for the others? Sky Team already has a leg up on this because there is only one other player. Then it cleverly uses "hidden information" to solve the rest. Each player rolls their dice behind a screen, and only brings a die out when they place it on the instrument panel. Players are not allowed to discuss their rolls, not even by implication. And while this can make the game unfold in relative silence, it actually makes you work exactly in the way the title promises: as a team.

Certain slots on the instrument panel can be filled by one one player, the pilot or the co-pilot. Other slots are shared by both. Still other slots are paired: the pilot and co-pilot each must place one die every round, and the relationship of the two numbers together dictates what happens. When playing, you very quickly learn that success comes from leaving your partner more options. If you put a 6 in one of those "paired slots," where you need your total to be, say, 9 or better? You've given your partner a lot of information to work with. They don't have to worry about whether they should put the only 6 they rolled on that slot, and can use a 3 instead. If one of you needs to play a 1 to clear a plane from the landing zone before you move forward, and you don't play that 1 on your turn? It's a likely message to your partner that you don't have one, can they help?

If you master the game's system of implied communication too easily, don't worry, you have plenty more challenges in store. Each playthrough simulates a landing at a particular airport, each airport a mini-expansion of sorts that adds more mechanics to the game. Soon enough, you'll learn to deal with precise turns during your approach, additional planes that come into the landing zone, fuel management, and more. Then you can repeat landings on higher difficulty levels that leave less margin for error.

I've enjoyed Sky Team more than just about any other two-player-only game I can think of. Indeed, I've enjoyed it more than most cooperative board games I've played in recent memory. Sitting down to solve a problem with one partner (which, for many gamers like me, will be their partner) is just delightfully satisfying -- especially when the system almost entirely eliminates moments of coercion or recrimination that other cooperative games can have. Plus, it takes just 20 minutes or less to play a scenario, land or crash. It's easy to play several in a row, or squeeze in one in a narrow window of time, whichever is more suited to you.

I give Sky Team at least a B+. It might even be an A-, though I think I haven't played it enough yet to be sure. (Like I said... I don't often play two-player games; not even a good one like this.)