The Landing: Sky Team's Final Round

Every round of Sky Team leads to one moment: the final round, when the airport shows in the position screen and the airplane picture shows in the altitude screen at the same time. The rulebook calls it great timing. It is also where most first landings slip away, usually because of something left undone two rounds earlier.

What changes in the final round

One rule changes, and it is the one crews forget. When the second Engines die goes down, you compare your speed with the red Brake marker, not with the Aerodynamics markers. The plane does not move along the track. Your speed must be lower than the Brake marker.

Everything else plays as normal. You still each place one die on the Axis and one on the Engines. You may still use the Radio, build gear and flaps, drink coffee, and spend a Reroll.

The four landing conditions

At the end of the final round, you land if all four are true:

1. No Airplane tokens are left on the Approach Track. Any plane still in your space can be cleared with a 1 on the Radio, even now.
2. Every Landing Gear and Flaps Switch shows green. All seven.
3. The Axis is completely level. Not one mark off.
4. Your speed was lower than the Brake marker when the second Engines die went down.

Miss any one and the passengers do not get their applause.

The final round is short on dice

Here is the math that makes round 6 so important. Each of you has 4 dice. Two of them must go to the Axis and the Engines. That leaves each player two dice for everything else.

The Pilot’s two spare dice must cover any missing Landing Gear and any Brakes. The Co-Pilot’s must cover any missing Flaps and most of the planes still on the track, since the Pilot has only one Radio space. Concentration and coffee can help with the numbers, but not with the count. If you arrive with three jobs for one player, you cannot land.

So the real landing checklist happens in the briefing before round 6:

• Which planes are still on the track, and can we clear them now?
• Which Switches are still red?
• How many brakes do we have, and can we build one more?
• How far off level is the Axis?

Brakes math

Your Engines dice add up to at least 2, so you need at least the first brake to have any chance. More brakes push the red marker further right and let you land at a higher speed. The booklet’s own example: with the 2 and 4 brakes built, the marker sits between the 4 and the 5, and a speed of 3 lands easily.

Brakes in the final round count only if they go down before the second Engines die. If the Pilot still needs a brake on the last round, it has to be one of the first dice placed, and the Engines wait.

Level in one round

The Axis must end the final round level. If you enter the round already level, you need two matching dice. If you enter tilted one mark toward the Pilot, the Co-Pilot’s Axis die must be exactly one higher than the Pilot’s to bring it back.

That is why the round before matters. Enter the final round level or one mark off, and you have many ways to finish. Enter further off and you need an exact gap in the right direction, which often takes coffee.

Coffee is at its best here. A token saved from round 3 can turn a near miss on the Axis into an exact match, or a 3 into the 2 your first brake needs. Arrive at the final round with coffee on the board.

Recovering from a bad round

Sky Team punishes mistakes, but it rarely ends the game in one round unless you spin, collide, overshoot, or miss a mandatory die. Most bad rounds can be fixed.

You are behind. Hold the Flaps, which keeps the orange marker low, and aim for 2-space rounds with high Engines dice. Clear the planes in your path first, because speed is useless with a plane in your space.

You are ahead. Lower the Landing Gear to push the blue marker up, then keep your speed below it. You stay put, or circle in a holding pattern if the airport is already in your space, and that buys rounds for the Radio and the Brakes.

The Axis has drifted. Fix it a mark at a time over two rounds rather than all at once. Big corrections need big gaps between dice, and big gaps are how planes spin.

Your dice are bad. The second Reroll token waits at 2,000 feet, in round 5. If you have not spent it by the final round, it is still yours.

After the landing

Whether you land or crash, look at round 6 first. That is almost always where the outcome was decided. The tips page at the back of the Landing Procedure, written for crews who keep crashing, opens with the briefing for the same reason. Our guide on how to teach a board game has more on short, friendly debriefs.