Heroic Landings: Wind, Ice Brakes, Fuel Leaks, and the Clock

The Flight Log’s last two colors, Elite Pilots Only and Heroic Landing, combine the hardest modules in the box. The three Heroic scenarios are Keflavík with Wind and Ice Brakes, Kuala Lumpur with Kerosene and the 60-second clock, and Paro with Kerosene and the clock. This lesson takes each hard module in turn, then the Special Ability cards that help.

The thread that ties them together is matching. The reading lesson taught you to guess your partner’s dice. Here you use those guesses to match them.

Wind: a tilted plane gets faster

A blue Airplane token sits in a Wind ring beside the panel. Right after each Axis check, turn it as many spaces as the Axis is off center, even if the Axis did not move this round. During the Engines check, add the wind number it points at to your speed. That includes the final round, when speed is compared to the Brakes.

So a plane left two marks off center keeps turning the wind two spaces every round. A level plane keeps the wind where it is. That changes the Axis from “level by the end” to “level now.”

• Match the Axis every round you can. A matched pair leaves the plane where it was, and a level plane leaves the wind alone.
• Read the wind in every briefing. It changes your Engines math: with +2 wind, a total that would move you 1 space may move you 2.
• Plan the landing with the wind in it. In the final round, the wind is part of the speed your Brakes must beat.

Ice Brakes: brakes come in pairs

The Ice Brakes board covers the normal Brakes. Each step needs two dice of the same value, one in the space above the track and one in the space below, in the same round. A die that never gets its partner that round is lost, with no effect. Steps go in order, left to right, and you may take more than one step in a round. You must reach the end of the track to land, and your final speed must still be lower than the Brake marker.

The odds matter here. If your partner leads one half of a step, you need that exact number: about 52% with four dice. One coffee on the board lets a neighbor number work too, about 94% for a middle value (80% for a 1 or a 6), and two coffees make it close to certain. Lead Ice Brakes early in the round, when your partner still holds the most dice, and keep coffee on the board for these rounds.

The Kerosene Leak: a fuel tax on mismatched engines

Set up the Kerosene track as normal, but the Kerosene space is closed. Instead, each round you lose fuel equal to the difference between your two Engines dice, plus 1. A 6 and a 3 cost 4. A matched pair costs 1.

Over seven rounds, matched Engines cost 7 fuel. Every point of gap costs one more. Lead the Engines with a value your partner is likely to match, and let the plane’s speed come from choosing which pair you match on.

Real-Time: sixty seconds

Start a 60-second timer right after the roll. When it runs out, the round ends. Unplaced dice are ignored, and a missing Axis or Engines die still loses the game.

• Place the mandatory dice first. Under the clock, the Axis and Engines lead, every round.
• Keep the briefing longer. The clock does not start until the dice are rolled. Plan more, so you decide less.
• Practice on scenarios you have landed. The clock is hard enough on its own.

Special Abilities that pay for matching

The Flight Log has six Special Ability cards, and each scenario says how many to choose.

• Control: two dice of the same value on the Axis earn a Coffee token.
• Mastery: two dice of the same value on the Engines earn a Reroll token, if one is available.
• Working Together: once a round, each of you places a die on the card, you swap their values, and you take them back to place later.
• Synchronisation: once you have a die on the Landing Gear and one on the Flaps, roll the Traffic die and place it as an extra die anywhere. The Co-Pilot places it.
• Anticipation: each round, the first player may reroll one die before placing their first.
• Adaptation: once per game, each player may turn one unplayed die to its opposite face.

Pair them with the modules. Control rewards the same matched Axis that keeps the Wind still. Mastery rewards the same matched Engines that keep a fuel leak cheap. Adaptation can turn a 1 into a 6 when an Ice Brakes step needs a high pair. Choose cards that pay you for the habit the scenario already demands.

Climbing to Heroic

Do not jump from Routine Landings to Keflavík. Fly the Exceptional Conditions scenarios until each module feels familiar alone, then the Elite pairs, then the Heroic three. When you get there, the Turbulence expansion from Le Scorpion Masqué adds 20 more hard scenarios and new modules.