Skyfare

About the game

Buy air routes, corner a region, build gates into terminals and run your rivals out of cash. A full route-trading board game that never needs a network.

Skyfare is an original route-trading board game played on a thirty-six tile rectangular ring. Roll two dice, move your aircraft, and buy the routes you land on — or decline and watch them go to auction, where anyone at the table can take them cheap. Hold all three routes in a colour region and the base fee doubles; then you may build, up to four gates and finally a terminal, drawn from a deliberately limited supply so building early denies your rivals the chance. Six hubs charge more the more of them one operator holds, two service tiles bill a multiple of your dice roll, and two fuel levies and a maintenance bay wait for the unlucky. Mortgage a deed for half its price when cash runs short, redeem it later at ten per cent interest, and trade routes and cash with any rival at any point in your turn. A leg ends when one operator is left solvent, or at the round limit, when the largest net worth takes it; two legs win the match. The board is a sunny, toy-bright 3D airport: an airfield with runways and a control tower inside the ring, a row of toy houses on every route that grows into gate towers and a terminal as you develop it, and a working apron of parked aircraft, hangars and ground crew around it, set in green lawns and trees with a pastel town beyond. It renders through a self-contained WebGL renderer with no library, and falls back to the series' own software 3D renderer where WebGL is unavailable, so it still runs on modest seatback hardware.

How to play

1. Two dice move your aircraft around the ring. Pass Dispatch and collect your salary. Doubles let you roll again — three in a row and you are grounded.
2. Land on an unowned route, hub or service and you may buy it at the listed price. Decline and it goes to auction, where anyone can take it cheap.
3. Land on a rival route and pay their fee. Hubs charge more the more of them one operator holds. Services charge a multiple of your dice roll.
4. Hold all three routes in a colour region and the base fee doubles. Then you can build — up to four gates, then a terminal.
5. Gates and terminals come from a limited supply, so grabbing them early denies your rivals. Mortgage a route for half its price if you need cash fast.
6. Deal routes and cash with any rival at any point in your turn. A region you cannot complete is worth more to someone who can.
7. Force everyone else into bankruptcy, or hold the highest net worth when the rounds run out. Take two legs to win the match.
8. Tap the camera button beside pause (C or V on a keyboard, View on a controller) to switch between Follow, behind your aircraft; Close, right behind its tail among the route buildings; and Board, the whole airport at once. Your choice is remembered.

Controls