Gamehelpskybirds

Skybirds is a card-shedding game where players play cards (called Aces) in turn trying to beat the most recently played cards on the table. Each round of play (called Dogfights) consist of single cards, or sets of cards all of the same value (these are called Squadrons); each Squadron played must match the number of cards played at the start of the Dogfight and be of higher value than the previous played Squadron, until the Dogfight ends and the process starts again.

Once the cards are dealt out, the lead player (whoever has Roland Garros – it can be played along with any other card or any other set of matched cards) chooses how many cards everyone plays each round (a Dogfight). Players that follow may either pass or must play a set (a Squadron) of the same number of cards with a larger value. Cards with a medallion on them (the 9s and the 10) are played as singletons and beat any Squadron regardless of the Squadron’s size. 9s can, however, be beaten by the 10, and special powers allow players to add medallions to their squad to make regular Aces even more powerful, possibly even better than the 10. In general, you cannot play runs (also known as straights, a group of sequential numbers like 2, 3, 4) but one token lets you create runs of 2 or 3 in a row and play it as the lowest valued Ace in the run. The Dogfight ends when all but one player has passed. Then the winning player leads the next Dogfight, choosing the Squadron Size.

The first person to play all their cards gets to take any token they’ve unlocked (i.e., if they have the prerequisite token in hand). Second place can take any token they’ve unlocked except the ones marked for 1st place only. 3rd place can’t take tokens marked for 1st and 2nd. Fourth place (or 3rd place in a 3p game) can only take the tokens worth 1VP (which have no bonus) from the bottom of the board.

After each campaign, you can trade in 1VP tokens for other tokens you have the proper prerequisites for. Any 3rd place tokens costs 2 of these 1VP tokens, 2nd place tokens cost 3, and 1st place tokens cost 4. Tokens can be saved to score VP at the end of the game. Or, if the token has a bonus, you can trigger that bonus. The first time you use a token, just flip it over to lower the VP value by 1 point. The second time you use it, put the token back onto your player mat, face up. You will need to re-earn that token to get it back again. Until you do, you won’t earn the VP (or get to use its bonus again) and this may mean you no longer qualify to take a more advanced token if you no longer have the prerequisite.

The final token, the Armistice Token, requires you to have both of its prerequisite tokens. Once someone takes that token, the current Dogfight plays itself out, players also take a tiebreaker token (in order of finish) if they don’t already have one, and you tally up your VP from tokens in your possession. Highest VP (including the fractional VP from tiebreaker tokens) wins.

Here is the distribution of card values in the 40-card deck:

Frequencies
10	1
9	2
8	3
7	3
6	5
5	5
4	5
3	5
2	5
1	5
A	1
Total	40