It feels prefer it was simply yesterday that I sat all the way down to play Sky Staff at Gen Con 2023. I do not forget that first sport the place we anticipated to land the aircraft easily, but ended up crashing into the bottom. Whereas the black field for that flight was by no means recovered, we did give it just a few extra tries earlier than finally getting that fowl down safely. Sky Staff ended up successful our award for the Finest Cooperative Board Sport of the 12 months, so it’s secure to say, it’s made its solution to our desk very often.
Quick-foward a 12 months and we now get the primary enlargement for this two participant sport. Known as Sky Staff: Turbulence, this modular enlargement seeks so as to add new challenges and selection to the bottom sport.
Enlargement Overview:
Along with including a handful of recent airports to land at, one of many most important sights of Turbulence is the modules you may add. Some are required for particular situations, whereas others may be added in for these seeking to up the problem.
The largest one is the Alarms module. On this one, every time an alarm image exhibits initially of the spherical in your place observe, you want to flip over an alarm token. Till you reset that alarm, you may’t use the related motion in your aircraft: a sport model of the previous “have you ever tried turning it on and off once more?” Mainly, it forces you to waste a die motion throughout a spherical.
The remainder are fairly easy. There may be Turbulence, which causes you to reroll all your leftover cube after you place one. And Unhealthy Visibilty, the place you solely roll two cube at the beginning of the spherical, after which after you place one, you roll a further (mainly, you solely ever have 2 cube to select from). Each of those modules considerably ramp up the randomness of the sport, a tradeoff designed to create extra realism, since Mom Nature doesn’t at all times enable for good pre-planned flights.
Lastly, there are some penguin tokens embody. Within the NZIR state of affairs, you’ve an icy runway in Antartical you are attempting to land on. So as an alternative of different planes, you’ve penguins in the best way. The writer explains “We all know very effectively that penguins don’t fly… However take a look at how CUTE they’re!!” ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Sport Expertise with the Enlargement:
I’ll admit I wasn’t clamoring for a Sky Staff enlargement. Not as a result of I don’t like the sport (I do!), however as a result of the bottom sport already has a ton of content material with it. There are 20-some airports to land in, and a complete mess of modules when you get previous the intro sport: Visitors die, intern, kerosene, wind, ice breaks, charges for seat adjustments (okay, perhaps not that final one)…. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot to interact with right here and I’m nonetheless working my approach by way of the core field.
That being mentioned, for these of you who’ve deeper expertise with all that the sport has to supply, this can be a nice enlargement. It matches in with my cardinal rule of expansions: it provides content material to the bottom sport with out overloading me with new complexity. I don’t need to really feel like I’m studying a complete new sport right here. And Sky Staff: Turbulence matches the invoice; all of the modules are very easy to combine.
Essentially the most distinctive further is the alarm module, however even that isn’t laborious to combine. Flip a token to dam a particular motion till you place a die. Simple peasy. At the very least, studying the principles is. Truly coping with the alarm panel generally is a problem relying on which of them are flipped and when. If the brake mild comes on and your brakes are already completed, its no massive deal. But when your flaps malfunction in spherical one, that may actually set you again.
With all of that mentioned, all the modules discover some solution to hamper you, and thus make issues more difficult. It could have been good to see some chnages that made issues simpler or extra entertaining with out ramping up the problem, for many who aren’t in search of a larger problem. That being mentioned, the enlargement is known as Turbulence, so it is sensible. Hopefully the following one is known as Pleasant Skies or one thing.
Closing Ideas:
Sky Staff: Turbulence is an effective enlargement and an incredible one for many who have absolutely skilled the bottom sport. That being mentioned, I wouldn’t name it a necessary enlargement, just because the bottom sport already affords a ton of selection, and most issues right here simply serve to up the problem for the gamers. If that’s not one thing you have an interest in, you don’t really want to hurry out to choose this one up. That’s not a knock towards it, it’s actually well-made and matches proper into the core field. However may not be for everybody on the market.
Hits:
• Simple to combine
• Suits within the core field
• Tons extra selection
Misses:
• All new additions are just for including problem
