Skybirds!

En bref · fiche BoardGameGeek traduite

Skybirds est un jeu pour 2 à 4 joueurs, dans lequel vous vous battrez pour la suprématie dans les cieux au-dessus des champs de bataille de la Grande Guerre (qui fut plus tard connue sous le nom de Première Guerre mondiale). Les combats aériens sont simulés – et cela peut paraître un peu étrange, mais suivez-nous – en remportant des manches d’un jeu de cartes où il faut gravir un classement et se débarrasser de toutes ses cartes. Si seulement la vraie guerre pouvait être aussi civilisée ! Les joueurs partent sur un pied d’égalité, mais au fur et à mesure que la partie avance, le vainqueur d’un tour de cartes donné pourra améliorer son escadron progressivement davantage que le deuxième, qui à son tour s’améliorera plus que le troisième, et ainsi de suite. Sauf dans une partie à deux joueurs, l’as qui se retrouve avec des cartes en main à la fin de la manche ne bénéficie d’aucune amélioration. Après chaque victoire, les joueurs les plus habiles acquièrent des armes plus puissantes (par rapport à ceux qui terminent la manche derrière eux), et ces armes, représentées par des jetons, peuvent être déployées pour obtenir de meilleurs bonus lors des manches suivantes. Ces jetons débloquent également de nouvelles étapes sur le chemin de la victoire, mais si vous utilisez le bonus le plus récemment gagné, vous ne pouvez pas progresser davantage sur ce chemin tant que vous n’avez pas récupéré le jeton utilisé. La partie se termine lorsqu’un joueur débloque le dernier jeton « Armistice », et le vainqueur est le joueur qui a accumulé le plus de points de victoire (PV) au cours de la « Guerre qui mettra fin à toutes les guerres ». Le jeu ne comporte pas trop de règles, et les parties sont rapides : chaque main (un « Dogfight ») dure environ une minute, chaque manche (une « saison de campagne ») dure quelques minutes et la partie complète (« La Grande Guerre ») prend entre 20 et 30 minutes selon les choix des joueurs. ACE = Chaque carte du jeu est un as de l’aviation Combat aérien = une main complète / une levée Campagne = un tour complet de levées, qui se termine lorsque tous les joueurs sauf un n’ont plus de cartes La Grande Guerre = une série de campagnes qui prend fin lorsqu’un joueur obtient son jeton « Armistice » —description du concepteur

Présentation de la campagne

Skybirds is finally ready

Hello, everyone.  the Skybirds game was inspired by a gift from my father.  When I was a boy, I was somewhat obsessed with WWI aviation. My father has always been a collector of trading cards -- mostly sports cards, but also the many other quirky things sold with bubblegum across the 20th century.  He has been slowly curating the best of the best of his collection and selling off the rest and asked me whether I wanted him to keep his nearly complete set of Sky Birds (two words) collectable cards from 1933 and 1934.  Did I ever!!

He sent me a binder full of them and I went out and grabbed the 5 missing items to complete the set. And then I realized the artwork was a great trigger for a campaign-style climbing/shedding game I'd been thinking of.  Since the best way to win a WWI dogfight was to attack from above, it seems the perfect fit for a climbing game.

The idea of the game springs from the classic shedding game of Zhēng Shàngyóu, which has morphed and changed as it spread across the globe to become the game President/Bastille (also "Scum" or "Asshole") and a host of other names (Richard Garfield turned it into The Great Dalmuti, which I finally played for the first time in August 2026, but which I pretty much already knew by heart because it is riffing on the same game as Skybirds).

However, unlike all of these other takes on the concept, which employ a "rich get richer" mechanism (where the poor performers give their best cards to the successful ones), in Skybirds that has been converted into special ability tokens that players earn (and can spend/lose) over the course of a multi-hand campaign. 

And voila, the story of Skybirds (one word)!

UPDATE: I have already printed 120 copies of the game.  The print run has already happened will happen regardless of this campaign and 50 copies of the game will be ready by November 1, 2026, with the rest to follow during the month of November.  The more people who sign up for a copy, the more likely I'll print 100 copies.  The fewer?  Then only 50.  Heck, if enough people sign up, maybe I'll print, gasp, 200 I settled on 120!

Interested in trying out the game?  Check it out on BGA (currently in alpha test, soon to move to beta):
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=skybirds

Pre-Production Sample

Want a sense of what Skybirds will look like?  Super because we already have the pre-production version, and final production has already begun (and is done for 70 copies.  The other 50 will finish in November.

Shipping and Delivery Timing

Even if no one had backed this kickstarter, I had planned to produce 50 copies of the game, making them available for sale at the Night Market at San Diego HistCon, the first weekend of November.   But the good news is that almost 70 people have already backed the game, so the initial print run is now set for 120 copies.  I've paid for it in full and production is done on the first 70 copies, with plenty of time to spare before SDHC in November.  The remaining 50 will be finished after Veterans Day.

San Diego in-person purchases (and local delivery of any SDHC attendeees' copies) will be available on Saturday, November 7.  Local pick up in Berkeley, CA (at the Tabletop Library) will be available on Tuesday, Nov 10 and thereafter (coordinate with me).  The remainder of the games will need a little more work to get them ready to ship (direct from the factory in Tennessee) but should start going out by the third week of November 2026.

Shipping within the continental US will be at a fixed $20 (mostly from Blue Panther in Mufreesboro, TN).  That will be included in the Backerkit price you'll pay when you go into the Pledge Manager.  If you are outside the continental US, the Pledge Manager will say $100, but that is not what you will pay.  Instead, I will price the shipping exactly and contact you privately to verify you're ok with whatever the correct amount is before I ship (and adjust the price in the Pledge Manager).  If that correct shipping price is too expensive, I'll happily refund your purchase, but overseas shipping KILLED me on my past crowdfunding, so I have to be a little vague on overseas shipping charges.

If you live close to the Tabletop Library in Berkeley, CA or if you plan to attend SD HistCon in San Diego, I will make a "delivery in person" option for zero cost.

Eco-friendly design!

Learn all about the make-your-own eco-friendly double-layered boards.  (I'm pretty psyched about how this design idea worked out in practice.)

Here's how the rings look up close.

Those blue rings are the only part of the punchboard you won't use in the game itself.

Official Rulebook

This it the rulebook that will come with your games (after a hiccup on the first try, but second time lucky, let's hope!)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1InuA3iftnTVpLzR76z0HMgY-3OJz4hAw/view?usp=drive_link

Early Bird Pricing is Over

For the 50-plus folks who purchased a copy of the game before Labor Day, thank you and congratulations.  You didn't even know it (heck, neither did I), but I underpriced the game relative to what it's going to cost to manufacture [information on pricing is still trickling in].  So you got an unadvertised "Early (Sky) Bird" price.  Congrats.

For those who did not yet purchase, I am sorry to say I had to raise the price.  It's still going to be a break-even endeavor, but at least I won't lose money the more I sell!

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