A space strategy card game where the cards are starships

A setting that changes the rules

A space theme can be a coat of paint: the same knight with a laser. In Skyfire the setting is where the mechanics come from. These are the things that work differently because the units are ships.

Shields and hull

Every armed ship has a shield bank over its hull. Shields take the first of the damage. One race, the Solar Federation, restores its shields after a fight, so a ship you failed to finish comes back whole. The readout over each ship counts the shield down in blue and then the hull damage up in red.

Beams, torpedoes and fighters

There are three ways to hurt something, and they do not behave alike. Beams are instant and short-ranged. Torpedoes hit hard from much further away, travel visibly, and need time to reload. Carriers do not shoot at all: they hold position and launch fighter wings that fly out, attack and come back.

Cloaking devices

A cloaked ship cannot be seen or targeted. It closes on its mark unseen, surfaces, fires and cloaks again. The counter is a specific ship, the Loki, which stops every enemy vessel from cloaking for as long as she is alive. So the first thing a cloaking fleet wants to kill is the Loki, and the first thing its opponent wants to protect is the Loki.

Minefields

A minefield is a card you lay on the board. Enemy ships that fly through it strike mines. It can be cleared: a ship that stops and turns its beams on the field will burn it down. The Crystals have a nastier version, the web minefield, which holds a ship in place while its shields drain.

Jumps and tunnels

Most ships have to fly the length of a lane. A few do not. Hyperjump ships arrive anywhere on the board and damage whatever they land beside. The Cyborg Firecloud opens a tunnel to a distant point and takes every ship stacked with her through it.

Boarding

Some weapons kill crew instead of hull. A ship with no crew left is not destroyed. It is captured, and it fights for the other side for the rest of the battle.

Twelve fleets

You command one race at a time, and each has a roster of around twenty cards. A few examples of how differently they play:

• The Solar Federation: solid, self-healing line ships. The easiest fleet to learn.
• The Empire of the Birds: almost everything cloaks. Fragile, patient and frightening.
• The Robotic Imperium: carriers and huge minefields. They win by owning space.
• The Privateer Bands: fast raiders that rob freighters and capture warships.
• The Horwasp Plague: a hive that throws sealed pods to anywhere on the board.

All twelve races, with what each is good at.

How a battle works

Each commander has a homeworld at the back and a starbase in front of it. Two lanes cross the trench between you. In the middle is an asteroid field where ore deposits appear.

Energy builds over time. You spend it to launch ships from your hand of four. They fly down a lane, fight what they meet, and attack the enemy's structures. Destroy the enemy homeworld and you win at once. Otherwise, whoever has destroyed more bases when the three-minute clock ends takes it. Full rules here.

Where the ships come from

Skyfire is set in the Echo Cluster, the universe of VGA Planets, a space strategy game that has been played continuously since the early 1990s. The hulls, the races and their abilities come from that game. If you have never heard of it, none of that matters: Skyfire explains itself. If you have, this page is for you.

Other space card games

If Skyfire is not quite what you were searching for, the best-known space card game is probably Star Realms, a turn-based deckbuilder where you buy ships and bases into your deck as you play. It is a very different game: thoughtful and turn by turn where Skyfire is live and fast. The difference between the two styles is explained here.