Popular board game publisher Stonemaier Games revealed its next project on September 23. Braided Skies is the first in a trilogy of fantasy strategy games, where you’ll play as airship captains competing to run the best cloud-hopping tourism business. Stonemaier’s newsletter promises a high complexity title for one to five players that plays in 60 to 90 minutes.
Braided Skies is set in the world of Smoking Bones, an illustrated novel series from Everdell artist Andrew Bosley. Bosley provides the art for Braided Skies, while Dan Germain designs the rules. Germain is an architect with a habit of designing games full of airships – his last was 2025’s Grand Central Skyport.
In Braided Skies, you’ll sail three drop ships through the clouds to collect resources, then recall them to activate benefits. Deploying means picking up tourists from ports, discovering wonders they might want to see, unlocking ship upgrades, and gathering tapstones. Tapstones are a magical mineral that helps you travel to wonders and gain fame (victory points) on their relevant track.
Once you recall your dropships, you can use their outfittings actions, provided you’ve filled them with the right tapstones and tourists. Crew and captain meeples are used to activate an outfitting or fill in when you don’t have the right resources.
That’s the game at a glance, but there’s a lot of nuts and bolts that add complexity. You have another resource to juggle, in the form of grit. You can upgrade your player board, but the main board develops also, as your cloud-surfing adventures create more spaces for everyone to explore, with more rewards to reap. Stonemaier’s newsletter also promises mid-level player interaction, so this seems less solitaire than your typical eurogame.
It also looks stunning. We have cloud component trays that bookend the 3D board, plus the lush art we’ve come to expect from Bosley. No word on how well it actually plays yet, but the full rulebook is already online at the Stonemaier website.
Braided Skies is set for an October 14 retail release. If you want to learn more about the year’s best board games, check out our dedicated guide – or hit us up for recommendations in the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
