Designed by: Alan R Moon
Airlines Europe is rather like the big sister of Ticket to Ride, the train game that has broken into the high street and can be found in many stores. But whereas with Ticket to Ride – by the same designer – players are competing to build railway networks in a limited amount of space, the idea in Airlines Europe is to get the most shares in the most successful of a bunch of competing airlines.
The board shows a map of Europe and the air traffic routes over the countries. On any given turn you choose between one of the following options: expand an airline by paying money to add an airplane to a route (and take shares), play a share card in front of you and get some cash, or invest in the special Air Abacus airline. The crux of the game is that in expanding an airline – making its routes bigger and increasing its value – costs you money, and when scoring comes around if somebody else has more stock than you in that airline you’ve basically expanded on their behalf. And the different airlines have a varying amount of planes, so some can expand more than others.
The Air Abacus doesn’t have a presence on the board, but the value of Abacus shares is very big indeed, so having the most shares in Abacus is potentially a game-winner – as long as you don’t focus on nothing else!
Although there's no combat, Airlines Europe is a game of competition with players are trying to outscore each other. This can get a bit sneaky, especially once the other players know which shares you are after.
Not for really young players, but once older children twig that they need to keep an eye on what the other players are doing, there is practically no down-time.
Not as in-depth as something like chess, Airlines Europe nonetheless requires some thought and strategy.
One play should be enough for everyone to realize what they are trying to do. The second play will move faster, and random card distribution throughout ensures everybodys tactics will change.
2-4
Players
12+
Years
60-90
Mins
Sam says
It might sound rather dry - you don't own airlines and you're not going anywhere - but Airlines is very good game with a delicious seam of tension running through it, and it's worthy of a place on your shelf.