Publisher: Abacus
Spiele
Designer: Alan R.
Moon
Year: 2011
Year: 2011
There is no doubt that Airlines Europe is a lesser known title
when compared to Alan Moon’s best known game Ticket to Ride. I don’t think it is helped by the fact it falls
into the category of a stock market game and is often compared to Union Pacific which for many in the
gaming community is a bad thing. Luckily for me, I happened across a copy of Airlines Europe in a Facebook trade
before I’d heard any negative comparisons, and was happy to pick up something
with good designer credentials.
In Airlines Europe there is a map of Europe, with most major towns
highlighted as hubs and connected by routes. The board is surrounded by a
scoretrack and different coloured markers are placed in their starting spots.
Unlike most games, the players do not own the scoremarkers, they instead
represent the value of shares in the different coloured airlines. Throughout
the game players choose which airlines to take shares in, as well as expanding
different airlines, depending on which airlines you want to score more highly.
There are 3 scoring rounds in the game that come up at slightly unpredictable
points in the deck and each airline scores based upon how successfully it has
expanded. If you have shares in the scoring airline then you have the
opportunity to score points. If you have the most shares you get the most
points, although there are often points for second and third place too.
The game seems to work so well
because you can only take one actions per turn. You can build a new route, paying
money from your supply and increasing the price of the shares of that colour.
You can play shares from your hand out onto the table, either two different
colour shares or any number of one colour. This in particular makes you think
very carefully about turn economy and also when to reveal to your opponents
which companies you’re investing in. Your other option are to take money from
the bank, or to invest in ‘Air Abacus’ – a company that has a reliable stock
value each scoring round but that be very competitive when trying to gain
majority.
The other major plus for me are
the components. It’s not typical for me to care about component quality very
much, but show me some miniature colourful plastic planes and I’m sold. More
than this, they come in a really convenient tray that can be taken straight to
the gaming table. Admittedly the game does have paper money, which is a bug
bear for some, but for us it’s standing the test of time at the moment.
I love these planes!! |
Once you’ve got your head around
the fact that no one person owns the different airlines, Airlines Europe really
is a gateway-style game, perhaps just a small step up from traditional gateway
games like Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride or Catan. In spite of this, it has enough complexity and tactical choices
to keep us interested. We don’t play it very frequently, but are always
pleasantly surprised when we do. For that reason the Yellow Meeple gives Airlines Europe a 7.5/10.
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