Game Review – Airlines Europe

Airlines Europe
Number of Players	2 - 5
Play Time	75 minutes
Ages	10 years and up

Years ago I played a game called Union Pacific which was a stock market game that focused on the development of rail lines to increase the value of a railroad.  I found it engaging enough that I wanted to get a copy of it for my own library of games.

Unfortunately by the time that I was introduced to Union Pacific it was out of print in the United States.  I would keep an eye out for a reissue of it but it never seemed to happen.  Then I heard about Airlines Europe

Airlines Europe re-implements the mechanics of Union Pacific and also adds additional elements to make it a slightly different challenge than Union Pacific was.  The players are stock holders in airline companies that are setting up routes in Europe.  Their goal is to increase the value of their holdings by improving the routes of the airlines that they own and getting stock in other better valued stocks into their holdings.

The rules of the game are simple enough.  The players have four actions to choose from each turn.  They may expand airline routes and get an addition stock share, they may place stock shares in front of them, they may trade shares in their hand for Air Abacus shares, or they may take 8 dollars from the bank.

One of the elements that changed in Airlines Europe was the way that money is used.  In Union Pacific money is used as victory points.  In Airlines Europe it is used to pay for the expansion of routes.  The players can get more money play placing shares in front of them or taking the 8 dollar action.

The other thing that changed from Union Pacific in Airlines Europe is the scoring of airlines.  In Union Pacific the value of a company is determine by the number of routes it developed.  With each company having a fixed number of trains it was easy to determine the maximum value of that company.  In Airlines Europe the value of the company is determined by the cost of the routes it places.  Even though there is still a fixed number of airplanes for each company there is enough variability in the route values that a smaller company can turn out to be more valuable at the end of a game than a larger company.

The quality of the game parts are good and appear they to be durable.  One word of caution if you get the Rio Grande issued version of the game.  You will need to do a bit count before playing the game.  I opened my game for it to be played the same day and I was missing the two scoring pieces for one of the companies.  We were able to improvise and play the game, but it was a nuisance.  My understanding is that missing pieces is an issue that many copies of the game have. 

That being said Rio Grande was very accommodating in providing replacements.  I went to their website and sent in a complaint and customer service contacted me the next morning and I got replacements for the missing parts within a week.

Airlines Europe is a great game.  It captures the feel of Union Pacific but also adds its own elements to make it an interesting game in its own right.  If you enjoy Union Pacific it is a game you should definitely try.  It is also a good game for people that are being introduced to Euro style board games because the rules are easy to learn.  If it takes more than 15 minutes for an experienced player to teach then that player is teaching it wrong.  In fact it takes longer to add scoring cards into the stock deck than it does to teach the rules of the game. 

I do think that the playtime the publisher recommends is a bit optimistic.  In reality most 4 or 5 player games last 90 to 105 minutes instead of the 75 minutes listed on the box.

Bottom line if you like set collection games with an economic flair get this game you will not be disappointed.