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Airlines Europe

Posted by Burke Glover

24 May 2011

Burke Glover

(HBGlover)

United States
Unspecified
Delaware

Airlines Europe

THIS is the game Union Pacific aspired to be. Gone are the annoying track cards, and the Abacus stock (This game's version of Union Pacific stock) is no longer just an automatic grab. The result is a game with all the best parts of Union Pacific and none of the chaff. It has to be said that the board placement seems even less important than before, but that's fine as it lets you focus more fully on the meat of the game--the stock play. So for me this totally eclipses Union Pacific and is a good stock game in its own right.

There is one caveat, though: you'll have to tolerate a surprising amount of fiddlyness and housekeeping. The deck must be seeded properly, and you'll probably want to assign different players to banker, VP distributor, stock marker mover, and so on. For some, the nuisance will be small, but for me it was enough to bump the game down just a bit from an 8 to a 7. Still, a fun game, and one I look forward to playing more.

7 Comments

Wed May 25, 2011 4:29 am

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David Etherton

(etherton)

United States
Carlsbad
California

A friend who has played UP said the UP Stock was a bit of a game-breaker in that game (if you let one person get it too easily they'd dominate, but two or more people fighting over it would take themselves out of contention).

Having played Airlines Europe but not Union Pacific, I'm curious how AE addresses the issue? In my one play with 3p there were only three shares taken in total over the entire game, although it would have been five shares if it had gone a single turn longer.

-Dave

Posted Wed May 25, 2011 5:59 am
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Chris Johnson

(fnord23)

United States
Azusa
California

One of Alabama 3's finest songs, especially the versions on the single this image is from...

Sweet Pretty M*th*rf*ck*ng Country Acid House Music - All night long!

etherton wrote:

Poor use of UP will cost one the game, just like poor play in general. Among people who know the game, appropriate use of UP is key to winning. (That includes knowing when to go heavy into it, and when to ignore it.)

Quote:

Having played Airlines Europe but not Union Pacific, I'm curious how AE addresses the issue? In my one play with 3p there were only three shares taken in total over the entire game, although it would have been five shares if it had gone a single turn longer.

Then y'all left some noticeable, meaningful points on the table; greater experience should alleviate that.

AE addresses the issue by making it a real decision whether to devote the necessary turns and stock to compete in AA. Going big into AA will mean giving up a bunch of stock, or a bunch of turns, neither one of which is an easy decision, but the temptation of easy points draws one...

Posted Wed May 25, 2011 11:01 am
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Walter Hunt

(hotc)

United States
Bellingham
Massachusetts

etherton wrote:

In AE, you need to devote an entire turn to trading for the stock; in UP, you can do it after your action.

It's an easy enough rule to retrofit to UP.

One criticism of AE, and why I won't replace my copy of UP: AE plays only up to 5, while UP has had staying power at our club because it plays up to 6.

Posted Wed May 25, 2011 9:33 pm
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Burke Glover

(HBGlover)

United States
Unspecified
Delaware

I've only played a handful of games each of UP and AE, so I'm by no means an expert. That said... I think AA stock is just straight up weaker than UP stock, relatively speaking, which makes the game more balanced. One player dominating AA stock will not likely dominate the game. AA stock is more likely to be weaker than the best ordinary stocks in the first two rounds, and merely equal to the best possible stock at end game. Meanwhile UP stock is often going to be equal to or better than the best ordinary stocks in the first two times it scores, and also equal to the best stock at the end (with the exception of green which can get bigger in the end if multiple players go nuts with green).

Add to that the change that you must give up something (trade in other stock and spend a turn) instead of just grabbing it, and you have a significant "nerf". People will fight for it, but throwing away other stock that you've had to earn by building is a strong disincentive. In my games, people were generally looking to get those AA points with as few stock as possible, which is natural given all the disincentives I've described. I've never seen that taken to the extreme of only grabbing three shares total though. In that case, chances are one player or another had some junk stock he could have ditched for AP and a major windfall.

I'm not convinced that UP stock was a true game breaker in Union Pacific, only that it was a little off-balance because it was too easy to get relative to its value. I think the AA stock is significantly improved for balance in Airlines Europe.

Posted Wed May 25, 2011 10:15 pm
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Randall Bart

(Barticus88)

United States
Granada Hills
California

Red October

Earth is one of my favorite planets

Re "fiddlyness and housekeeping": How does it compare to Power Grid?

Posted Wed May 25, 2011 11:30 pm
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Burke Glover

(HBGlover)

United States
Unspecified
Delaware

I'd say there's nothing so funky as the auction house shuffle in Power Grid, just a bunch of very simple actions that have to be done dozens of times. Like every time you build a route, a marker for the corresponding company has to be moved up the track. It's so mundane (and turns are so quick) that it's easy to forget. The banker role requires almost no thought at all, but it must be done almost every single turn.

As for setup, the bank size changes based on player count which is just weird. My group is almost convinced that it's unnecessary--if you're not spending money you're not going to win.

Posted Thu May 26, 2011 4:25 am
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Mikko Saari

(msaari)

Finland

http://www.lautapeliopas.fi/ - the best Finnish board game resource!

hotc wrote:

One criticism of AE, and why I won't replace my copy of UP: AE plays only up to 5, while UP has had staying power at our club because it plays up to 6.

There's a discussion thread here at the Geek, where it's made fairly clear that AE works with six just as well as UP, Abacus just doesn't consider that good enough to print on the box. See Airlines Europe with 6 players.

Posted Sat May 28, 2011 1:57 pm
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