Thread: A Decent Geography Game, But Out-Dated

ManchotPi — 2008-10-18T19:54:05+00:00

I'm constantly astounded by the amount of esoteric content here on BGG. That is why it is so surprising to find a game where no one has posted anything in the forums. That is currently the case for Take Off! (even though it seems like a lot of people are picking this up at thrift shops). Since I played this game a lot when I was a kid, I thought I would take a moment and write a description and review, as that seems more useful than adding the 527th review of Agricola. Note: I didn't take any of the included photos. If you like them, please open them up and give the photographers some thumbs.

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Rules
Sometimes reviews can get bogged down in rules descriptions. However, those for Take Off! are so short that I'll summarize them here. The goal is to be the first to fly your fleet of four planes (which are really nice plastic jets--the same as in Air Baron) around the world from Honolulu to Honolulu. The board is giant laminated map of the world, which has lots of cities with colored spokes connecting them. Every turn you roll two eight-sided dice. Six of the sides have one of the primary colors, one has a jet (which means "wild"), and one says "Take Off!".

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If you roll one of the colors, you move any one of your planes along that colored spoke. I've always played that your planes can only move forwards (west), but an optional rule allows backwards (eastwards) movement. If you stop where another's plane is, you can bounce them back to the beginning (this can be rather harsh; I've actually never played with this rule, and other's have suggested various house rules).

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If you roll "Take Off!", you draw from one of the Take Off! card decks (there are two corresponding to the two halves of the board. If at least one of your planes is still on the Eastern half of the board (Asia, Australia, etc.), you draw from that deck. And if all your planes are across the line (Europe, most of Africa, and the Americas), then you draw from the Western deck. In practice, this means that the Eastern deck is used much more often than the Western deck. Each card has a capital city on it, and you have to move one of your planes to that location.

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(If you want more details, someone has posted the rules up as a file, here. However, I have a different edition, so, many of the rules in that file are actually optional in my version.)

Roll and Move?
While in the strictest sense this is a game where you spend every turn rolling and moving, this is definitely not like Chutes and Ladders, which is devoid of all decision making. As you have four planes, and the ability to move one twice or two once, there are definitely decisions to be made. All paths are also not made equal. The far north and far south of the map tend to have longer routes, but fewer color options, meaning that one of your planes can be stuck, only being able to move with blue or purple. If you move through the middle of the map, you will have more options, but the routes are shorter as you get bogged down moving from city to city in Europe or northern Africa. There are various cities on the boards that can be traps too, as there will be lots of routes in, but few out. Furthermore, the top of the map has more red/orange routes, while the southern part has more blue/purple routes; so, it makes sense to spread your planes out north/south, so that you'll almost always have an option no matter what your roll. The game does bog down at the end though, as you're waiting for one specific color to get your plane to the finish.

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Should You Pick This Game Up?
This game has a lot of nostalgia for me, as I played it a lot when I was little. The components are great; it is one of those games that I liked using the components so much that I made up my own games to play with the map and planes. The main purpose of the game is to teach geography, which I think it does quite well. The map is beautiful and will force you to learn where places like Lusaka and Port-Vila are. The map and Take Off! cards are also covered in flags, which I think is really pretty and informative.

However, I think time has passed this game by. First, simply in a geographical sense: my map contains such wonderful places as Zaire, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. Second, game mechanics have become more sophisticated since this game came out. There are other games, which I think would be just as accessible to small children and non-gamers, while being more of a fun game. I haven't played the "Ten Days In..." series, but that seems to fit the bill. And, train games (either TtR or, my favorite, the Empire Builder series) also teach a lot of geography. However, if you have kids that are too young for those games, then Take Off! might be appropriate.

I currently give Take Off! a rating of 5. But that is kind of an odd averaging of two different opinions. When I was a kid, I would have rated this much higher based on the play-time it got. But now, there's absolutely no reason that I would ever break this out at a game night.

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kathn — 2008-01-25T21:24:36+00:00

This green plane rolled red, it can fly north or south along the red line.

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kathn — 2008-01-25T21:21:28+00:00

This blue plane has rolled yellow, it can fly to the finish.

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kathn — 2008-01-25T21:18:36+00:00

The 6 plane fleets, 4 of each color.

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jwedel — 2007-11-29T09:14:48+00:00

Take Off! - sample card front

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jwedel — 2007-11-29T09:14:06+00:00

Take Off! - sample card back

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jwedel — 2007-11-29T09:13:06+00:00

Take Off! - the airplane player markers

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jwedel — 2007-11-29T09:10:51+00:00

Take Off! - custom D8

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jwedel — 2007-11-29T09:09:49+00:00

Take Off! - the box of cards

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Keng Ho — 2007-11-08T17:35:16+00:00

The dice

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belial1134 — 2006-08-17T01:35:25+00:00

16th Anniversary

Game: Take Off!

Thread: A Decent Geography Game, But Out-Dated

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