Airlines (2016)
Airlines (2016) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Goal
Over 3 rounds of play, players will score points based on their Airline's capability to safely transport Passengers from locations around the Globe to their destination.
At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins the game.
Components
Game components:
- Game board
- 1 Globe board divided into 5 Flight zones.
- 41 Airline cards - Main Deck
- 45 Passengers (9 of each color: purple, orange, yellow, blue and grey)
- 1 Drawing bag
- 1 Round marker
- 12 Tail sections (3 for each player)
- 4 Player tokens (1 for each player)
- 16 Airports (4 for each player)
- 4 Starting Terminal tokens (1 for each player)
- 32 Plane sections of various types (Cockpits, Wings and Cabins)
- 9 Goal cards
- 4 50/100 point tokens
- Plastic fasteners
- All game components are limited to those included in the game.
Setup
Before your first game please follow the assembly instructions for the Globe board and attach labels to the Tail sections (Plane parts).
Setup steps:
- Place the Game board in the middle of the table. Set the Globe board aligned with the Regions on the Game board. For this version of the game, use the side of the Globe board without the colored Flight Zones.
- If playing a 2-player game, remove the Airline cards with the title "Travel Agency" (numbers 27-31).
- Shuffle the Airline cards to form the Airline deck and place it face down near the Game board.
- Goals - For the first game, we recommend using this set of Goal cards: "Ground Support", "Marquee Airline" and "Analyst". Place those cards face up next to the board. In future games, you can try other Goals by separating the Goal cards into three decks according to their backs ("I", "II" & "III"). Shuffle each deck and draw one card at random from each, placing the drawn cards face up next to the board.
- Place all the Plane parts near the board in a general supply. Sort them by type.
- Place all Passengers in the Draw bag.
- Draw 5 Passengers out of the bag, and place them on the Globe in the corresponding Flight Zones (see sidebar). Then, rotate the Globe one sector clockwise, and draw 4 more Passengers out of the bag, placing them in the corresponding Flight Zones again.
- Place the Round marker on the first space of the Round track ("I").
- Determine the Start player: The player who most recently lost any baggage during a flight is the Start player, or decide randomly.
Player setup
Each player performs the following steps:
- Selects a company (player color) and takes the Player token, Airports, Starting Terminal token and Tail sections (Plane parts) of that company.
- Takes 1 Cockpit section and 1 Wings section from the general supply and combines them with one of their Tail sections to form their first Airliner.
- Places their Player token on the '0' space of the scoring track.
- Places their 50/100 Scoring marker near the end of the scoring track on the Game board.
- Places one of their Airports on the matching colored Region on the Game board.
- Places their Starting Terminal token in front of them, forming their player area.
- Draws 5 cards from the Airline deck into their hand.
Note: When playing a 2-player game, the players must select colors that are adjacent Regions on the Game board.
Placing Passengers
When placing Passengers from the bag on the Globe (either during game setup, or during the game), you must always refill the Globe up to the total number of Passengers as shown by the table on the Game board (based on the current Round and the number of players). When a Passenger is drawn from the bag, it is placed in the Flight Zone next to the Region that matches the color of the Passenger.
Example: An orange Passenger is drawn from the bag. It is placed in the Flight Zone of the Globe which is next to the orange Region.
Gameplay
A game takes place over 3 rounds ('I', 'II' and 'III').
Beginning with the Start player and continuing in a clockwise direction, players will take turns playing cards and taking actions or drawing new cards instead.
On your turn, you have two options:
- Play a card from your hand.
- Draw 2 cards from the Airline deck and add them to your hand. Then, choose one card from your hand and place it on the discard pile.
Then, whichever option you chose, draw 1 card from the Airline deck at the end of your turn. There is no limit to the number of cards you can have in your hand.
Playing a Card
If you play a card from your hand, place it on the table in front of you. Immediately after doing this, you must rotate the Globe a number of steps as depicted in the bottom left of the card.
Note: It is possible that you will be able to play additional cards on your turn. If you do, any additional cards played do not rotate the Globe further, it only happens once on your turn, based on the first card you play.
After resolving the Globe rotation, you then have two choices:
Airline Action - Use the main Airline Action of the card. If the card is a building, it remains face up in front of you in your player area. Otherwise, resolve the effect of the card and place it on the discard pile.
OR
Global actions - Take a number of different Global actions equal to the number of completed Airliners you have. Then place the card on the discard pile.
Important Rule: If you are able to play multiple cards on your turn, you cannot play two cards with the same name on the same turn. E.g. you cannot play two "Commercial Flight" cards one after the other.
Airline Actions
Each card offers one of two types of Airline Actions, indicated by the icon in the top left of the card.
a. Constructing a Building - Pay the cost of the building by discarding the indicated cards from your hand. Place the card face up in your playing area. Once built, you can use the ability of the building to improve your Global actions in future turns.
b. Performing a special action - Resolve the effect of the card and then place it on the discard pile.
For detailed information of each Building and Airline Action - see the back page of this rulebook.
Building Cost
All Building cards have a cost to construct, depicted in the bottom right of the card. You must pay this cost by discarding other cards from your hand according to the icon.
If the depicted cost is a card of a specific color, that color card must be discarded. If the depicted cost is a card with a ?, it means that a card of any color can be used to pay the cost.
Global Actions
Each card depicts 4 Global actions on the left side. When you play a card and choose to perform Global actions, you may perform a number of different Global actions equal to the number of completed Airliners you have.
Each Airliner must perform a different action, so if you have two Airliners, one of them could Take-off, and the other could Land. You cannot Take-off and Land with the same Airliner on the same turn.
The four Global actions are (from top to bottom on the card):
A. Income: Gain VP. B. Take-off: Load Passengers from one of the depicted Flight Zones onto one of your Airliners. C. Landing: Unload Passengers of the depicted colors from one of your Airliners. D. Improve Airline: Buy the depicted Plane section from the supply.
Global Actions in detail
A. Income: Advance your Player token on the Victory point track by one space.
B. Take-off: Choose a Region where you have an Airport. From the adjacent Flight Zone, pick up as many Passengers as you want, loading them onto vacant spaces on one of your Airliners. Each space in an Airliner can hold only 1 Passenger. It is possible to choose an Airliner that already has some Passengers on it. Once a Passenger is loaded, it can not be moved to another section. It also cannot be unloaded without using a Landing action (or another action of a card).
Example: You are the yellow player and are performing a Take-off action. You choose the purple Region, as you have an Airport in that Region. Your only Airliner has space for an additional 2 Passengers, so you load 1 orange and 1 grey Passenger onto your Airliner.
C. Landing: Choose one of your Airliners. From it, you may unload any number of Passengers matching the color of your Starting Terminal and/or one or both of the luggage colors depicted on the Landing icon. For each Passenger unloaded, you will earn 1 Victory Point (advance your Player token on the Victory point track). Then, return the Passenger to the Draw bag.
Important! First Class Cabin: A Passenger unloaded from a Starred Cabin grants you 2 VP instead of 1.
Transcriber's note: the printed text reads "Starred Cabin"; the section is the First Class Cabin shown on the Plane parts diagram, so this is transcribed as First Class Cabin.
Example: You play the card shown and decide to Land your Airliner. You can unload all the orange and yellow Passengers. This gains you 4 VP (the one in the first class cabin is worth 2 VP).
D. Improve Airline: You may perform one of these two options:
a. Build a new Airport: Place one of your Airports on any Region of the Game board where you don't already have an Airport. From now on, you will be able to pick up new Passengers from the Flight Zone next to that Region. (Note: You have a limit of 4 Airports).
b. Improve Airliners: Purchase a new Airliner part and then add it to one of your Airliners, allowing it to carry more Passengers. Each Airliner can only have 1 Cockpit section, 1 Wings section and 1 Tail Section, but may have any number of Cabin sections.
When you choose this action, you may also reconfigure any of your existing Airliners, moving sections around between them freely, with the exception that you may not move any section that has Passengers loaded on it.
Establishing a New Airliner
To build a new Airliner, you must first purchase at least a cockpit section and a wings section (in any order), adding them to one of your Tail sections. An Airliner is only complete when it has at least these three sections, but it may also have one or more Cabin sections.
Example: you buy a Cockpit section for your second Airliner. Place the part to the left of the Tail section, leaving space for the Wings section. On a future turn, you buy a Wings section, attach it to the middle, and now the Airliner is complete.
Having more than one Airliner means you can perform multiple Global actions with the same Airline card (one for each of your Airliners).
End of Turn
At the end of your turn, draw 1 card from the Airline deck. After drawing a card, refill the Globe with new Passengers (by drawing new ones from the bag) so that the total number of Passengers on the Globe matches the number shown on the Passenger Demand table.
Example: Brian picked up 3 Passengers on his last turn - he must therefore draw 3 new Passengers from the bag and place each Passenger on the Flight Zone next to the Region which matches the color of the Passenger.
Empty Airline Deck
Players keep taking turns until the Airline deck is out of cards. When this happens, re-shuffle all the cards in the discard pile and form a new Airline deck, move the Round marker to the next Round and carry on playing. If this happens in the middle of a player's turn (or even in the middle of their action), they continue playing where they left off.
Example: It is Round I, the Airline Deck has 1 card left. You play Commercial Flight which allows you to draw 2 cards and then play 1 more card. You draw the remaining card from the deck, then create a new Airline deck, move the Round marker to Round 2, and then draw your second card from the new deck.
Round III - Final turns
When the Airline deck runs out during Round III, do not create a new Airline deck from the discard pile. Carry on playing until the end of the turn of the player who is sat to the right of the Start player. I.e Each player will have an equal number of turns during the game. However, during these final turns, players cannot draw cards from the Airline deck.
Example: Gary, Victoria, and David are playing. Gary is the Start player. In the last Round, the deck runs out during Victoria's turn. At the end of Victoria's turn, she cannot draw a card as the deck is empty. On David's turn, he cannot draw any cards at all, and the game ends at the end of David's turn.
Game End
At the end of the 3rd round, the game ends. Perform final scoring by scoring the VP indicated on each of the face-up Goal cards.
The player with the most VP wins the game!
In case of a tie, the tied player with the most cards in hand wins.
If there is still a tie then the tied player with the least total Passengers on all of their Airliners wins!
In the rare case of 3rd tie - the winners will split the honors.
Goal Cards
Goal cards will reward the players with VP for meeting the conditions of the card.
For any Goal card, if more than one player ties for a reward, divide the VP of the places evenly between the players (rounding down).
I.e. if 2 players are tied for the most number of Buildings when scoring the Ground Support card, they each score 3 VP (4+2 divided by 2). Whoever has the next most Buildings scores 1 VP (in a 4-player game only).
Type I - Building cards
Ground Support: VP are awarded to the players with the most, second most, and (in a 4-player game) the third most number of Buildings.
Global Networking: VP are awarded to the players with the most, second most, and (in a 4-player game) the third most number of Airports.
Global Markets: VP are awarded to the players with the most and second most number of Buildings of a certain color. Score each color separately.
Type II - Plane cards
Largest Fleet: VP are awarded to the players with the most, second most, and (in a 4-player game) the third most number of complete Airliners.
Marquee Airline: Compare each player's longest Airliner. VP are awarded to the players with the longest, second longest, and (in a 4-player game) the third longest Airliner.
First Class Service: VP are awarded to the players with the most, second most, and (in a 4-player game) the third most number of first-class cabins on completed Airliners.
Type III - End of game cards
Analyst: VP are awarded to the players with the most and second most number of cards in their hand of a certain Color. Score each color separately.
Tycoon: VP are awarded to the players with the most, second most, and (in a 4-player game) the third most number of different color cards in their hand.
Mogul: VP are awarded to the players with the most, second most, and (in a 4-player game) the third most number of cards in their hand.
Transcriber's note: the printed text reads "thirdmost" and "(i n a 4-player game)" in the Ground Support and Global Networking entries; these are typesetting breaks and are transcribed as "third most" and "(in a 4-player game)".
Card Descriptions
Buildings and Special actions
New Terminal: Description: When performing the Landing action, you can unload the depicted color of Passengers in addition to the colors shown on the card.
Travel Agency: Description: When performing the Landing action, you gain additional 1/2/3/4 VP when you unload 2/3/4/5 Passengers of different colors. (Building Passive Ability; construction cost shown as discarding cards.)
Transport Hub: Description: When performing the Take-off action, if you load 2 or more Passengers onto an Airliner, you may load an extra Passenger in the color depicted from any Flight Zone to that Airliner.
Frequent Flyer: Description: Play 2 additional cards from your hand this turn, one by one.
Commercial Flight: Description: Draw 2 cards from the Airline deck and then play another card from your hand.
Public Relations: Description: Gain 1 VP. Draw 1 card. Perform the "Improve Airline" Global action.
Construction Site: Description: Construct a Building card from your hand without paying its construction cost (discarding further cards), then perform any one Global Action from this card.
Hotel: Description: For each Passenger of the depicted color that you unload, receive 1 VP.
Advanced Rules (Limited Edition)
The following is the Limited Edition "Advanced Rules of Play" booklet, transcribed as a companion section to the base rules above.
Advanced Game Overview
In this book, you will find the rules for the Advanced game offered in the Limited Edition of Airlines.
The game will use special components and introduce a deeper gameplay experience. This game mode will support 1-5 players and will last for 30 minutes per player. The rules for the Solo Mode (1-player game) can be found on Page 3.
Game Goal
The game is played over 3 rounds and at the end of the 3rd round, the player with the most points wins the game.
During the game, you will gain money based on your Airline's capabilities to safely transport passengers from around the globe to their final destination.
You will score points based on your financial stature and on your performance displayed on the Goal cards.
Advanced Components
To play the Advanced game, you will need the following components:
- Normal edition rulebook
- Advanced rulebook
- Game board
- 1 Globe board divided into 5 colored zones.
- 51 Airline cards - Advanced Main Deck
- 45 Passenger tokens (Luggage tokens) 9 of each color: purple, orange, yellow, blue and grey.
- 1 Drawing bag
- 1 Round marker
- 15 Tail sections (3 for each player)
- 5 Player tokens (1 for each player)
- 5 Airport tokens (1 for each player)
- 39 Plane sections of various types (Cockpits, Wings and Cabins)
- 8 Trophy cards
- 6 Solo Goal cards
- 3 New Goal cards (optional)
- 5 Player aid / Company cards
- 5 starting Terminal Tokens
- Money tokens ($1, $5, $10, and $25).
- 5 50/100 point tokens
- Sheet of Labels (Tail colored stickers)
Advanced Setup
Setup steps:
Proceed with the setup of the game as explained in the Normal game edition with the exception that you use the side of the Globe board with the colored sections.
Also, sort all Money tokens and place them near the Game board in the general supply.
Advanced Player setup
This is different from the Normal edition. Each player performs the following steps:
- Selects a company (player color) and takes the Player token, Starting Terminal token, Tail sections (Plane parts), and one Airport token of that company. Remove the other Airport tokens back to the box, they are not needed in the Advanced rules.
- Takes 1 Cockpit section and 1 Wings section from the general supply and combines them with one of their Tail sections to form their first Airliner.
- Places their Player token on the '0' space of the scoring track.
- Places their 50/100 Scoring marker near the end of the scoring track next to the Game board.
- Places their Airport token on the matching colored Region on the Game board.
- Places their Starting Terminal token in front of them, forming their player area.
- Draws 6 cards from the Airline Deck into their hand.
- Takes $5 as their initial money.
Airliner Range
The range of each Airliner is determined by the highest value part installed in it, i.e. if you have a Double Cabin ($3 value) installed in your Airliner, it has a range of 3.
The Flight Zone directly adjacent to your Airport is Range 1, and then further range is counted in a clockwise direction around the Globe.
Example: With a range 3 Airliner, the Orange player can pick up passengers from the Grey, Orange, and Blue flight zones indicated here.
Advanced Gameplay
The Advanced game plays in roughly the same way as the Normal version; there are 3 rounds of play, players take turns in a clockwise order choosing to either play a card or draw cards, etc.
The differences to the Normal game are listed here.
New Global Actions
The Global Actions from the Normal game are replaced by these:
- Income: Gain $2.
- Take-off: Load Passengers onto 1 of your Airliners from one Flight Zone AND within Range of your Airport.
- Landing: Unload passengers from one of your Airliners and earn money.
- Improve Airline: Purchase a specific new Plane part and add it to one of your Airliners.
Global Actions in detail (Advanced)
Income: Take $2 or $3 from the general supply.
Take-off: Choose a Flight Zone on the Globe that matches one of the depicted colours on the take-off icon. Then, choose one of your Airliners that can reach the zone and load any number of Passengers from that chosen zone onto any empty spaces of the designated Airliner.
Each space may only hold 1 Passenger. Once a Passenger is loaded, they can not be moved to another section or unloaded it without using a Landing action.
Example: With this card, you may pick-up Passengers from either the Yellow or Grey Flight Zones (but not both).
Landing: Choose one of your Airliners. From it, you may unload any number of Passengers matching the color of one or both of the luggage colors depicted on the Landing icon and/or any Terminals you have built.
For each Passenger unloaded, you earn money equal to value of the Plane section that the Passenger was on:
- Cockpit & Wings: $2
- Double Cabin: $3
- First Class Cabin: $4
Improve Airline: You may buy a new section for one of your Airliners that will allow it to carry more Passengers and may increase it's range. The type of part you can buy and the cost is depicted on the card you play. If you cannot afford the cost of the part, you cannot perform this action.
The rest of the rules for Airliners are the same as for the Normal game.
New Airline Actions
All Airlines actions are the same as for the Normal game, with the exception of the two new Actions which are explained on the back of this booklet.
Advanced Game End
At the end of the 3rd round the game will end. Perform final scoring as normal for the Goal cards and then each player gains 1 extra VP for each full $3 of cash they have at the end of the game.
The player with the most VP wins the game!
Tiebreak rules are as per the Normal game.
Solo Mode
You can play the Solo game using either the Normal rules or the Advanced rules.
Setup the game as per the rules for a 2-player game. Place the 2nd player's Airport in the next region clockwise to your starting Airport.
The Solo game will use an autopilot player that will compete with you for the skies.
The Solo game also introduces a new Ambition deck that will drive your own victory conditions.
Setting up the Ambition Deck
For your first solo game, separate the Solo Ambition cards into three piles according to their backs ('I', 'II' & 'III'). Take one of the 'II' cards at random and place it face down next to the game board. Shuffle the 'I' cards and then place both of them on top of the 'II' card so that you have a deck of 3 Ambition cards with the two 'I' cards on top. Discard the other cards to the box.
For later games, separate the cards into the three piles, and then draw one card at random from each pile so that you have 3 Ambitions, one from each pile. Place them all in a face-down deck with the 'III' card on the bottom, and the 'I' card on top.
Solo Gameplay
At the start of each new Round of play, draw the top card from the Ambition deck and place it face up near the board. On the card is depicted an Ambition which you MUST accomplish by the end of the game. So, at the end of the game, there will be 3 face-up cards, and you must achieve the Ambitions of each of them. If you are unable to do this, you will lose the game.
On your turn, play as per the rules of the game.
On the autopilot's turn, reveal the top card from the main deck and do the following:
Remove Passengers from one of the depicted Take-off Flight Zones - choose the one with the most Passengers on. If tied - choose the one that is closer to your Airport using normal range rules (clockwise, starting from the Flight Zone adjacent to your Airport).
If no Passenger can be picked up, remove from the game one of the depicted plane parts on that card from the general supply (if any). Then, place the revealed card on the discard pile.
End of solo Game
If you did not achieve all 3 Ambitions, you lose the game.
If you did not lose, calculate your score as follows:
- Score 1 VP per complete Airliner*
- Score 1 VP per First Class Cabin
- Score ½ VP per Building constructed
- Score 1 VP per full $3 you have at the end of the game
You can record your score on the Scoring pad and compare your success to your previous games.
* A complete Airliner is one which has at least a Cockpit, Wings, and a Tail.
Ambition Card Clarifications
Dedicated Contract: You need to deliver 6 passengers of one of the colors of an adjacent Region to your starting Region (e.g. If you are Blue, you must deliver 6 Purple, or 6 Orange). When they are delivered, place them on this card to track the progress (instead of placing them back in the bag).
Dedicated Contract 2: This is similar to the card above, with the exception that the color of Passengers you need to deliver must be of the color of a Region not adjacent to your starting Region or that of your starting Region (e.g. If you are Blue, you can deliver 6 Grey, or 6 Yellow)
Global Expansion: If you are playing the Advanced Solo game, you only have 1 Airport, so you must build 3 New Terminals.
Efficiency Moderator: You must use one card to Pick-up and deliver 8 Passengers in the same turn (e.g, Take-off and pick-up 3 Passengers with 1 Airliner and Land 5 other Passengers with another Airliner).
Era IV Goal Cards
The Advanced game and the Normal game can be played with the new Era IV Goal cards. Just add a random IV card to any new game you may play.
Campaign Mode
The campaign can be played either using the Normal rules or the Advanced rules. We recommend only playing the campaign mode once you have completed a few regular games.
A campaign is played over the course of 3 games. Each game will be scored as usual and the total VP from each game will be recorded on the Scoring Pad. After 3 games, the player with the highest total of points will win the campaign.
Trophy Cards
During the first 2 games of the campaign, you can claim Trophy cards. Trophy cards can be used at the start of the following game and will grant you a special advantage for that game.
Setup Trophy Cards: Separate the Trophy cards into four piles according to their backs ('A', 'B', 'C', & 'D'). For the first game of the campaign, choose one card at random from each pile and place them face up next to the board. These are the cards for game 1. Any Trophy cards not claimed by players at the end of the game are discarded back to the box.
Game 2 will use the remaining Trophy cards. There are no Trophy cards for game 3.
Each Trophy card has a Condition and Reward.
To claim a Trophy card, you must meet the Condition written on the card. If you do, you can take the card and place it in your playing area. You may collect as many Trophy cards as you can.
The Reward depicted on a Trophy card applies at the start of the next game. The Rewards are taken in player order, after the rest of the setup has been done. However, if you have more than one Trophy card, you can only use the Reward from one of them, discarding all others.
Solo Campaign mode: You can use the Campaign mode rules in combination with the Solo mode rules.
Advanced Card Descriptions
Buildings and one-off actions
Bank (Building): This new building grants you the ability to convert each $2 you earn while using a Landing action into 1 VP. Gain any leftover $ in cash.
Weather Alert (one-off action): Take any number of Passengers from any one Flight Zone and move them to any other Flight Zone (does not have to be adjacent). You may then perform 1 of the Global Actions from this card.
Airliner Section Symbols Breakdown
- Cockpit - symbol: $2 value.
- Double Cabin - symbol: $3 value.
- First Class - symbol: $4 value.
- Wings - symbol: $2 value.
Frequent Flyer Wild Card Symbols
- Wild card Airline Section
- Wild card flight zone