Aeroplanes: Aviation Ascendant

Aeroplanes: Aviation Ascendant is probably the lesser entry in its trilogy — a hard thing not to be when Automobile is in the family — but lesser does not mean uninteresting. It may be the best aviation-themed game I have played, and it runs with more ease than you would expect from a title so often found at the back of a shelf, tucked beneath the remains of an old trade. At five, especially, it feels properly inhabited rather than merely padded out.

Its centre is the attempt to rise through aviation while chance is allowed a meaningful say. The randomness is there, unquestionably, and it is easy to see why it irritated people on release; this is not a game that always lets you plan with the calm certainty of a spreadsheet.

The first-player die gives each round its shape. It is one of those mechanisms that makes priority matter without making a performance of it: who gets moving first, when you seize the initiative, and how everyone else has to read the table. The interaction is in the timing, particularly with five players around it, where being first is not a decorative privilege.

The first-player die is the sort of mechanism that makes a few rough edges on the journey rather easy to forgive.

Next to Connecting Flights, the contrast is almost embarrassing for the newer game. It is a shame Aeroplanes still carries the weight of its first reception: give it a modern Deluxe edition and a little care in presentation, and people would likely look at it rather differently. Find it cheaply, or pull it from wherever it has been gathering dust, and bring it out on a Tuesday after work; it is quietly excellent.