Tin Goose

Tin Goose won me over by looking so modest. It is a straightforward economic game about 1920s airlines, yet there are teeth under that tidy surface. The teach takes about ten minutes and a game can be done in an hour and a half, but arrive without a plan and the other players will make you regret the confidence.

Each player takes charge of a troubled airline with some cash, a small fleet, five built-in problems, and a hand of cards spread across three eras. Over seven rounds, you play one card apiece: it either starts an auction for new aircraft or puts a disaster into play, whether that is a strike, an accident, or a rise in oil prices. The rules are mercifully clear. The choices are not.

Then come three actions for expanding your network, meeting objectives, and repairing the company finances. Growing the fleet clears one of your problems, while each disaster rewards the player who prepared for it and properly damages everyone else. This is where it gets good: you can make a move that improves your own position while knocking somebody else’s plan sideways. Since every era gives you one more card than you can actually play, the hand management also forces you to let a useful option die in your hand. Who gets left in the weather?

The opening setup asks for a little thought, perhaps an extra ten minutes before the game starts, but random demand means there is no fixed script to memorise. It was already a very good time with three players, and it looks ready to become nastier in the best way with more. The wooden aeroplanes probably push the price up, so this is one to find at a sensible price. It is a firm 8/10 from me: easy to learn, hard to survive once your friends decide to fly better than you.