A thrilling tycoon board game where you’ll compete to transform your small airstrip into a bustling international hub.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided the prototype copy of Airport Empire. The opinions expressed in the review are completely my own. The components, rules and everything you see are all WIP at the time of writing.

Review:

Overview:

In Airport Empire you are attempting to build up / increase the size of your airport by building essential facilities to satisfy both your customers and shareholders. 

During your tenure you will have to weather storms, quell strikes and respond to accidents in the form of event cards at the start of each turn throwing up potential problems along the way, so you need to be ready for anything. You need to complete your airport before your opponent to claim victory (hopefully).

Set up is fairly quick as there is a fold out score board and a board where planes, buildings, event and bonus cards are placed. There is also a planes board where pictures of the planes that can ‘land’ are shown next to numbers which are activated when rolling and adding up 2D6 dice. Any planes shown against the number are those that can land at the airports this turn, and you gain landing fees (money) equivalent to that shown on the corresponding planes on players boards.

Each player has a ‘tally’ board with 3 tracks on it, namely Customer Satisfaction (Smilies), Profits and Airport Efficiency. Building will have each of these shown on them either as a plus or minus figure and you will alter each track accordingly. At the end of each turn you will then adjust each of the corresponding score tracks for these by your new ‘total’. On the main scoreboard there are numbers from 1 to 80 with certain numbers highlighted in yellow, and when all 3 of your score markers have reached the same number(s) you will gain 1 of the 6 ‘Destination Cards’, and each of these will give either a one off bonus to you, or a one time disadvantage to your opponent.

You will need to collect all 6 of the Destination Cards to potentially win the game.

Each player will also randomly choose one of the secret mission cards to try and complete during the game. If you do this and your opponent doesn’t, then if they are the player that gets to 80pts on all 3 score tracks and claim all 6 destination cards and you reveal that you have achieved your secret objective then your opponent has to reduce each of their tracks by 10pts. The scores on the 3 tracks are then added together and the player with the most points wins. If both players reveal that they have achieved their objectives the scores are left the same.

Scores can be reduced even after reaching a destination card milestone, i.e. you could have all 3 markers past the score of 10 meaning you can collect a second destination card, but if one of these drops back past ten then you don’t give up a card as at some point you will more than likely go back past again.

Your airport starts as the smallest of 4 potential sections you can build, and each turn you attempt to fill up your current airport ‘hub’ by purchasing buildings and / or emergency service stations, and you continue to do this until you have completed all 4 sections of your airport.

The first stage of your airport has 2 slots for buildings, the second stage has 3, the third has 4 and the fourth stage has 8 slots.

When you complete your current airport hub, you take the next one and one of the available planes relevant to that particular hub.

Each plane that lands at your airport gives you money in the form of landing fees, and this money is used to buy buildings etc for your airport, or you can also purchase bonus cards that can help you during the game. The cost of these is determined by the level of your current airport, i.e. Airstrip, Regional Airport, International Airport and Hub Airport.

Even though the copy I had to review is a prototype, the quality of the components is extremely good, and I would personally be fine if these were the components received in any new game I purchased.

The insert inside the box is made of foam but I believe this will be upgraded in the final game people receive.

Similar to the components, the level of artwork is extremely good, and has been well chosen to suit the aesthetics of the game and its theme.

Although this is currently a 1-2 player game, in my opinion it would easily be playable as an up to 4 player game, and whilst it would take up more room, it would not be as much of a table hog as some games I own / play.

Airport Empire is a very nice game, and one I would certainly play multiple times, and I look forward to seeing the final version in due course.

The Kickstarter is going live mid August 2025, and I thoroughly recommend that you take a look at it. 

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