This week, we started with an old favourite, Alan Moon's Airlines. John and Mark G had not played before and John in particular had problems with the route markings: both on the board and cards. Early on, GAP and FIS were the shares to have and Nige, in particular benefitted from being the only player with GAP shares. This allowed him to sprint into a good lead after the first two Wertungs. Mark K had been picking up FIS shares and looked to have a stranglehold on them, but the second Wertung came up just before he was able to declare them. This allowed me to take the first place payout in FIS for the second round. Mark didn't leave it too much longer to slap his FIS on the table and from then on set about trying to eat into Nige's lead. By the end of the 3rd round, he was only one point behind Nige and it was at this point that John scored his first points, having not troubled the scorers in the first two rounds. By the time the last share was taken, we were all confident that Mark K had gained enough points to win and so it proved to be, with Nige ending up 4 points behind.

I like Airlines a lot. It is pretty simple, but you have to watch what shares players are accumulating and try and judge when the Wertungs are likely to come up.