Wheels Up!

(or, Sky's the Limit!)

Launch an airline! An intuitive but dynamic strategy board game, Wheels Up! takes you from the beginnings of aviation, through the Jet Age, and into deregulation, as you build up airports and vie for routes, with 90 unique cards, and 3 board configurations, North America, Europe, and Transatlantic. So start your engines and prepare for takeoff because we're going Wheels Up!



Summary

Your goal is to earn money, and there are two ways to get it: 

You earn it by, 1) having the most planes on a route when the Aviation Era advances, or 2) by playing Bonus Profit cards. Whoever has the most money at the game's end is the winner!

One. Whichever airline has the most airplanes on each route controls it. If you control a route when the Aviation Era advances, you earn $1m for short-distance (solid) routes and $2m for long-distance (dashed) routes. If there's a tie, no one profits.

Two. You also earn money from playing Bonus Profit cards. Bonus Profit cards pay out as soon as they're played. Many bonus profit cards ask just for service, meaning one or more aircraft on a route, and do not require that you have the most aircraft on a route.

Whoever has the most money at game's end wins!



Setup  

- Choose a game map & remove cards marked for other boards
- Whoever has been to the most airports on the game board, or whoever has flown most recently goes first!
- Going clockwise, deal 4 Beginnings cards to each player.
  Note: You may never have more than 5 cards. 
- And that's it!



Suggested Setups

Eastern Europe
(in progress)

Western Europe
(in progress)

Eastern US
2 players

US / North America
3-6 players
tight networks

EU / Europe
3-5 players
many airports

Trans / Transatlantic
4-6 players
long-distance



Your Turn

Going clockwise, every airline may do any two of the following actions, including the same action twice.
1) Place a gate at any airport with an open slot. 
- Use the gate slots up to the number of players. For example in a 4 player game, use the gates numbered 2-4. 
2) Place an airplane on any route where you have gates in both airports, and where you have more gates than planes on the route.
- Note: One gate serves all routes from an airport simultaneously. 
- For example, if you have three gates in Denver and one gate in Seattle, you may place up to 3 aircraft on DEN - SEA. If you had an additional gate in Los Angeles, you could also have 3 aircraft on LAX - DEN and 1 on LAX - SEA.
3) Play a card.
4) Draw 2 cards.
5) Move three or less aircraft, from any route or the storage hangar, to any other valid route.

* In addition, once per turn you may spend $1 to buy one more action.

Airplanes must always be on a valid route. If an aircraft is flying on a route without enough gates in either airport, it is immediately moved to the storage hangar. 



Aviation Era

The game advances through three distinct eras.

Beginnings:
- With early, crude technology, you may only use the short-distance $1m routes (solid yellow).
- At every airport, you may only use the numbered, blue colored gates. 

Jetliners: When any airline places their 5th airplane, immediately:
- Score the board. All airlines profit! 
- Shuffle & deal 3 Jetliner cards to each airline.
- The long-distance $3m (dashed & purple) routes become available.

Deregulation: When any airline places their 9th gate or when there are no open gate spaces, immediately: 
- Score the board. All airlines profit! 
- Deal 3 Deregulation cards to each airline.
- May use the gate slots marked with a D.

Final Approach: When any airline places their 10th plane, immediately:
- Score the board. All airlines profit! 
- Every airline gets one more full turn.
- Every airline except the one that placed the 10th plane gets a half turn of one action.
- Score the board again. All airlines profit!

And that's the game! Count your Airline Dollars and see who's the greatest airline mogul! 



Notes & tips

Aviator Cards
You may not have more than 5 cards. If you have too many, immediately discard cards of your chocie.

There are three types: 

Event cards help you build quickly and slow down your competitors. An event card affects all 

Chaos! cards may be played at ANY time, including during another airline's turn. If you play a Chaos! card during your turn it does not use an action. They're a free play!

Bonus Profit cards immediately pay out Airline Dollars to whichever airline(s) meet the stated conditions. 
Note: Another airline may use a Chaos! card and interupt your play, and if the chaos the conditions are no longer met, no one profits ;(