Pan Am Flies High - Review

One of the most brilliant things about Sid Sackson’s Acquire...

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Presumably Pan Am is at its peak at the end of the game? It had a pretty ugly fall from grace in its later years.

Getting mentioned in the same breath with Acquire is high praise (I'm trying to avoid altitude double-entendres and having a devil of a time) and Acquire's rules are dead simple. It could sell to a wider audience. Regarding complexity, where would you put Pan Am?

Oh yeah, everything after the zenith is politely ignored!

Rules complexity is pretty light, especially for a hobby crowd. For a mainstream audience, it’s somewhat more complex than TTR, but I the think the concepts are concrete and well-explained enough that it can play broad. There is one slightly over-complicated bit- securing landing rights means either having airports or pairs of cards keyed to destination or region. It’s kind of a “check the rulebook” thing for the first game.

The rulebook is really, really good though.

Thanks for the write up. I saw this on the shelves while grabbing my copy of JotL. It looks fab.

Still, my prediction: MB will be selling this before the winter holidays.

This game's the real deal. One thing it manages to accomplish that really impressed me is how it avoids dumping math onto the players. A lot of economic games force you to calculate a lot, but Pan Am never overwhelms with numbers. It's incredibly well designed in that regard.

Only $34 at Target. Now I have to decide between this and repurchasing a cheap first edition of Pax Pamir.

I'm in the initial throes of love with this
Game. Give me a two year later follow up
Michael (and everyone else).

Sill own it, still play it. Still love it. Still their best game.

I bought it for David Ausloos and had no interest. Shipping became stupid so he reneged and I kept it.

Turns out that it’s absolutely incredible. I’m at least 8-10 games in at this point and it’s still super fun, super interesting, and worthy of a top 5 of the decade for
Light Euroey Games

Pan Am is the real deal. Luck can bite you a little bit, but if you work around it you can still win. I've never played it with 2, but it plays fine with 3 and 4.

2p is ok, but of course it's better at 4.

Just joining the chorus. It's my #1 recommendation for a Game You Can Get At Target. Has a cool map, nice components, lots of fun gamey bits. Has auctions that don't feel like screwjobs, planning, some RNG. Just a really solid title.