Air King
Air King Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Game contents
4 Airport cards (2 Airports and 2 Runways), 10 Aircraft cards, 10 Goal cards, 30 Event cards, Game rules
2. Game setup
Put both airports on the table leaving a distance of 5 card-lengths between them. Put both runway cards next to the airports to form the arrival zones. Put all planes numbered 1 to 5 next to "Airport A" and all planes numbered 6 to 10 next to "Airport B". Each player takes 1 random Goal card and looks at it. Important – Goal cards should never be shown to other players as it is your secret game objective! Shuffle the Event cards, deal each player one of them and put the rest face down as a draw pile. Each player also receives one Technical Return card.
Playing field after several turns. (Diagram in the source rulebook: the two airports, each with a Departure zone and an Arrival zone, the Event cards and Goal cards piles, and the Aircraft placed on the playing field.)
3. Idea of the game
Each player tries to be the first to fulfil their secret objective – guide the four Aircraft shown on your Goal card from one airport to the other. Each turn players can move any Aircraft and also inflict the traffic flow by playing different Event cards. The first player to move all four of their aircraft to the opposite airports is the winner.
4. Gameplay
Players take alternating turns. The player who most recently has flown in an airplane becomes the starting player and then players proceed the game taking turns in clockwise order. A player's turn is divided into three phases, which must be followed in the order described below:
- draw a card – players must draw one Event card from the draw pile and add it to their hand;
- move Aircraft and/or play Event cards – players must make two moves with any of the ten Aircraft and may play up to two cards;
- discard one card – if at the end of your turn you have more than 4 cards in your hand you must choose one card to discard so that you have only 4 cards left. Important – the Technical Return card is never counted for this hand limit and should be kept separately throughout the game!
5. Moving Aircraft
During their turn players must make two moves with any Aircraft. It doesn't matter whether those Aircraft are depicted on the Goal card or not (it might even be beneficial to move other Aircraft besides yours to bluff the opponents). Moves can be used either both on the same Aircraft or each on a different one. The possible Aircraft moves are as follows:
- depart – player can take any of the Aircraft not yet on the playing field and put it on any empty side directly adjacent to the corresponding airport (Departure Zone). Note: at the start of the game all Aircraft are outside the playing field and can enter only after departing;
- fly – players can move the Aircraft one space either forward or sideways to an empty space, but not backwards (there is an exception, which is described below);
- land – players can move the Aircraft into the opposite airport, thus landing it and taking it out of the game. Important – Aircraft can be landed only through the Arrival Zone and never through any other space. That means that in order to land an Aircraft you have to move it to the Arrival Zone first and then land it with another move. If any Aircraft is moved beyond the Arrival Zone (ie. on the side of the Airport where it has to land) it can be moved one space backwards (spending one of the two moves as usual).
Aircraft can only be moved to an empty space – there can never be two Aircraft on the same space at any given time! That means that if both Departing Zones are taken you can't depart another Aircraft while these zones remain taken, you can't move forward if there is another Aircraft or an Event card directly in front of you and so on. Aircraft can never be moved beyond the airport, the furthest point where they can be moved is to the side of the airport.
6. Playing Event cards
During your turn you can play up to two Event cards (however, you can choose to play one or even none). Event cards can be played at any time during your turn between moving Aircraft and in any order (for example you can play a card, make the first move, play another card and move again, or do the moves and then play cards and so on). Important – only one of the played Event cards may be a Movement card (see section on Event Cards below).
All played cards are put either on the playing field or in a discard pile. Just as with the Aircraft there can never be two Event cards on the same space at any given time! The discard pile is kept face up. If at any point during the game the draw pile becomes exhausted, shuffle the discard pile and put it face down thus forming a new draw pile.
7. Game end
When a player has landed all four Aircraft shown on their Goal card, they reveal the Goal card and become the winner. Important – you can reveal your Goal card only in during your turn, so if your last Aircraft is landed during another player's turn, you still have to wait until your own turn to declare yourself the winner. This means that someone else may win before you, even though all your Aircraft have already landed!
8. Event Cards
Players can play up to two Event cards during their turn. Event cards can be played at any time during the turn and in any order, except that only one can be a Movement card.
Movement Event cards
- Extra move – a player can take one additional move in any direction (except backwards). This card gives you an additional movement besides the two moves that are mandatory each turn.
- Extra diagonal move – a player can make an additional diagonal move forward. This card gives you an additional movement besides the two moves that are mandatory each turn.
- Holding – place this card on an Aircraft. This Aircraft is suspended from moving until any other Aircraft moving in the same direction passes it. After that the Holding card is removed. Holding card cannot be placed on an Aircraft if it is the last Aircraft flying in the corresponding direction. You can not play holding card on an Aircraft that is on the arrival zone.
- Pass – swap two Aircraft that are frontally adjacent to each other and flying in opposite directions.
- Technical return – return one of the Aircraft back to the airport it departed from. It has to enter the play through Departure Zone as in the beginning of the game. After being used, technical return card is not put into discard pile but instead is taken out of the game.
Other Event cards
- Storm – place it on any empty space thus blocking it. Aircraft cannot fly over the Storm; they have to fly around it. Exception – "Storm" can never be placed on any of the two Arrival Zones!
- Clear sky – remove one "Storm" card from the playing field.