Air Baron

Air Baron is an economic strategy board game published by Avalon Hill in 1996, in which two to six players build an airline empire in the United States. Although it was marketed to families, it plays more like a wargame than a money game such as Monopoly. Players buy domestic spokes at face value and seek dominance of a hub by holding most of its spokes, or control of it by holding all of them, which doubles income and market share gain. Takeovers of spokes held by others cost more and are settled by an opposed dice roll, and players may add foreign spokes and jumbo jets for bonuses or declare Fare Wars to attempt many takeovers in one turn. A player wins by reaching a combined total of market share and cash equal to the victory margin. Optional rules add strikes, crashes, government loans and bidding. Pyramid magazine called it as good in its own way as the classic Rail Baron.