Pan Am Review
Advert: this game was gifted by Funko Games, this has not affected our opinion.
In the words of Frank Sinatra: ‘Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away, [into a board game review of Pan Am – yay]’. The crooner summed it up pretty well and has saved me having to think up my own introduction! Phew.
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Setup
There is a big board to unfurl and on it will be placed shuffled decks of Directive and Destination cards, as well as two airplane blocker cards. The event deck comprises seven cards which needs to be formed from the variety available.
Players will take a player board and three aeroplanes of the relevant type, 12 dollars, a Directive card and two Destination cards, as well as a number of engineer tokens relevant to the player count. Airports of the matching player colours will be placed just above the top-left of the board. Decide on a first player and you are ready to take to the skies!
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Gameplay
Pan Am plays over seven rounds, after which, the player with the most shares in Pan Am wins the game. The board game is played over a couple of phases, the first of which sees players place their engineers as bids around the boards, these can be to buy an airport, Destination cards, aeroplanes, routes or additional Directive cards. If you outbid another player, they get their engineer back to place again, possibly to outbid the person who just removed them from the board.
After this phase you resolve all the engineers in order. Most are self-explanatory but claiming routes deserves a little more explanation. To do this, you must have something at both ends of the route. This can be either an airport, a matching destination card, or discarding a destination card from the same region, or two destination cards from another single region. You must also have an aeroplane that can make the route, such as a level two plane for a two value route. This will move your income tracker up on your player board.
Once this is resolved Pan Am expands along routes via the roll of a dice. Buying up routes of players if need be. Longer or higher value routes cost Pan Am more. Once the expansion is complete players can then buy shares in Pan Am at the current market value. How far Pan Am expands and how much shares are worth is dictated by the Event Cards which are revealed at the start of each round.
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What it’s like
There is lots of things going on in Pan Am, but they mostly make thematic, and more importantly, logical sense. The bidding for actions feels rather unique and is by far the most interesting part of the game. Sadly this only really comes alive if you play it at three or more players as, like so many auction games, it feels a little lack lustre at two players.
The route building adds some lovely decision making. Do you build near the likely Pan Am expansion routes, or slightly further away to reap the rewards of income before the sale. Purchasing stock in Pan-Am offers a similarly delectable dilemma. The shares tend to be cheapest at the start of the game, but obviously money that could be invested in shares could be better served elsewhere in early rounds and the balancing of this is interesting.
I like the Event cards as they mix up the gameplay and add variety to the game, but I think the Directive cards add a bit too much unnecessary randomness. I think drawing a single card is a little outdated, choosing one from three cards is probably how I will house-rule this going forward to make it fairer.
All in all, Pan Am is very smooth.
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Table Presence
The retro feel of the theme shines through on the tabletop and the styling is a big part of the appeal. I really love the artwork on the location cards.
Resolving all the different worker placement spots flows nicely around the board. This is largely attributable to the layout, as it acts as a prompt for what to resolve and when very cleverly. The board is a cumbersome beast to wield in its six-fold design, and if folding maps wasn’t one of my almost redundant superpowers, I could see me being quite afraid of getting the board back in the box! It also has the world laid out from a different perspective which is kookie, but I like it.
The planes are fine and I appreciate the different sizes being marked on the wings of the plane for ease of reference. Providing component trays in the box is also a nice addition. The worker pawns are also okay, I find it satisfying how the bases all slot together.
The rulebook was clear and it got us up and playing in no time.
All in all, the contents of the Pan-Am box are good. I was also pleased that the box had stickers instead of shrink wrap, but lunacy prevailed upon lifting the lid to discover the board and punchboard had been inexplicably shrink wrapped. That left me baffled and bemused I must say.
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Final thoughts on Pan Am
Pan Am has its roots in route-building games such as Ticket to Ride. It may not be an entry level game in itself, but it is certainly a gateway plus board game, i.e. a game that you could step up to after playing some of the more beginner-friendly titles.
I think I would have enjoyed this one a lot more had I discovered it earlier in my board game journey. That’s not to say I haven’t had fun playing it, I have! I just think my tastes have matured a little and I’m not getting the most out of it. I appreciate many aspects of the game and admire how they all gel together. The gameplay and styling fit the theme really well, and Pan-Am is brilliant in that regard.
Pan Am is undoubtedly a very good game and it offers plenty of fun. However, for me personally it doesn’t topple into that next category of being fantastic. There really is plenty to like with Pan Am, and it is well worth giving a try, especially if you are not too far along your board game journey.
With an MSRP currently at £25 you get a lot of game for your buck!
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Key Facts
Number of players: 2 to 4
Board Game Review Recommended Age: 12+
Publisher’s Recommended Age: 12+
Playing Time: 70 minutes
Setting Up and Take Down Time: 3 minutes
Designers: Prospero Hall
Publisher: Funko
RRP: £25.00
Summary
Pan Am excels at melding gameplay, theme and aesthetics together. This creates a very stylish production. Playing it is fun too, I particularly like the auction feel to the worker placement.
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Artwork and Components
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Complexity
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Instructions
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Interaction
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Value for Money
Overall
Pros
- Retro feel and styling
- Worker placement bidding
- Artwork on cards
- Variable share prices
Cons
- Directive cards
- Folding the board back up
- Shrink wrap around board
- Some randomness
- Not so good at two players
Need more games?
If you already own Pan Am and enjoy it, or are looking for other inspiration, you might also like these similar games:
- Ticket to Ride
- Whistle Stop
- Viticulture
- Get On Board
Buy Pan Am
If you want to buy Pan Am after reading our review click on one of our affiliate links below (note there has been no affiliate links until this point)
Reviewer’s Note
For clarity: we don’t get paid for our reviews. However, we were kindly gifted this game by Funko Games. We have tried not to let this affect our review in any way.
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