Overview

Airships is a dice-driven company-building game where players develop airship companies by acquiring expansion cards that improve their dice pools, then use those dice to build airships for victory points. Players can also participate in constructing the legendary Hindenburg for bonus points. The player with the most victory points at game end wins.

Components

• 1 Game board (showing the Hindenburg with 4 construction phases and fields for airship/expansion cards)
• 4 Company boards (with fields for 6 departments, entrepreneur card, airship cards, bonus chips)
• 18 Airship cards (6 light-blue backs, 6 medium-blue backs, 6 dark-blue backs)
• 48 Expansion cards (6 departments: Engineers/orange, Captains/brown, Financiers/purple, Materials/blue, Hangars/yellow, Engines/green)
• 1 “Change of Era” card
• 4 Entrepreneur cards (different countries)
• 24 Bonus chips (6 per player with national flags)
• 9 Special dice: 3 white (1-1-2-2-3-3), 3 red (2-3-3-4-4-5), 3 black (4-4-6-6-8-8)
• 1 Wooden airship token

Setup

1. Place game board centrally. Place all 9 dice and wooden airship beside the board.
2. Airship cards: Sort by back color. Shuffle each set of 6; place 4 face up on the board in stacks (light-blue on top, then medium-blue, then dark-blue underneath). Return remaining 6 to box.
3. Expansion cards: Sort by back. Shuffle the 24 Era 2 cards (dark backs) face down, place the “Change of Era” card on top, then shuffle and place the 18 Era 1 cards (medium backs) on top. Shuffle 6 Starter cards (light backs) and deal 1 to each player; place remaining face up on the board. Fill board to 6 expansion cards from the pile.
4. Each player takes a company board, chooses an entrepreneur card (placed face up showing 1 white die), and places their starter expansion card on the matching colored field.
5. Starting player receives 3 bonus chips; all others receive 4.
6. All players begin with 2 white dice available.

Turn Structure

Each turn consists of two steps:

1. Turn over an expansion card from the pile to the board.
2. Attempt to acquire one card (expansion or airship) by rolling dice.

Actions

Step 1: Turn Over an Expansion Card

• Place the top card from the pile face up in the matching row on the board (leftmost free field).
• If all 3 fields in a row are full, remove the leftmost card from the game, shift remaining cards left, place the new card on the right.
• If the pile is empty, skip this step.
• Change of Era: When revealed, all players flip their entrepreneur cards to show the white + red die side (gaining a permanent red die). Remove the Change of Era card.

Step 2: Acquire a Card

• Choose one expansion card from the board or the top airship card from any of the 4 stacks.
• Declare the target card before rolling.
• Check the required dice (top left of card) and target score (top right).
• Gather dice available from your company board cards. Maximum 3 dice per color per roll.
• Roll once. Sum the required dice colors. If you have extra dice of a color, choose the highest results.

Successful attempt: Take the card and place it on your company board in the matching field (replacing any existing card in that department, which is removed from the game). Airship cards stack on the airship field; the player also receives the wooden airship token.

Failed attempt: The player may use bonuses to reach the target:

• 1 bonus chip = +1 point (returned to supply after use)
• Wooden airship token = +1 point
• Engine expansion card bonus = +1 or +2 (based on matching die color)

If still insufficient, the attempt fails and the player receives 1 bonus chip from the supply (if available).

Additional Turn

After completing a turn, a player may immediately take another full turn (both steps) by paying 3 bonus chips. Multiple additional turns are allowed if chips are available.

Hindenburg Construction

When an airship stack is depleted, revealing the Hindenburg image, players may attempt construction phases instead of acquiring cards. Each phase has specific dice requirements and awards victory points. Mark completed phases with a bonus chip. Only 1 player can complete each phase. The player completing a phase receives the wooden airship.

Important: Once any Hindenburg phase is built, the wooden airship is only awarded for completing Hindenburg phases, not regular airships.

Two VP values per phase: higher if all 4 phases are completed, lower if the game ends before completion.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Game ends when either:

• Only 1 or fewer cards remain on each of the 4 airship fields, OR
• The 4th Hindenburg construction phase is completed.

Scoring: Sum all victory points from:

• Airship cards (golden star values)
• Expansion cards with golden stars still on your board
• Hindenburg construction phases (higher values if all 4 completed, lower values otherwise)

Highest total wins. Tiebreaker: most airships built (each Hindenburg phase counts as 1 airship).

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Dice are always taken from the general supply (9 dice shared).
• Maximum 3 dice of one color per roll.
• Engineer “imaginary” dice have fixed values and do not count toward the 3-dice-per-color limit, but can be exchanged via Materials cards.
• Materials cards allow dice exchanges (e.g., 3 white → 2 red, or 2 red → 1 black) only for the current roll.
• When replacing an expansion card on your board with a new one, the old card (even if it has VP) is permanently removed.
• Bonus chips received from Captains are a one-time bonus when the card is acquired.
• If fewer than 4 players, return surplus materials to the box.

Player Reference

Expansion Card Departments

Department	Color	Effect
Engineers	Orange	Imaginary die with fixed value
Captains	Brown	1-2 dice + 1-3 bonus chips (one-time)
Financiers	Purple	1-3 additional dice
Materials	Blue	Exchange dice colors before rolling
Hangars	Yellow	1-2 additional dice
Engines	Green	+1 or +2 bonus to rolls using specific die colors

Dice Values

Color	Faces
White	1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3
Red	2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5
Black	4, 4, 6, 6, 8, 8