#94: Baggage Claim

Baggage Claim

• designer: Alex Randolph
• publisher: Ravensburger
• date: 1987
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/5.9
• age: 5+
• # of players: 2-4
• print status: OOP
• cost: $6.99 (ebay)

Ravensburger publishes a nice line of small box games for kids - most have simple components & easy rules. Sometimes they're pleasant if not spectacular... and other times, they pack a lot of punch into their small packages.

Such is the case with Alex Randolph's Baggage Claim, a memory game that involves flying your (plastic) plane from airport to airport (symbolized by piles of luggage tokens) attempting to claim all of your lost bags. (One fateful day on the way back to college, my luggage went to Aspen while I had to go to Waco... my luggage is more upwardly mobile than I am. Anyway, the theme makes perfect sense to me.)

You must find your luggage in numerical order - the bags are marked "1" through "10". Only one plane (player) can be at an airport at a time, so if you want to land at an occupied pile of tokens, you must first allow the other player a free flight to another airport where he can possibly pick up a token. Once per game, each player is allowed to refuse to move - saving this refusal for the right moment is a key tactical element in the game. (The "occupied airport" rules make the game more enjoyable with 3 or 4 players, but it works fine with 2.)

Here's why it ended up on the list: it's a speedy memory game with actual tactical play.