Close Call (2021)

Close Call is a tile drawing, grid-management game for 1-2 players. You play the role of an air traffic controller, guiding aircraft to their destination while avoiding disaster.

Your airspace is represented on the game board by a 13 x 9 rectangular grid. Aircraft of various types, chosen randomly from 72 double-sided tiles, continually enter your airspace, moving according to their pre-determined flight plans. As they travel across the sky in all directions, you can make slight adjustments to their paths. Your ultimate goal is to safely guide them to their destination, but the number of adjustments you can make is limited, and new aircraft enter your airspace every round.

In the Solo Game, you earn points by safely guiding aircraft to their home destinations. Earn enough points and you’ll impress your boss and win the game. Make a wrong decision, though, and the aircraft may be involved in a Close Call, requiring them to be grounded and putting a permanent stain on your performance record. Too many of those and you’ll ultimately get fired—and lose the game.

To add to the challenge, there are also hot air balloon tiles in the bag. Balloons move with the wind, which can change directions each round. You can’t control the balloons—your only recourse is to guide the other aircraft around them. And if that’s not enough of a challenge, you can choose to add a drone, which moves randomly, radar interference zones, which prevent you from making any adjustments, and flight plan changes, which alter the home destination for an aircraft.

In the 2-player variant, you compete with another air traffic controller to determine who’s better at your job. You each control your own fleet of aircraft as well as a neutral set. There are two ways to win: Perform well enough to convince your boss you’re the best, or cause your opponent to look so bad that they get fired.