When to take a negotiation
Every new line and base is a roll against your leverage. How the number is built, when a low one is still worth taking, and when to take upgrades instead. A strategy article for FARELINE, the free airline strategy game.
After each month you take up to 3 cards from a hand of 5. BIGGER PLANE and MORE FLIGHTS on lines you already fly are sure things. A NEW LINE or a base card is a negotiation, and the card shows your leverage before you choose. Leverage is your chance out of a hundred: the airport's ask is a roll from 1 to 100, and anything at or under your leverage is a deal.
So the choice in every hand is between sure growth now and a chance at bigger growth.
How leverage is built
A line talk starts at 62. Then each airport's size takes points off, and big airports take the most. From Munich, MUC itself takes 24. A line to Paris Charles de Gaulle loses another 30, a line to Brussels 12 and a line to Warsaw 8. Before anything else is added, the Warsaw line starts 22 points ahead of the Paris one.
Then come the terms you control, counted at each end of the line. PRESENCE adds 3 for every line you already fly there, up to 12. LOYALTY adds a third of the city's loyalty, up to 12. BASE adds 6 where the airport is your base. REPUTATION adds 1 point for every line you fly past the 7th, up to +10. It counts in new-line talks, not in base talks. The total stays between 10 and 92.
Why a refusal still pays
A refused line talk banks +12 goodwill on that line, up to +30. The next talk for the same line starts that much higher. Goodwill stays with the line: a talk for another line at the same airport does not get it. A refused base talk banks +10 with that city, for its next base talk.
So a talk for a line you will want later is never a pure loss. Two refusals on that line and its next talk starts +24 points higher.
This changes how to read a low number. A low number on the line you want is an investment. The same number on a line you would not take again is a wasted pick.
When to take upgrades instead
Take the sure cards when the quarter is close. If the target is near and a miss would hurt the cash box, a BIGGER PLANE on a full line pays this quarter. A refused talk pays nothing until later.
Take sure cards in a quarter that punishes talks. THE REGULATOR: Every airport is suspicious of you. All negotiations are 20 points harder. Plan your talks for the quarters around it.
And remember the cards you leave. Every card you do not take pays cash, so taking one sure card and leaving the rest is a real choice in a tight quarter.
Base talks
A base talk starts at only 26 and tops out at 85. A base at Frankfurt loses 18 of that to its size. A city talks about a base only once its loyalty reaches 20, and every base you hold past 4 makes the next talk 2 points harder.
Build loyalty at the city first, then take the base card when it comes. A refused base talk is not lost either: the goodwill it banks with that city makes its next base talk easier. One perk speeds this up. CITY PARTNERSHIP: +8 loyalty, credited at once, at a city you fly to: you choose which. Those 8 points can be what brings a city to 20.
Perks for the table
SLOT LAWYERS: Every negotiation +10 points. It never runs out, so it pays most in a run built on many new lines and bases.
LOBBYIST: +20 points in every negotiation next quarter, then −10 in the quarter after: favours are owed. Buy it before a quarter of big talks, not before a boss like THE REGULATOR.
The guide has the short version of these rules.