I dare say this would be less of a problem for Americans but I’m not as familiar with where all the cities are geographically. The route cards are functional, but despite having dots to show locations these don’t always help you identify where exactly the city is on the board. They could be a little bigger and I think Days of Wonder realised this quite early on as other versions have larger cards. The carriage or car cards are good looking enough. You need a bit of room to set up though as the board and the play area required is quite big. The board is a good size with colourful routes across it and a nifty score board around the edge. One possible criticism of Ticket To Ride would be that the destination tickets could be more balanced across the board, something that is addressed with the 1910 Expansion. This keeps all players interested and involved throughout the game. You will also be keeping an eye out for the end of the game, hoping you have enough turns to carry out your master plan. You will be desperately drawing cards to give you the right number to lay track, nervously watching as others place their carriages hoping they don’t steal your route. Once Ticket To Ride gets a full head of steam it is actually quite stressful, but in a good way. And so it begins, a balancing act of build or draft. This in turn forces other people to lay track, as they will be anxious you, and possibly other players, will block their route. This necessitates that you claim some crucial track early on to ensure your plans of becoming a railroad tycoon aren’t scuppered. You see, the very clever board limits the amount of track between cities which adds an urgency to lay some track. That does not happen, especially with a higher player count. Players would then go on a track laying marathon. If everyone was sensible the start of the game would be a card drawing fest, gathering lots of carriages and routes and then planning the most efficient way of connecting all the cities. Once you’ve got the hang of the gameplay, layers of strategy are revealed. Scores are then tallied with a bonus card coming into play for the longest continuous track. The game ends when one person gets down to 0, 1 or 2 train cars giving everyone one final go. With these limited options the gameplay just makes sense.ĭon’t get me wrong there is a bit more to it in terms of setup and how many cards you draw, how many you keep and that sort of thing, but I won’t get bogged down with that here – I will save that for a How To Play feature. On your go you can only perform one of three actions: draw destination cards to gain new routes, draw carriage cards to get from a to b, or lay carriages to claim a track. This may all sound a bit complicated, but actually the gameplay is simplified. Most tracks require certain colour carriages and to lay this track you will need to draw from a different deck of cards. The more carriages you lay between two cities will also affect your final score. The longer the route, the more points you will get at the end of the game. To complete these routes you will need to lay carriages, connecting various other cities together along the way. This is achieved by completing routes between two cities that are on destination ticket cards drawn from a deck. The aim of Ticket to Ride is to obtain the most points. Many additional maps and versions have been created subsequently and I’m sure you’ll read about some of those in the future! But for now step on board as the Board Game Review express is about to depart the station… full steam ahead… Gameplay This original version, featuring an American map, was first released in 2004. It does hold a very special place in my heart, but don’t’ worry this review is not written through rose tinted glasses. Ticket To Ride was my leap into the modern board gaming world and therefore was a very natural place to start. I didn’t have to give any thought as to which board game to review first.
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