27.9.2016

When entering the world of modern board games the key phase you often hear is “get a good gateway game”. As the name suggests a gateway game is deemed the ideal entry point into the world beyond Monopoly. A good gateway game should be easy to learn, simple to play, have hidden depth and most of all be fun. For over ten years now one of the gateway games of choice has been Alan R Moon’s Ticket To Ride, winning a host of awards along the way including 2004’s Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year, so naturally this became one of our very first purchases. Does it live up to expectation? Let’s find out.What’s it about then?Ticket To Ride (TTR) is a card drafting, set collecting,network building game for 2-5 players aged eight years and above. The game is set in America in the early 1900’s and each player is a railway baron looking to link cities together with train routes, criss-crossing the country, with the hope of completing certain destination tickets. The winner of the game will be the player who has scored the most points.What’s in the box?Ticket To Ride contains;1 game board (a stylized map of North America), 240 trains in 5 different colours, 110 train cards in 9 different variations, 30 destination tickets, 1 summary card, 1 bonus card, 5 scoring markers and 1 rule booklet.How do you play it?The rules of the game are very simple and can be taught quicker than it takes to set up the game. On their turn, each player can perform one of three actions, either, drawing train cards, claiming a route or getting additional destination tickets. Players choose a colour and start with 45 trains and play ends after a final round once a player has 2 or less trains remaining. Four destination tickets are dealt out to players and they must keep at least two to start, players are then dealt a starting hand of train cards, 5 train cards are turned face up into a common area and play begins.Drawing train cards – Players can draw up to two train cards on their turn, either by selecting from the face up display or blind from the top of the deck. Train cards come in 9 different colours, 8 of which correspond to colours used on the game board map. The ninth train card is the wild locomotive card. This train can be used to in place of any other colour train and because of this if a player chooses to select a locomotive from the face up display that is the only card they choose for that turn.Claiming a route – The cities on the map are joined together by train routes or various lengths and different colours. To claim routes players must have the right number of trains of the same colour which matches that route. Some routes on the map are grey, which allows you to claim that route with a set of any colour you wish. All trains must be the same colour, unless you are using wild locomotives, which can fill in if you are missing a card or two. The longer a route is the more points it is worth.Additional destination tickets – Completing a destination ticket will earn you points at the end of the game so players may, if they choose, draw 3 more tickets, keeping at least 1. This can be a risky move, however, as any tickets that are not completed will lose you points.Once the final round has taken place the end game scoring phase begins. Players will gain points for any tickets they have completed, lose points for any they have not completed. Finally a bonus of 10 points is award for the player who has the longest continuous route.What’s good?Learning and explaining the game is very simple as there are only 3 possible moves for players, 9 year old Miss Gamer quickly picked up what to do. The game board is beautiful and also has the scoring track around the outer edge. Although the game is simple there is some added depth and strategy for older or more experienced players. The end game scoring system allows for players at the back of the pack to catch up to those who may have raced ahead. The thematic qualities of the game shine through with each coloured train card depicting a different type of carriage. Days of Wonder were good enough to include 3 spare trains per player, very useful after our dog managed to chew one up.What’s bad?The starting destination cards usually determines your strategy for the game, having a long destination will see you try to gain the longer routes scoring more points, whereas short routes will see you claim more smaller routes worth less points. Once you have played a fair number of games you start getting the same destinations over and over which makes some games feel repetitive. The cards are of good quality but are smaller than your traditional playing card which makes handling sometimes awkward (the TTR:1910 expansion reprints all the cards from TTR on larger cards).Final VerdictWe received Ticket To Ride as a Christmas present and it was a big hit over the holiday period with many games played with various family members, many of whom had not played a board game other than Monopoly. One game soon turned into a second and then a third as players became more familiar with the rules and more aware of the subtle strategies in play. If you are new to Euro-style gaming picking the right gateway game will ensure a fun and successful transition, and we highly recommend TTR as that first step.

3.12.2005

Ticket To Ride is a great game for all the family. With each game lasting roughly one hour and quick setup and take down, this game is anti-dote to such family board game horrors like Monopoly and Risk.The basic idea of the game is build train routes connecting various cities across the USA to collect more points than your opponents. To complete a route requires a number of coloured Truck Cards of a certain colour. Long routes are worth more points than short routes but require some hard saving of Truck Cards. Points are awarded for completing a route between cities, completing a Ticket (a longer route made up of smaller routes), and by having the longest sequential route on the map at the end.The components of the game are of superb quality.The large game board is made of tough cardboard and displays a map of the USA with the major cities and rail routes marked between. The train trucks are made of good plastic and are very colourful. The trucks combined with the map make for a very appealing game to look at. The cards that come with the game are also of good quality and are laminated for durability - trust me, they'll get a lot of use. :)The rules are just four, beautifully illustrated, pages long and extremely easy to understand. The basic game strategies are also easy to pick up, with more advanced strategies available for the more competitive amongst us. There's quite a good mix of different strategies in this game, and each game may require you to choose a different strategy from your last. You must also remain fairly flexible with your strategies too, because you never know what your so called friends might do to ruin your plans.Game play is very tight, and I found that game scores can run very close – making for an exciting game, all the way down to the finish.There's a definite cut-throat side to this game as it's often wise (if you're competitive) to delibrately block opponents routes regardless of your own objectives, but this cut-throat side only adds to the overall FUN of the game.I'll list the reasons why I think Ticket To Ride is a great game, and you'll see why I'm not fond of so called 'family games' like Monopoly and Risk:- No one gets eliminated. This is a BIG plus for a family board game.- Even if you lose the game, more often than not, you've completed at least some of the Tickets you hold and therefore have SUCCEEDED at something. A nice feature for a family game; keeps everyone happy. :)- A tip for free, don't count player scores until the end. This keeps everyone guessing right until the end about who is actually going to win.- Player turns are very short. Each turn consists of just one action: picking up more truck cards, laying a route between two cities, or picking up more tickets (think missions in Risk). This means you never have to wait long for your next turn. :)- The game works equally well with 2 - 5 players.There is a European version of this game with some additional rules which add more balance to the game (less hot spots on the map!). I prefer the European version even though I win more on the USA version. Maybe that's just because I'm from Europe, or that the extra rules give a closer game.The best thing I can say about Ticket To Ride is that everyone who has played it with me has wanted to play it again and buy it for all of their family and friends.

10.7.2012

I first fell in love with Days of Wonder's "Ticket to Ride Pocket" for iPhone. When I discovered there was a European version of the physical board game, I had to have it.Not only does this version of the game have the classic gameplay elements which made the original so enjoyable, but it also expands on them by adding new ones as well as the obvious new map, routes, etc.Ticket to Ride is all about conquest of the national rail systems. Your task is to connect a series of routes between cities marked on a set of "Route Cards" (distributed at the start of the game) by placing "wagons" (train car tokens)along the routes in question.You can only place your wagons along any segment of any route by "purchasing" that route segment with playing cards of varying colours. Each route segment requires a certain number of a certain colour of playing cards, and therefore your goal is to get the right numbers of the right colours of cards in order to place your wagons in the correct places and claim your routes.For each wagon placed you will receive a number of points. More wagons = more points. When your wagons connect from Point-A to Point-B, you've successfully completed your route and earn bonus points for doing so. When any one player has two wagons or fewer remaining in their inventory, the game ends. Any routes you failed to complete will not only forfeit your right to bonus points for that route, it will also subtract those points from your current score.You must therefore try to achieve as many points as you can and complete as many and/or the longest routes you can before the other players and before the end of the game.The rules can SEEM finicky to newcomers, but once understood you realise how very simple they are and the game play is exceedingly engrossing often resulting in multiple games on the trot.Additions in TTRE include even more ways to complete your routes and gain points such as adding train stations, tunnels and ferry routes.The quality of build for this set is very high. The game board is thick and sturdy, the artwork is vibrant and detailed. The player pieces, which keep track of each player's score, are wooden and add to the charm and quality. The playing cards are sturdy, of high quality and again the artwork is beautiful and colourful.The only real let-down is the wagons themselves, and this is really a minor gripe. The wagons are made of moulded plastic and it would be so much nicer if they were wooden as well. However I suspect that, due to the large number of wagons (45 x5 players), this would dramatically increase the cost of this game. If this were something that would bother you it's good to know that there are wooden third-party, aftermarket options available. Another positive worth noting is that several "extra" wagons of each colour are included...just in case one gets lost!Finally, there's even an educational element to each and every version of this game, as it does, in its own way, instil a bit of a minor geography lesson with each and every game played. With the European version, the various cities have their names as spelled in their native tongue...not English. For example, "London" is "London", but "Rome" is "Roma" and "Athens" is "Athina".Highly recommended, highly addictive, and best played with loads of people.

25.8.2016

I've just played this through for the first time (this was with adults, previously I tried with kids with limited success). It had come strongly recommended by reviewers and the man in the shop. It is indeed a nice and original game but I was left with a load of "yes, but..." issues, so I thought I would share them:I played with two others and we enjoyed it, and it might grow on us. We are all seasoned games players, but not gaming nuts. First impressions:A really different game. No dice, which is refreshing, and lots of cards and pieces.It's not true that the game takes 5 minutes to learn. It took me about 10 minutes to explain the concept and 5 more to show an open handed demonstration of how the game proceeds.And it took us a while longer to get chugging and fully underway. The instructions are clear, but they could do a better job of explaining the overall concept to the first timer. I struggled to work out what was what (felt a bit like those people who say they can't put together an IKEA table) but I persevered and got there eventually.Our game was intense and rather silent as we pored over the possible permutations. We did not come into conflict until late in the game but simply plugged away building our own lines until one of us finished off.It's almost impossible to keep punctilious track of the score as the game progresses, so we rotted up the entire score at the end to be sure. This contributed to the lack of competitive tension in our game.The game is beautifully made, but with reservations: the cards were too similar, it would have been clearer to differentiate long and short tickets for example. It's also (initially) confusing to have counters and routes that are unrelated by their colour. Venezia was spelled Venizia on one ticket card. Names of stations are in the local language, which is fun but a bit forbidding for kids.The instructions are all written to refer to male players ("he then plays his cards...") which seems a bit outdatedly sexist. The pieces are a bit fiddly, and rather light - one rogue elbow or overexcited dog could send things awry.These are perhaps all quibbles. It's a good game. But perhaps could be better.UPDATE: After two games, my sister, who is something of a games addict like me, declared she had a revolutionary secret new tactic that might shake things up. We played, and had a very slightly more competitive game than before (for the first time there appeared to be some real conflict of interest, but only a bit). She lost, and declared that her mystery tactic had been to deliberately try to screw up her two opponents' plans, to try to make it more exciting, with almost no reference to her missions. She then declared the game to be rather boring (although still addictive!) because of the lack of friction. What she would like to see (here is a suggestion for the makers) is some kind of incentive/mechanism to sabotage other people's plans. Perhaps a way of laying dynamite, or a mission card that simply says 20 points if you prevent all your opponents completing at least one of their ticket missions?

4.1.2007

We got this game because the other half likes trains and we enjoy playing games (both together and with friends), so this seemed like a good mix and different to our other games.There are several different versions of this game, including the original Ticket to Ride (which is US based), but we chose this one as the map is of Europe and we read some reviews that said it is easier to learn, teach and play than the original. I don't know about the original, but this is certainly easy enough to learn.The basic idea is that players draw tickets (say London to Frankfurt) and then you have to connect these two cites along pre-set routes on the board using small plastic trains and by playing coloured cards.

20.1.2014

Ticket to Ride is fast becoming a classic. The Europe edition provides some extra complexity (which you can choose to ignore) as well as a more complex map (which you can't) compared to the US edition. The extra gameplay elements are actually quite clever and I feel they add something, rather than just being a novelty.The idea of the game is to claim train routes across turn-of-the-century Europe. You start off with some 'tickets' which describe the cities you need to join with train routes. You claim routes by collecting sets of cards, so fundamentally Ticket to Ride is a set collecting game in the rummy family.

17.8.2013

My friends and I love this game. I purchased it several years ago and many of the people I have played it with have themselves purchased one of the variations. This is the original game, and also the 'vanilla' version. Whereas the European game adds in tunnels and ferries and the German/Marklin game uses passengers this version is kept simple. That is a good thing in my opinion. It is quick to learn, quick to set up and plays in a convenient/satisfying length of time.For me, Ticket to Ride was my first experience of a board game with truly excellent design. Unlike Monopoly, you don't win this game by beating your opponents into submission. That (generally) means a lot less arguments.

31.12.2008

My husband and I often struggle to find board games that keep our interest and can be played with two players.The game itself is beautifully made but you will need some room for the board - kitchen table perhaps.In the box are little train carriages (40+), destination cards (some short and others long rail routes), player counters (moves along the score board around the outer edge of the board) and train cards (a very large set of cards with different coloured trains on) and a lovely large instruction book in full colour. You also get a web-site address to play on-line.Game play set up - simple once you have played it once.Basically each player chooses 2 destination cards (although more can be used).

23.8.2019

I decided this was a definite purchase after I first saw how much fun was had playing this game whilst watching "Wil Wheatons Tabletop" on YouTube.A big board game that looked fun, with some thought and tactics required but not overly complicated. And a game that didn't drag on forever and never finish...cough...Monopoly...cough!From reading other reviews and opinions, I decided on the "Europe" version rather than the original USA version. I wasn't disappointed. Living in the U.K. made this an easier choice as well, being more familiar with the European countries.The first run through was a bit slow, mainly due to learning the rules of the game. But now most games take around 30-45 minutes.

11.5.2009

I'll not describe the mechanisms etc because that's been done well enough elsewhere. Instead I'll just pass on our experience so you can judge whether you think you'd like it too.I've been a board gamer for longer than I care to think and wanted to buy it for ages; but hesitated because you need a willing opponent and I wasn't sure how it would go down at home. So it wasn't until recently that my wife's hairdresser mentioned it to her and raved about it that I got the go ahead to splash the cash.I bought it on Friday and we played that evening (2 parents and 2 teenage girls), and again on Saturday and Sunday and we've had 3 different winners - only the youngest has yet to get there but she's not been last either so it's not an age thing.So,

14.8.2016

For between two and five players, the game involves building rail routes across Europe. To build the routes you need cards with appropriately coloured wagons, picked up two at a time as a go in the game, and there are various additional considerations to cover, such as a set of specific routes you need to build (allocated by randomly selected cards) if you are to have a chance of winning, and a bonus for the player with the longest single route at the end of the game.The play is an excellent balance of luck (how you build your route is dependent on which cards you pick up) and strategy/tactics, meaning that a good player will usually win, but a less skilled player can win occasionally,

2.1.2013

Just got this as a Christmas present from my sister. I was looking for a board-game I could play with my daughters (aged 9 & 11). In the week that we have had it, we have played it 3 times already. Rules were pretty simple and I was really pleased how quickly the 9 year old picked it up. The first time we played the full rules, but the 2nd time we left out the special rules for tunnels & ferries as we had two people playing for the first time, and this worked well. Last night was Mum's first time playing, so we left out the special rule for tunnels. The train stations are great from a family point of view as it avoids people being upset that someone has cut off part of the route needed for their destination ticket.

19.3.2011

Finally, a family game we can all play. With four children under the age of 10, that's not often an easy thing to achieve, but as long as we help along the younger ones, the game is simple enough for them to play and hard enough to challenge us. We still haven't worked out the best strategy for winning, but making really long trains seems to help.The basic premise is that there are five different colours of trains, and each colour has 45 different little cars. There are a variety of ways to earn points with your 45 cars: either you can build routes by using colour-coded cards that you draw, or you can link up a series of routes to correspond to station-to-station destinations and this gets you bonus points when you've completed it,

11.9.2016

Ticket to Ride is one of the classic modern style board games. I've been playing it on iPad for years, and whilst the app is good, it doesn't compare to playing it for real with the beautiful board and the colourful train pieces and cards.Although I was already familiar with the rules, I was surprised by how easy it was to learn for new players - I've introduced three new players to the game and they all picked it up straight away (and annoyingly beat me in some cases!)The one criticism I have is that the train cards and tickets are very small, and seem a bit like they were skimped on. This can be rectified by buying the 1910 expansion which has full sized train cards and tickets,

22.3.2019

The game is simple enough to be picked up quickly and include younger players. We've had a 10 year old play with adults without a problem and it didn't slow gameplay or require us to "go easy" on her. That being said, there is sufficient depth to the game to allow for various strategies to engage more adept board-gamers.I've played with the minimum of 2 players (including myself), right the way up to the maximum of 5 and the game does feel varied by having different numbers of players which gives another level to the game. The game actually adapts the rules very slightly for higher/lower numbers, I feel in an attempt to lessen the impact of this - and I think they've got the balance right.Note that there are different versions.

Ticket to Ride Asia - Netherlands - Reviews

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