In honor of the 8 year old guest running around our house this week, game night was spent playing Ticket to Ride instead of D&D. Ticket to Ride feels like a cross between Settlers of Catan and Take Off! Players compete to earn the most points by completing rail routes between cities across the U.S. To complete a route, players turn in colored train cards that correspond to the color and amount listed on the route. Players also receive mission cards that award bonus points for connecting distant cities, but are penalized for unfinished missions at the end of the game. The game ends when the first player runs out of plastic rail cars.
Ticket to Ride is a game with a very simple premise and quick learning curve which I suspect has the potential to become deeply strategic: Do you attempt to complete your mission cards immediately? Do you make a grab for several core routes early on that will allow you to complete multiple missions later? Do you just focus on gaining your routes, or go on the offensive to block other players' access to their mission goals. Do you draw a bunch of mission cards hoping to complete multiple missions, or reduce the risk of an end-of-game penalty by focusing on your initial missions? Apparently the game has a pretty avid following, which includes international tournament play. I am both intrigued and a little terrified to look into how the "pros" play.
At $50 from the FLGS, Ticket to Ride is a bit rough on the pocket book, but certainly within the limits of normal game pricing these days. However, after tonight, I have no regrets about the purchase, and do not doubt that we will play quite a bit in the future.
started playing Ticket to Ride about a year ago with friends. One of the best board games I have ever played
ReplyDeleteLC - Have you found that you and/or your friends have developed intense and/or diabolical strategies for winning the game or has it remained pretty straightforward? Also, do you have a feel for your typical scores? I got around 120-130 last night and won by a long-shot.
ReplyDelete120-130 is high but not unheard of -- most of the games I play are on the digital version available on Xbox Live. I definitely match up my initial three routes to get them done quickly, and then pull future routes later in the game. This tends to work better against real people than against the pure evil AIs in the digital version. :)
ReplyDeleteoh we definitely have built up strategies. one of my friends makes it his duty to finish his initial two as quickly as possible, then go for longest route while simultaneously trying to block every other playerfrom finishing any route
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