Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride was the winner of the coveted 2004 Speil des Jahres (Game of the Year) and has been a best seller ever since. A fantastic game for families, both adults and kids will enjoy but is also a great game for just adults. If there is one game that every house should have a copy of that will appeal to the broadest spectrum, this has to be it.

In Ticket to Ride players each get 45 trains of a single colour along with a matching scoring marker. They are dealt three destination ticket cards (of which they must keep two) that have two cities on. Their aim is to connect these cities up with their coloured trains in a continuous route. The further the cities are apart the more points you score though the harder it is to complete!

The board is a map of the USA and southern Canada which has cities marked on it and train routes connecting them. Some routes are longer than others, some being as short as one train, others requiring up to six. The routes are also colour coded in nine different colours and this is where the coloured railway car cards come into play. In order to claim a route players have to match up a number of matching coloured railway car cards that match the length of the route they wish to claim.

Each player gets dealt four random railway car cards at the start of the game and each different colour card also has its own different type of railway car and matching symbol. (The symbol in each corner of the card is also printed on the board in the corresponding card coloured route spaces, this makes it easier for colourblind players.) There are also some grey routes that you can use with any matching set of the coloured cards.

• Black: Hopper Car
• White: Reefer
• Red: Coal Car
• Green: Caboose
• Blue: Passenger Car
• Yellow: Box Car
• Pink: Freight Car
• Orange: Tanker

The last type of card is the Locomotive, which is a wildcard that can be used for any colour.

During a turn a player may either take more railway car cards, claim a route by discarding a matching set of cards, or take more destination tickets. Play continues until one player is down to two or less trains with everyone (including them) taking one final turn.

Players score points for claiming routes (the longer the route the more points), completing the destination tickets  (you lose points if you don’t complete them) and there is also a bonus ten points for the player with the longest continuous train route.

Ticket to Ride Summary

There are different versions of the game that contain other maps. The original Ticket to Ride is the best one to start with, it is the simplest and caters for a good number of players and age ranges. It is easy to learn and play, no players are knocked out waiting for the game to finish and offers a great balance of fun and strategy to keep players of all ages entertained.