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Ticket to Ride - Game review
Picked up Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder for my birthday and since it received 8 plays in two days, I thought it would probably warrant a review here. I’ll give an overview of gameplay, review of the components and then of the game as a whole.
First off, gameplay: You earn points by either fulfilling railroad routes between cities or by finishing destinations that are designated by Ticket cards. The scoring is really very simple, the longer the route between cities or between destinations, the higher the value. Completeing a Ticket from Denver to Elpaso will get you 4 points, but going from Vancouver to Miami will net you 22 points. Also, finishing a route that is only 1 boxcar long is worth 1 point, but a route of 6 boxcars is worth 15 point.
To finish a route you have to play the proper number of boxcar cards as well as having them be of the proper color. If the route is 6 blue spaces, you need 6 blue cards. You start with 4 cards and you can draw 2 each turn, either from the 5 in the face up draw pile, or from the facedown draw pie. If you chose a face up wild card, that is the only card you can pick.
On each turn you can either: lay down boxcars; pick new boxcar cards; or draw new Destination Tickets. the game is over when 1 player has less than 3 boxcars (of his original 45) left.
Next up: the components. Days of Wonder uses very heavy cardstock for it’s boxes and Ticket to Ride is in the square box format (think Trival Pursuit) rather than the long box format (think Monopoly). The square box design holds up better to wera and tear and stores more easily too. The board is a very heavy, multi-fold board (again, think Trivial Pursuit), that is a 3x2 fold (as opposed to the 2x2 in, yet again, Trivial Pursuit).
The trains are in 5 different colors and are molded from plastic. They are not solid, but they are well detailed and extras are provided.
The Destination Tickets and the Boxcars cards are rather small, but they are plastic coated and have nice graphics. the downside is that they have black borders which show wear very easily. I have heard that the second edition (now in print) of this game has white bordered cards.
The rules are super simple, loaded with pictures and easy to teach. I would have liked some further clarification on determining the Longest Route, a couple of examples, but I was able to get that from the website.
Finally: the game as a whole. This can be played with 2-5 players and over the week-end we played it everywhichway we could. There is one rule modification if you play with 2 or 3 rather than with 4 or 5, but that properly adjusts the game. playing with 2 or 3, one gets the feeling that you have to play your boxcars quickly, because the routes you want may not be there very soon. With 4, there is a slower pace to the game because some of the routes have two spaces parrallel to each other. This means that I can place boxcars between Oklahoma City & Kansas City and so can one other player. In the 2/3 player rules, first one there, blocks the other player. With 5 players, there are so many people playing that, once again, you feel as if you won’t make to that section of track that you need.
While playing you are faced with choices, go for the long destinations and get big points, but that takes some time, or go with the short destinations back East that you can finish quick, but don’t count as much? Also, since there are only 12 cards of each of the eight colors (and 14 wild cards), trying to get 6 white cards to finish that section in the Northwest may turn out to be a nailbiter while you watch you opponent carpet the Eastern seaboard with his boxcars.
We had some very close games and we had some that were total blow-outs, but evern during all of that, everybody had a good time and after each game the shout of “who’s up for another?” was almost always heard. The players we had stretched from die-hard gamers (me) to casual gamers that prefer cards (my mom) and everyone enjoyed it. For $40, it’s a darn good family investment to get you through the upcoming winter months (and the spring months and summer months as well.)
This is a definate purchase. You can get it at the Days of Wonder website, or locally in Oklahoma City at Game Headquarters.
