There is something about building trains that is captivating. Whether it is the freedom that expansion that the innovation of the train offered in the 1800s, or the nostalgia of trains, many board games have been developed over the years that infuse the theme of trains and routes. Ticket to Ride takes this theme and intertwines it with simple gameplay to create one of the most popular games with casual board gamers, as well as strategy for the more intense gamers.
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Short Explanation of How to Play
In Ticket to Ride, you build individual routes between cities. The longer the route, the more points you get. If you are able to string a bunch of routes together to complete long routes, you get more points. The more trains you build, the more points you get. Longer trains get more points. Each turn you can do one of 3 things: draw cards (which you use to lay trains), draw 3 routes (these give extra points, and you have to keep at least one), or play a train (using cards). At the end, the points from the route cards and trains are added up, and the winner is declared.
Why it Works/Doesn't Work For Our Family
What Worked: This game is simple enough to play with kids. Young kids might prefer to play with the train pieces instead of playing the actual game. This game works with a wide variety of game players.
What Was Challenging: The limited route options and the random nature of routes drawn can make this game a blowout for a lucky player, or a dashing defeat for another. The inability to complete routes and the luck of the draw can benefit or harm any player, so those limitations are equal opportunity.
Why it Works/Doesn't Work With Friends
I used to play this game with my game-playing friends quite often, years ago. As the gaming landscape has widened, this one has not stayed at the forefront of our rotation. Newer games with more challenging mechanics or interesting gameplay are our focus. If we play older games, Catan or Axis and Allies will hit the table before this one.
Teacher's Corner
This is a good game for teaching geography, as you have to complete routes between real cities. The original map is the United States, but multiple expansions give the option to play the game on different boards that represent countries and cities around the world.
Overall opinion, rating, and recommendation
6 year old son - My son liked building trains, but he was happier playing with the trains pieces than strategizing about completing routes.
9 year old daughter - My daughter liked picking her routes and strategizing about how to complete those routes. She is an organized planner so this worked really well for her. She has beaten me in this game so she does this very well
Mine - I will rate this game Casual Adult. It worked best with my daughter who was older, but was not as good of a match for my younger kids. The mechanics of the game were not too difficult, but it is a bit over the head of younger kids. This has been a VERY popular board game when I have played with adults who were not board game players as a hobby.
Games with similarities with this one at each rating level:
Casual Family: Trekking the National Park
Heavy Family: Catan Jr
Casual Adult: Carcassonne
Heavy Adult: - Steam
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