Ticket to Ride – Board Game Review

If you like trains, that’s the board game for you!

With a dynamic gameplay, Ticket to Ride is an award winner game where your goal is to connect cities building a network of railroads. The bigger the railroad is, the more points you get.

Ticket to Ride is a very easy to learn game. It involves elements of luck and strategic decisions. As many players are playing it together, the more difficult it is from achieving your goals.

Product Details

Name: Ticket to Ride
Creator: Alan R. Moon
Publisher: Days of Wonder
Year Published: 2004
Category: Strategy
Number of Players: 2 – 5
Age: 8 and above
Play Time: 30 – 60 minutes
Learning Difficulty: Easy
Game Rules: Click here
Best Price: Check at Amazon

Components

All the finishing from the components, from the board itself to the trains, are very detailed and of excellent quality. It’s one of the games that you open and is immediately proud of your acquisition.

The cards have a smaller size, which makes it better when you have a hand full of it. The trains are not very detailed, but just the fact that you have a Train miniature, makes you feel good. Placing it on the board or just organising it in front of you, makes you already have fun. Take some time and look around when you play it to see how your friends organise it before playing. The board has a very nice artwork and place you in North America. The score makers are made from wood and have different colours. I would prefer it to be shaped in a traveller or so, but the wood touch is quite good and makes it easier to mark players that have the same score as you can stack each other.

I do believe that the attention the publisher provide in making its cards, pieces and board directly impact in our experience while playing it and Ticket to Ride does it very well.

Game Experience

Playing Ticket to Ride is really fun. As you progress, you get points for connecting cities, but you also receive points for achieving your goals, which no one knows until the game finishes. As a matter of fact, being the first in points until the game finish helps, but doesn’t mean that you’ll be the winner. If you or someone else didn’t complete a goal, that many points will be subtracted from your total. If you achieved it, it would be added.

The turns are usually played at a fast pace as you have a limited number of choices to make. You can either draw cards, place trains or choose new objectives.

Every game you play has a different dynamic as people usually has different objectives. During the game your route may get locked by another player, so you have to be careful not to forget routes that are usually crowded of players trying to go through it.

It’s definitely a game to keep in your collection and play often. It never gets old and it’s always fun.

Interested? Buy it or read more reviews at Amazon.

My highest score is 139. What’s yours?