Ticket to Ride (board game)

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Ticket to Ride

Designer	Alan R. Moon
Publisher	Days of Wonder
Players	2–5
Age range	8 and up
Setup time	<5 minutes
Playing time	45+ minutes
Rules complexity	Easy
Strategy depth	Medium
Random chance	Medium
Skills required	Set collection Connecting

Ticket to Ride is a railway-themed German-style board game designed by Alan R. Moon and published in 2004 by Days of Wonder. The game is also known as Zug um Zug (German), Les Aventuriers du Rail (French), Aventureros al Tren (Spanish), and Menolippu (Finnish).

The game won the 2004 Spiel des Jahres, the Origins Award for Best Board Game of 2004 and the 2005 Diana Jones award and As d'Or, and came 2nd in the Schweizer Spielepreis for Family Games. Ticket to Ride: Europe won the 2005 International Gamers Award.

1 Gameplay
2 Expansions
3 Spinoffs
4 External links

[edit] Gameplay

At the beginning of the game, players are dealt a number of 'destination' cards showing a pair of cities on the map. Each turn, players collect 'railway car' cards in various colours including wildcard 'Locomotive' cards, draw additional 'destination' cards, or use those cards to claim routes on a map of the United States and thereby collect points. The routes are of varying lengths (requiring varying numbers of matching coloured cards), and each discrete route marked on the board can be claimed by only a single player. Additional points are awarded at the end of the game for having successfully completed the routes on the 'destination cards' and by claiming the longest route.

[edit] Expansions

The Mystery Train expansion was released in 2004 as a free giveaway in the December edition of Game Trade Magazine and at the Spiel 2004 game festival in Essen, Germany. It includes a set of special destination cards which introduce special rules; for example, one can be used to double the value of one route. The expansion cards are (as of 2006) available as a free download from the official site.

The second expansion, Ticket to Ride: USA 1910, also consists of extra destination cards, as well as larger versions of the normal play cards. It was released at the 2006 Essen game festival.

[edit] Spinoffs

Since the game's release in 2004, Days of Wonder has released two stand-alone spinoff games, which add new rules and take place on different maps.

[edit] Ticket to Ride: Europe

Released in 2005, Ticket to Ride: Europe takes place on a new map, showing an idealised version of Europe. The game includes two new types of route: 'Ferry' routes, which require 'Locomotive' cards to be played when claiming them, and 'Tunnel' routes, which add an element of risk and chance to the game.

Each player is also given three 'Train stations', which allow a player to sacrifice points to use a route already claimed by another player.

The method of distributing ‘destination cards’ is also different as compared to the base game.

[edit] Ticket to Ride: Märklin

Days of Wonder released Ticket to Ride: Märklin in 2006, based on a map of Germany. Märklin is a German toy company, best known for model railways and technical toys.

Whereas railway car cards of each type in the previous games were identical, the cards in Ticket to Ride: Märklin each show a different image of Märklin rolling stock.

The game adds passengers and goods as new point-scoring mechanisms, and includes two styles of 'Locomotive' cards.

[edit] Computer games

[edit] Ticket to Ride: Online

Ticket to Ride can be played online at Days of Wonder's website. Although anyone may join existing games, the site requires a subscription to begin new games. Each board game comes with a code valid for a free 6-month subscription.

[edit] Ticket to Ride: The Computer Game

Days of Wonder has also released a computer game for Windows PCs and Macintosh, which allows players to play the original game, Ticket to Ride: Europe, and Ticket to Ride: Switzerland. The latter is a computer-only game played on a map of Switzerland. The Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 expansion is available as a free downloadable enhancement to the game.

Ticket to Ride: Switzerland features several changes. The first is that it only uses 40 train markers (instead of the usual 45). The second is that 'Locomotive' cards may only be used for tunnels (instead of as general wildcards). Lastly, some routes end at specific national borders rather than cities.