Ticket to ride board game review

My dad is a retired railroad electrician. As kids our first house was within walking distance of the CN rail yards in Edmonton. (Insert joke about growing up on the wrong side of the tracks) Our family has been around trains all our lives. A game involving trains is something we are all aboard.

Ticket to Ride is a game of building railway connections. You collect cards of various colours in order to trade them in for train routes. Each of these routes are worth various points; 1 for the shortest, 15 for the longest. Additional points can be earned by completing destination tickets. Several are drawn at the beginning of the game with the option to draw more later in the game. To earn points for these destinations connect the listed cities by having multiple routes line up between the two.

The mechanic and rules for Ticket to Ride are quite simple to learn yet the game can get quite complicated as players tend to compete over routes in order to connect their destinations. Ticket to Ride requires quite a bit of planning and card management in order to maximize your potential point gain.

I find that the game is fun for all ages. Ticket to Ride is easy to set up and can be played in less than an hour. This is great for a short game night or for several rematches in a night. I really like the look and feel of the game as I imagine myself as some railroad baron, cigar in my mouth and pocket watch in hand, buying up rights to ship into various cities. Aaaand now I want to get in costume for a game. Where is my conductor hat?

To sum up I recommend this game for family night or really any game group. If you have ever owned a model train or ran around the playground yelling “Choo-Choo!” Get this game. You will be very happy with it.

Check back next week when I review the RPG Rifts.