Ticket To Ride Board Game       

Category: Strategy / Family Ages: 8+ Players: 2-5 Play Time: 45 + minutes Published By: Days of Wonder Awards Received: The 2004 Spiel des Jahres, The Origins Award for Best Board Game of 2004 The 2005 Diana Jones award and As d'Or, Ranked second in the Schweizer Spielepreis for Family Games. Ticket to Ride: Europe won the 2005 International Gamers Award.

Description Of Ticket To Ride

Ticket to Ride is an absorbing board game with a railway theme. Two to five players can play Ticket to Ride, and one game takes 30 to 45 minutes to complete. Ideal for ages eight and upwards, Ticket to Ride makes the players think up strategies and take tactful decisions. An easy game to learn, Ticket to Ride is a very popular beginners’ game.

The board for playing Ticket to Ride is a colorful illustrated map of North America set in the year 1900. The game play takes players all over North America using rail routes. The goal of Ticket to Ride is successful completion of a continuous route between two cities, and/or completing the longer continuous route between two destinations. Unfinished routes at the end of a game lead to deduction of points.

The players start out with train cards and train tickets. The train tickets spell out two cities listed far apart. Players are given colorful plastic train models to mark their routes on the Ticket to Ride board. Each game turn gives a player the chance to either opt for a train car card, or, claim a route, or draw an additional destination ticket. In offensive play, players try to occupy a route needed by an opponent. Points are scored by players at each turn, and the highest scorer goes on to win the game.

The popularity of Ticket to Ride is evident in the several awards won by it. Ticket to Ride was a big success in Europe. This popularity resulted in a variant that used a map of Europe as the backdrop. The European version of Ticket to Ride included new features that added more fun to the game. Ferry routes added adventure, tunnels brought in risk, and, exchanging points for using a route belonging to another player, gave players more options.

There is one version of Ticket to Ride that is based on a map of Germany. Ticket to Ride is a very popular online game as well. Computer game versions of Ticket to Ride are also widely available. These versions come with the choice of playing with a backdrop of US, Europe or Switzerland.

The huge popularity of Ticket to Ride made the manufacturers come out with a set of cards that are used as an expansion to the basic game. This expansion brings a mystery train into the game making the game more thrilling.


Review Of Ticket To Ride

Ticket to Ride is an excellent game for children aged 8-10. Playing a game of Ticket to Ride makes players familiar with names of places and their locations. Spatial reasoning is exercised when they look for alternative routes. Ticket to Ride has simple rules of play and children understand them effortlessly. While it is a great introductory game, it has an addictive quality and often goes on to become a family favorite.

Players learn to choose between two decisions that seem equally good. If a player chooses to draw a card rather than claim a route, it is possible that his route may be blocked by an opponent. And by focusing only on routes, a player is likely to miss out on key destination cards. Striking a fine balance takes up the players’ concentration. This makes parents view time spent playing Ticket to Ride as time well spent. No wonder Ticket to Ride is so popular.