After Action Report – Thursday Night Gaming @ Paradise Perks, July 18, 201

The attendance at Thursday Night Gaming was light this week.  There were 15 – 20 people there with 3 games being played at any given time.  It looks like combination of July vacations and people going to San Diego Comic Con really thinned out attendance.

This time I only played one game, which seems to be a common occurrence at this event.  The game was Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries is a variant of Ticket to Ride and is part of the Ticket to Ride family of Games.  In the Ticket to Ride games the player claims sections of railway between cities on the board in order to complete routes that are on tickets that they receive during a game.  In order to claim a railway section, the players must collect cards of different colors.  When they have enough cards of one color to claim a railway section, they may turn in those cards and place trains the following turn.  Once a railway section is claim no one else may claim it.

There are a couple of changes to the basic rules of Ticket to Ride that are made in Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.  The wild cards that can be used as any color in the standard game can only be used to complete fairy runs and tunnels in Nordic Countries.  Three card of any single color can be used in place of a wild card.  Nordic Countries also had the tunnel railway sections that were introduced in Ticket to Ride Europe.

At the start of the game each player receives five tickets with routes they need to complete and must keep at least two of them.  Most of the tickets that I got did not go well together.  I settled on two of them:  Helsinki to Oslo and Oulu to Goteborg.  Every other card went through areas where you can be cut off easily.  I figured that there were enough options that I would be able to make my way through to all of these cities and there was enough overlap in track that I may be able to complete them with enough time that would be able to take another ticket or two to complete before the end of the game.  I completed The Helsinki to Oslo track easily enough.  Then I got cut off from my originally planned route to complete the Oulu to Goteborg ticket.

It took me a number of turns to be able to get the cards I needed to use one of the alternate routes to Oulu.  At this point we were about two thirds of the way through the game.  While I was working on completing the alternate route I picked up a lot of card I did not need for it as well as having a number of cards from my original plan in my hand.   I figured it was a good point to pick up a new ticket or two.

When drawing new tickets during the game, a player takes three tickets and must keep one of them.  I felt good enough with my position that I could at least complete one of them.  The tickets I got were:  Umea to Alborg, Bergen to Helsinki and Bergen to Narvik.  All of these tickets were just a slight stretch for me individually and I would only need to pick up a feel more cards to complete any of them so I took all of them.  I figured I would come out of it with a good number of points or go up in a dazzling ball of flame.

I started to collect the cards that I needed to complete my new tickets, I managed to get cut off from my original planned route again just before I had the cards I need, but fortunately I had enough extra cards that I could still complete the tickets.  Then I looked over at one of the other player’s area and saw that they had only five trains left.

I nearly panicked.  I was worried that I would not be able to complete five railway sections I needed before that player laid down the last of their trains and ended the game.  I started to build in earnest hoping to complete at least one of my new tickets before doom struck.  I was able to complete Umea to Alborg.  The game continued.  Then I locked up Bergen to Helsinki, but the game still continued.  I kept hoping that I would be able to finish picking up the sections I needed to get to Narvik, but expected the game to end before I could do it.

Not only was I able to complete the Bergen to Narvik ticket, I still had time left and five trains and a bunch of cards left.  I noticed that five of those cards were green and that there was a 5 green tunnel still available on the board between Moirana and Trondheim.  I decided I would the game on my next turn completing it if the game was not ended by the other player.  I know I would still get to play it out but it would feel great to end the game myself.  The other person ended the game.

Before the ticket points were counted, I was in second place, which was an improvement from lagging behind most of the game.  Once the tickets were counted into the score, I discovered I had achieved victory in the game.

I was happy with my victory and after chatting with another person about another project I am working on, I called in a night.

My stats for the event:

Game	No. of Plays	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Avg.
Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries	1	1	-	-	-	-			1.00
Totals	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1.00