Game Review – Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride
Number of Players	2 - 5
Play Time	60 minutes
Ages	8 years and up

The Ticket to Ride family of game is one that I have referred to a number of times in my posts since I have played a couple of variants and made comparisons to the game in reviews of other games.  With this in mind, I decided it was time to review one of the games in the family.  I have chosen the original Ticket to Ride.

The reasons that I have chosen Ticket to Ride instead of one of the variants are simple.  First, it is the game that started this family of popular games and represents the core rules for the family.  Once you understand it, you know the basics of how to play eight other games.  Second, it and Ticket to Ride Europe are among the most popular games at the events in my area.  There are very few events where there is not at least one session of a Ticket to Ride variant is played.  You could argue that it is more popular than Settlers of Catan.

The theme of the game is that the players are owners of train companies that are building rail lines in the United States.   The goal is to establish routes between the cities on the tickets that the players receive.  If the players connect the cities on a ticket they will receive bonus points at the end of the game based on the value on the ticket.  If they do not connect the cities on one of their tickets the player loses the number of points on the ticket.  Points are also scored for placing trains between two cities on the board more trains needed the more points are scored.

Game play is simple.  The players start out the game with five tickets that have destinations that they can connect of which they must keep at least three.  They will also receive four train cards. An additional five train cards are placed face up by the side of the board along with draw decks of train cards and tickets

The train cards are the core of the game.  They come in eight different colors and there is a ninth card type which is a wild card and can be used as any color.  These train cards are what are used to make the connections between the cities.  Each connection is represented by a number of spaces that are a single color.  If a player wished to claim a connection between two cities they must turn in the number of cards of that color.  They then place trains from their reserve on that connection.  After a connection is claimed no other player may use that connection.

The players choose one of three actions to take during their turn.  The first is that they may take train cards from the five cards that are face up or from the draw deck.  The second option is that they may claim a connection between two cities.  The third option is that they may take additional tickets.

Game play continues until one of the players has used all of their trains.  The player with the most points in city connections and completed tickets wins.

The thing that I like about Ticket to Ride is that it is a simple game to teach.  You can explain the games to a group of new players in less than ten minutes and they will be able to play the game fairly well.

The thing that I do not like about Ticket to Ride is more because I tend to prefer more complex train games.  I find the game limiting because there are a limited number of fixed connections between cities.  You can find yourself blocked from one of the destinations on your tickets either by accident or design.  I prefer the freeform track building in the Empire Builder family where connections are not as important as delivering loads of goods.

The other thing I did not like about Ticket to Ride that in earlier printings of the game the train cards were a much smaller card than the ticket cards as such you were not able to keep them together in your hand.  The smaller card size also made it more difficult to shuffle the train cards which can happen a number of times during a game.  The train cards have been replaced with larger cards in the current printings of the game.  If you have an older set, you can get the larger train cards by getting the Ticket to Ride 1910 expansion.

The other thing to be aware of is that the game takes more time than the 30 – 60 minutes stated on the box.  A round of Ticket to Ride realistically lasts 75 – 90 minutes for 4 players.  I honestly have never seen it take less than 60 minutes to play even with a group of experienced players.

Even with the limitation of the game, I find Ticket to Ride to be enjoyable to play.  If is not my first choice but it is a great game to use to introduce players to board games.  I do not tend to use it for that purpose any more as I have been using other games to mix it up a little bit for me more than because a dislike for Ticket to Ride.  If you are looking for a game you can use as an introductory game you cannot go wrong by choosing Ticket to Ride.