After Action Report – Board Game Night @ Comic Quest, June 19, 2014

I had a fun but difficult night at Board Game Night at Comic Quest on Thursday.  I preformed very poorly at the games that I played which was a bummer after the great performance I had last Saturday.  There were 20 people at the event with five games being played at any one time.

I played three games at the event.

The first game I played was Alhambra.  In Alhambra players are trying to build the best palace complex by acquiring buildings that enhance increase its value.  The more expensive the building the more versatility it has in the way of being able to build more additions to the complex.

Scorecard Review – May 2014

In May I changed up the regular events that I normally attend.  It has had an effect on the games that I have played.  There are more older games that are toward the lighter side on the list of games that I played.  Let us review what I played and how it fits into what I have been doing up to this point.

May

In April I was able to play 30 games at 9 events for an average of 3.33 games per event.  I was able to hit my goal of an average of 3 games per event again.

After Action Report – Board Game Night @ Comic Quest, May 22, 2014

I attended Board Game Night at Comic Quest on Thursday.  There were 25 people at the event and five games were being played at any one time.

I played six games at the event including one game twice.

The first game I played was Lost Cities.  Lost Cities is one of the games from the first generation of Euro games that made it to the United States.  It is a two person card game.  The theme attached to the game is the players are leading expeditions to five lost cities.  What the players find in each city is represented in a deck of cards that consists of 5 suits of card that have cards numbered 1 – 10 and three multiplier cards.  Each player starts the game with a hand of 8 cards and they take turns either playing a card in front of them or discarding a card into the appropriate suit’s pile and then taking a card from the draw deck or one of the discard piles.  The game ends when the draw pile is depleted.

After Action Report – Games Gathering @ Brookhurst Hobbies, May 3, 2014

On Saturday I attended the Games Gathering at Brookhurst Hobbies.  20 people attended the event and five games were being played at any one time.

I was there for a short time because I wanted to go to Comic Quest late in the afternoon to support their Free Comic Book Day event so I only played two games at the event.

The first game that I played was Martian Rails from the Empire Builder family.

To review, in the Empire Builder family of games the players own railroad companies that are competing to build rail lines and move freight from one city to another based on a set of demand cards that they have.  Once a demand on a demand card is completed the player discards it and draws a new one from the deck.  Included in the demand card deck are a number of disaster cards which include things like derailments and river floods which impede the player’s progress to victory.  In order to win the game, the player must be the first to have track connecting a number of major cities on the board and have at least $250 million dollars.

Days of Wonder Press Release - Wil Wheaton and Friends Visit (Ticket to Ride) Europe This Week on Tabletop

From the Days of Wonder Website

This week on Geek & Sundry’s TableTop, join host Wil Wheaton along with his wife, Anne Wheaton, John Kovalic, (creator of Dork Tower), and actress Emma Caulfield (Buffy, 90210, Leverage) for a hotly contested game of Ticket to Ride Europe.

In his blog, Kovalic described the game’s brutality as… “Joss Whedon is in a bad mood and feels like killing off your favorite character!”

Who knew Ticket to Ride Europe could be so vicious?




Watch this week’s Ticket to Ride Europe episode on Geek & Sundry’s TableTop and find out if…

• the host or any guests are physically harmed during the filming of this episode…
• at the end of the game, Anne reprises her role from the Ticket to Ride episode in Season 1 and bounces EVERY SINGLE TRAIN OFF THE BOARD…
• or leaves Wil for Jerry the Ticket to Ride Conductor…

You can learn more about the game on the Ticket to Ride Europe web page.

Days of Wonder Press Release - Introducing Map Collection 4 – Ticket to Ride Nederland Crosses the Bridge

From the Days of Wonder Website

With its countless canals Amsterdam is often called the Venice of the North, but all of Nederland is filled with waterways. A rail journey in this low-lying country crosses hundreds of bridges – and you will pay the toll!

Introducing Ticket to Ride^® Nederland, the fourth in the Ticket to Ride Map Collection Series. In Nederland, rail routes have a cost, which you’ll pay for with Bridge Toll Tokens – to the bank… or to another player!




In this beautiful new map of the low country, Ticket to Ride designer Alan R. Moon has created an ingenious new twist – nearly all routes are double-track bridge crossings. When a player grabs the first route between cities, he pays a price in Bridge Toll Tokens directly to the bank; but when the second route is claimed, the tokens go to the player who claimed the first route! Players score bonus points based on the total value of Bridge Toll Tokens they still own at game’s end.



In addition to the new single-sided map, Ticket to Ride Nederland includes: 44 Destination Tickets; new Bridge Toll Tokens and a multi-lingual rules booklet. Designed for 2 to 5 players, ages 8+, this expansion requires train cards and trains from either Ticket to Ride^® or Ticket to Ride^® Europe.

Ticket to Ride Nederland makes its debut at the Essen Fair in Germany this October and will be available from the Days of Wonder European webstore and game stores in Europe at the same time. It will be available from the US webstore, and in game stores throughout the rest of the world in November. Learn more on the Ticket to Ride Nederland web page.

Game Review – Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
Number of Players	2 - 3
Play Time	45 minutes
Ages	8 years and up

Since Days of Wonder recently announced their Ticket to Ride World Championship, I decided that it would be a good time to review another game in the Ticket to Ride family.  This time I have chosen Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.

The theme of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries is the players are owners of train companies that are building rail lines in the Northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.   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 a ticket the player loses the number of points on the ticket.  Points are also scored for placing trains between two cities on the board.  The more trains needed the more points are scored.

The core rules of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries are the same as all of the other games in the Ticket to Ride family.  The players start out the game with five tickets that have destinations that they can connect of which they must keep at least two.  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 called a Locomotive Card that 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 two additional tickets and keep at least one.

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.

There are two special rules for the Nordic Countries variant of the game and two special track types that can be built in the game. 

First there are the two track types.  They are Ferries and Tunnels.  These track types started to be added to the variants with the release of Ticket to Ride Europe.  In order to place a Ferry a certain number of Locomotive Cards must be included in the set of cards being used to claim the route.  This is usually one or two wild cards and will depend on the location of the route being claimed.  When placing a tunnel the player may need to lay out additional cards to complete the route.  The player puts down the initial cards they are using to claim a tunnel route.  Then the top three cards train cards in the deck are revealed.  If any of them are the same color as the route requires or a Locomotive Card, the player must add an additional card to the set he is using to claim the route equaling the number of cards reveled in the draw to be able to complete the route.  If the Player cannot do this then they can take back the cards they were using and try again on a future turn.

The special rules for Ticket to Ride are the rules that are specific to this variant.  The first is that Locomotive Cards can only be used to help claim Ferries and Tunnels.  This limits the versatility of the Locomotive Cards when compares to of versions of Ticket to Ride.

The other special rule regards a specific route on the board, the Murmansk – Lieksa route.  For this 9 train route, a player may use 4 cards of any type, including Locomotive Cards, to replace a single card in the set when claiming the route.  For example, the route can be claimed using 7 red cards and 8 other cards which represent the other two cards.

I find Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries to be a good edition to the Ticket to Ride family.  It does have the limitation of being only a 2 – 3 player game.  It does come as a complete game unlike most of the other variant editions, so you do not need to have a set of Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride Europe around to be able to play it.

The thing to remember when playing the game is that even though the board looks like there is plenty of room on it and there will be very little competition for routes, there are a number of choke points on the board so you need to be careful when selecting your tickets during the game or you may find yourself losing a lot of points at the end of the game.

If you enjoy any of the Ticket to Ride family of games, Ticket to Ride: Nordic Counties is a worthy edition to your collection.  Like all of the Ticket to Ride games it is a great game to use to introduce people to board gaming.  The rules are simple to learn and game play usually lasts about 60 – 75 minutes.  It can be more of a challenge to play with three players than either Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride Europe because the bard is designed to play with a maximum of three players.  This is something to take into consideration it you regularly play with only three players.  

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.

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