Do You Have A Ticket To Ride?

Quick update on Bloodborne: I'm a little over level 60 now and I'm still going strong. With that out of the way, let's get into it. Ticket to Ride! Not only is it a catchy Beatles song, but it is also a pretty fun board game. Their concept is simple: Build railroads.

The game takes place during the railroad development of the United States (and parts of Canada); so essentially sometime during the 1800s. Everyone starts the game with a few objective cards that basically outline which cities you have to try to connect. An example would be creating a railroad from Seattle to New York. You can get there in a very direct way, or in some crazy abstract way, your choice. Each of these objective cards is worth points. If you complete them by the end of the game you collect said points. If you fail however, you are deducted them...pretty balls.

Ticket to Ride is pretty straight forward outside of that. To make a railway you need to have an appropriate amount of train cards of the right colour. So if you want to make a 4 length green road, you need 4 green cards (or ones substituted with a wildcard). To get these cards, each turn you can grab one of the 4 face up cards—if you don't mind people knowing which colour you are going for—or one of the face down cards. You get to pick 2 of these per turn, or 1 face up wildcard if one is available. You get points immediately for making railways. The longer the road, the more points you are awarded.

Turns usually go by pretty fast, and the game starts to breeze by once everyone gets the hang of it. I found myself focusing on pretty long cross country routes which ended up working in my favor. At one point I drew a few extra objective cards and each of the 3 I drew were already completed! Safe to say, after people found that out, they lost interest in playing anymore haha. The game was pretty much over at that point anyway.

My main concern with the game is why would you ever try to mess with someone else's routes? I focused my efforts and cards on my own objectives, ignoring everyone else. I could have put in a little effort messing with someone's lines, but what would that have gotten me? I would have wasted resources on a useless route I didn't need. Furthermore, a lot of the routes have multiple passageways, so two people can build along it no problem. So in order to really mess with someone, a lot of the time you need someone else's help too. Strategically, if you notice weak spots in your route, such as a single lane road that is short, take it first. Prioritize those routes people can mess with.

Overall I did have a lot if fun with the Ticket to Ride—I did win after all, haha, so that also helps. And compared to some of the high stress board games you can play, Ticket To Ride is a pretty relaxed affair. I would easily recommend it to anyone looking to get some of their friends who might not be into boardgames to join in.