Stories from the blackest train (Ticket to Ride)

Yesterday we played two games of original version of Ticket to Ride.

We had four players around. Two of them had never played the game before, and I have played Ticket to Ride only once before.

Still everyone caught up with the game mechanics quite soon, so I guess you can say it's a game that is easy to learn. About mastering it I cannot say anything, yet.

Last time I played Ticket to Ride it was with three players, and now, even with only one player more there was a lot tougher competition over railway connections. The "pro player" in our group said that the game is best when played by maximum number of players, and I can believe that. It would even further escalate the disappearance of viable railroads.

The first game ended in victory for the most experienced player with final scoreboard being: 134, 124, 117 and 103. In this particular game the 10 points you get from longest continous railroad made the victor. If anyone of the top 3 would have gotten it, it would've changed the winner.

In the second game everyone had gotten a little bit better understanding of the game and competition was tougher.

And this time victory didn't favor the bold: game ended when our veteran still needed to make two easy connections. This resulted in about 30 negative points instead of over 40 additional points.

Final scoreboard was 116, 105, 105, 38.

One-Way Ticket to Ride

So, I was off to go painting with a friend this day.

As an added bonus we played a three player Ticket to Ride there.

I have never played Ticket to Ride before, actually. But I should have known I could not avoid it forever, heh.

Anyway, it was a fun game where you build up these railroads all across North America.

Gameplay has striking similarities to Thurn und Taxis - I can only guess that Thurn und Taxis has "borrowed" a couple of elements to its mechanics from the success of Ticket to Ride. For example, there is always cards on the board and cards in the deck and you can choose if you draw cards from the ones visible on table, or if you prefer to take a chance and draw blind cards from deck.

I think I like Ticket to Ride more, since there is more player interaction than in Thurn und Taxis. In Thurn und Taxis you can only try to take the cards you think your opponents need. In Ticket to Ride you also compete from the actual routes, and building your companys railroad to a wrong place can really mess up other player's game.

So, all in all, Ticket to Ride was a good experience. I can totally understand why it has become such a hit. It's fun and light enough for a little game now and then, when you got the spare time.

The winner scored something above 130 points, second player was somewhere in between 110 and 120 and me, the newbie, had 94 or 97 points, don't remember which.