Review: Ticket to Ride

Introducción

On a cloudy autumn afternoon, five old friends meet in the private room of one of the city’s oldest and most exclusive clubs. All of them had traveled there from the most remote corners of the globe to meet on that precise date: October 2, 1900. Exactly 28 years had passed since the day that eccentric Londoner, Phileas Fogg, accepted a challenge that would win him 20,000 pounds: to travel around the world in 80 days. When the story of Fogg’s triumphal journey filled the front pages of every newspaper that day, the five were students at the same university. Inspired by this impetuous challenge, and by a few pints at the local pub, the group of friends decided to commemorate the occasion with a somewhat more modest excursion and reward: a bottle of fine Bordeaux for the first to reach Le Procope in Paris. Each successive year they met to celebrate the anniversary and pay tribute to Fogg. And each year a new expedition was proposed (always riskier) and a new prize (always higher). Now, at the dawn of a new century, it is time to set out on an even more impossible journey. The prize: 1 million dollars for the winner. The bet: to see who can visit the most North American cities by train in just 7 days. The journey begins now… Ticket to Ride is a train adventure across the United States and Canada. Players compete by connecting train lines between different cities on a map of North America.

This is how we are presented with Ticket to Ride, or ¡Aventureros al Tren! as it has been named in Spanish. A design by Alan R. Moon, responsible for other games such as San Marco, Airlines Europe, or Elfenland. The game was first published in 2004 by Days of Wonder in an English version. The illustrations are handled by Cyrille Daujean (Memoir ’44, Quadropolis, Citadels) and Julien Delval (The Castles of Burgundy, Macao, BattleLore).

It is published in Spanish by Edge Entertainment (although the game is completely language-independent except for the rulebook). It allows for games of 2 to 5 players, with a suggested minimum age of 8 years and an approximate duration of between 30 and 60 minutes. The MSRP is €43.95. For this review, a review copy of the Spanish version from Edge Entertainment was used.

Importante: si ya conoces el juego y/o sólo te interesa mi opinión sobre el mismo, puedes pasar directamente al apartado de Opinión. Los apartados Contenido y Mecánica están destinados especialmente a aquellos que no conocen el juego y prefieren hacerse una idea general de cómo funciona.

Ir a la Opinión Personal

Contenido

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), with dimensions 29.7×29.7×7.2 cm (standard square box type Ticket to Ride), we find the following components:

• Main Board (cardboard)
• 240 Train Cars (45 of each of the five colors plus 1 spare)
• 142 Cards (44×68 mm):
  • 110 Train Car Cards (12 of each color and 14 locomotives)
  • 30 Destination Ticket Cards
  • Summary Card
  • Longest Route Bonus Card
• 5 Score Markers (wooden)
• Rulebook

Mecánica

Ticket to Ride is a game in which players manage railway companies established across the geography of a region, in this case, the United States of America. To do this, they must claim railway routes that will connect two cities, obtaining a number of points depending on the length of the route. These routes are made up of a certain number of spaces that correspond to the number of cards of the matching color that the players must collect. On each turn, the active player will choose between drawing new cards into their hand, claiming an available route using cards from their hand, or drawing new destination ticket cards. These ticket cards provide an additional bonus if players manage to connect the two cities via their routes, although they will be penalized at the end of the game if they are not completed.

Conceptos Básicos

Let’s start with the Board. This shows a map of the United States of America, marking the most important cities and interconnecting them with a series of routes made up of a certain number of spaces (from 1 to 6). In turn, these routes can have a neutral color (gray) or have a defined color out of eight possibilities (blue, green, red, yellow, orange, pink, white, or black). Some routes will be double routes and, depending on the player count, both can be occupied or not. Surrounding the board we find a score track with spaces numbered from 0 to 99. Finally, in the lower right corner, we have a summary of the victory points provided by each route length.

To indicate ownership of a route, players will have a set of Train Cars of their color. Each player has a pool of forty-five train cars, and when a player reduces their pool below 3 cars, the end of the game is triggered. Every time a route is claimed, players score victory points according to its length.

To keep track of victory points, each player will have a Score Marker that will progress along the score track during the game as routes are claimed.

In order to claim a route, the player must collect as many Train Car Cards of the matching color as the route has spaces (if a route is neutral-colored, any color can be used, but all cards must be of the same color). These cards will be arranged in a common face-up pool of five cards. The deck consists of fourteen cards of each of the eight colors, featuring an identifying symbol in the corners for those who have trouble differentiating colors. Additionally, there is a ninth type of card, the locomotives, which act as a wild card, being able to replace a card of any color. As a general rule, players can draw 2 cards, but if they choose a face-up locomotive, then they can only draw one card.

Finally, we have a second type of card, the Destination Ticket Cards. These cards highlight two cities on the map that the player must try to connect through a continuous path of routes under their ownership. If this requirement is met at the end of the game, the player scores the victory points indicated in the lower right corner. Otherwise, the player will be penalized with that same amount of victory points. Additionally, we will have a special ticket that is awarded at the end of the game to the player who has managed to build the longest continuous path of train cars between two cities without passing through the same train car twice.

That is all we need to know.

Preparación de la Partida

1. The main board is deployed in the center of the table.
2. The train car card deck is shuffled and placed to one side, revealing the top five cards to form the face-up pool.
3. The destination ticket card deck is shuffled and set aside.
4. The end-of-game bonus card is set aside.
5. Each player chooses a color and receives a score marker (which is placed on the 0 space of the score track), 45 train cars of their color (placed in their play area), 4 train car cards drawn from the deck, and 3 destination ticket cards drawn from the deck.
6. Simultaneously, each player looks at their destination ticket cards and decides how many to keep and how many to discard, being required to keep at least 2 of them. Discarded cards are placed at the bottom of the destination ticket deck.
7. Finally, a starting player is randomly chosen.

Now we can begin!

Desarrollo de la Partida

A game of Ticket to Ride takes place over an indefinite number of turns alternated by the players, starting with the initial player and continuing clockwise.

On each turn, the active player must resolve one of these three possible actions:

• Draw Train Car Cards. The player draws a first train car card, which can be from the five face-up options or blind from the deck, and adds it to their hand. If they chose one of the visible cards, the space is immediately replenished by revealing the next card from the deck. If at this moment three face-up locomotive cards are visible, all five cards are discarded and five new cards are revealed. After this, and unless the chosen card was a face-up locomotive, the player draws a second card proceeding in the same way (in this case, they could not choose a face-up locomotive). Locomotives drawn directly from the top of the deck are not taken into account for these limitations.
• Claim a Route. The player chooses an open route on the map, discards as many train car cards of the corresponding color as the route has spaces, and places train cars on each of these spaces. A locomotive acts as a wild card. After this, the player scores the points corresponding to the length of the claimed route. In 2/3 player games, only one of the two routes can be claimed in double routes. In 4/5 player games, two different players can claim each of the two routes in double routes.
• Draw Destination Tickets. The player draws 3 destination ticket cards from the deck, examines them, and decides how many to keep in their hand, being required to choose at least one. The ones they do not want to keep are placed at the bottom of the deck.

After this, the turn passes to the player on the left.

Fin de la Partida

The end of the game is triggered when, at the end of a player’s turn, they have 2 or fewer train cars left in their personal supply. All players will have one final turn, including the one who triggered the end of the game (who will be the last to play).

Now players reveal their destination ticket cards and score points if they managed to connect the destinations. Otherwise, players lose the points indicated on the card.

Finally, the player with the longest continuous path of train cars will get the longest route bonus (in case of a tie, all tied players get the bonus).

The player with the most victory points will be the winner. In case of a tie, the winner will be the one who has completed the most destination ticket cards. If the tie persists, the winner will be the one with the longest continuous path among the tied players.

Opinión Personal

Surely more than one or two of my faithful readers are wondering what the reason is for this tocho-review. A widely known game, of which I even have analyses of spin-offs and expansions. The short and honest answer would be because I felt like it and it was a pending debt I had. The more elaborate answer would be because it never hurts to talk again about one of the most important designs when it comes to modern board gaming.

That said, since my backlog of tocho-reviews is already considerable and most of you are about to digest the text wall that is coming, I will try to innovate in some way. Although we shouldn’t rule out that you are new around here, so get comfortable, enjoy the read, and if you liked it, well, you have plenty to choose from to keep diving deeper into this wonderful hobby.

In Ticket to Ride we find ourselves with a light-medium weight game of the kind that can be brought out to practically any player, with simple rules, accessible concepts, and, a priori, a swiftness in the pace of the game that is greatly appreciated.

The goal of the players is none other than to try to accumulate the greatest amount of victory points possible. This will be achieved through two main avenues. The first, by claiming predetermined routes on a map that interconnect the most important cities in the United States of America. Depending on the size of the route, more or fewer points will be obtained.

The second, and what usually tips the balance of the games, are the tickets, which are cards that highlight two cities that players will try to connect through an uninterrupted path of routes under their ownership.

In this way, the game poses long-term goals (the tickets) and short-term goals (the routes), so players will compete to grab the key routes that allow them to complete these goals.

The core pillar of the game’s flow is found in a hand management system combined with open drafting, mechanics through which players will obtain train car cards of the colors that match the routes, later turning in the corresponding number of cards to mark said route with pieces of their color, securing the connection between both cities.

At first glance, it seems like a simple design where players sitting down at the table for the first time tend to just accumulate cards of the required routes according to their tickets to then move on to a phase of claiming routes in a cascade, just in case any of the routes they had in mind to claim gets occupied and they have to take a detour.

Right here arises what truly is the fundamental engine of the game, that is, tempo management. And the thing is that Ticket to Ride is one of those games that has a certain hot-potato factor, where tension builds up turn by turn until hostilities break out. Because the moment a player claims a route, they are providing certain information to the rest of the players about their intentions.

Those novice players usually won’t pay attention to their rivals and will limit themselves to trying to claim the routes of their interest, momentarily lamenting when they find that one of their rivals has beaten them to it.

However, as experience is gained, sitting down at the table with a knife between your teeth will be a constant. The key to victory will lie not only in succeeding to connect the cities indicated on our ticket cards, but in preventing rivals from doing the same.

This reveals layers of depth, reaching a supreme level where players try to keep track of the cards that have been revealed in the pool and drawn by players, with the idea of evaluating the odds of getting the necessary cards when competing for long-haul routes. Let’s not forget that in the deck there are fourteen cards of each color, so gathering six of a specific color is no easy task, especially in games with a high player count.

To this, we add the competition to make the longest route, which leads players to try to manage their ticket cards in such a way that, by making a massive route, they manage to maximize the number of completed tickets. Something that, of course, is not easy to achieve because the rest of the rivals will make it difficult.

It is important to talk about the influence of luck, because in Ticket to Ride it is an important and very present element. It is possible that those first-time players complain about the luck of the draw when replenishing the pool, but where Lady Luck can truly tip the scales to one side or the other is in the dealing of the ticket cards. In this sense, we find very disparate values depending on the complexity of the task.

Tickets that require connecting relatively close cities will provide few points, while tickets that require crossing a few states will grant a much more remarkable reward. Sure, having one of these large routes can mean a competitive advantage in the sense that it forces the player to plot a specific route and then rely on it to complete additional tickets that share part of said route.

The opposite is usually an uphill battle from the start, as finding yourself in the initial setup with three destination tickets that do not share routes is an absolute nuisance. It’s true that, if they are short-range routes, we can risk keeping them all with the idea of completing them quickly to then get new routes. Or directly draw new ticket cards in one of the first actions of the game and, thus, look for a more interesting combination by having more ticket cards than our rivals.

Be that as it may, the normal thing will be that in that great virtual route that we project in our minds during those initial turns, there will be key routes that will practically require us to claim them as soon as possible, because otherwise, it is possible that our initial plan could even become unfeasible if we have been too ambitious.

And you have to be very careful with the train car supply, because it is not uncommon to find cases where players dive into the deep end without knowing if there is water, drawing new destination tickets thinking they are not difficult to complete according to the routes already in their possession, but when they get down to work they realize they no longer have enough train cars to claim the routes they needed, at which point the lamentations begin to be heard.

As you can see, despite looking like a game without too many pretensions, we are looking at a marvel of design that it is no surprise has become one of the hobbies’ cornerstones. One of the most common gateways to this wonderful hobby and one that should be found in any collection worth its salt. Furthermore, it is a game that stands the test of time wonderfully. What’s more, out of what we know as the Holy Trinity of Board Games, composed of the game that occupies us today along with Carcassonne (here is its tocho-review) and Catan, it is the one that best maintains its essence as the games go by. It is very hard to get tired of Ticket to Ride.

All in all, perfection does not exist and the game has small rough edges that give rise to certain dynamics that end up leading to a forgettable experience. The first is the flow of the game. Under normal conditions and with players acting with a certain briskness, Ticket to Ride is one of those games that doesn’t give you a breather. However, it won’t be the first or last time that we have players at the table who overthink things too much, trying to square the circle when choosing which cards to select, which leads to a choppy pace that is fatal for this design.

The second is that possibility the game gives us of hoarding cards like there’s no tomorrow. It is a viable strategy (although usually not recommended because surely they will beat us to the routes we are interested in), but it gives rise to a dynamic that leaves a bittersweet aftertaste, because the player who follows it will increase their hand size until it becomes almost unmanageable (some kind of card holder wouldn’t hurt). The thing is that the larger the hand, the more doubts are generated for the player when deciding when to use them. I think it is important to point out to new players the importance of optimizing their turns, and that drawing and drawing doesn’t usually lead to a good place.

And well, the already mentioned effect of luck and how at specific moments a player can be benefited/harmed according to the designs of the fates, although in this case I consider that luck is fair and necessary to balance the games. Otherwise, experienced players would have a huge advantage over those sitting down for the first time before this design, something that, in a way, would go against the primordial goal of Ticket to Ride regarding gaming satisfaction, which is none other than allowing any type of player to sit at the table and enjoy the experience.

Another important aspect of the game is its scalability. Ticket to Ride, in general, works very well with any configuration it admits, but due to the characteristics of this map, I would say that the optimal counts are three and four players. At two players there is too much open space and it is a map without great bottlenecks, so it loses a point of tension, while at five players the downtime can be harmed without the level of tension increasing. But as I say, it scales wonderfully.

As for replayability, despite the fact that variability is relatively low (only the ticket cards we draw change from one game to another), it is one of those games with a touch of magic that you always feel like playing. If you like Ticket to Ride, it is very hard to say no to a game when someone proposes it. Still, when you’ve already played many games on a map, there is always the possibility of widening the range and acquiring one of the many maps that make up the collection, each with its own quirks.

Let’s move on to production. Ticket to Ride is Days of Wonder’s flagship product. And as such, the production level is quite remarkable, highlighting those wonderful train car pieces to mark claimed routes. The cards are of good stock, magnificent snap, and linen finish, although it is true that, unlike other versions, here we find ourselves with small-sized cards that, while not creating issues when playing, are slightly more awkward than American-sized cards (something that is fixed with the 1910 expansion). The rulebook is perfectly structured and leaves no room for doubt.

Regarding the illustrations, Cyrille and Julien’s work is an example of practicality and love for detail. It’s true that the map is perhaps one of the least remarkable in terms of details scattered across it, though this results in greater ease when locating cities. On the other hand, both the cards and the cover have achieved iconic status. A magnificent job. As the only complaint I’ve always had, I think it generates some confusion that the players’ colors coincide with several of the route colors. The ideal thing would have been to resort to different shades.

And let’s wrap this up. Ticket to Ride is an absolutely essential game in any collection worth its salt. It is a light-medium weight suitable for all types of players, with numerous layers of depth that allow both novice and the most experienced players to enjoy the games. It is swift, it is fun, and it is tense. Few bad things can be said about this masterpiece, although it is true that luck can tip the scales in some games and it allows players to adopt certain strategies that can cause a somewhat choppy pace. But otherwise, it is a game you must have. Not necessarily this game, although being the original gives it a point of mysticism that suits it great. For all this, I give it an…