Ticket To Ride Board Game Night

My husband and I went to our friend's house Saturday night for board game night! When we get together with these friends we usually play Settlers of Catan, Phase 10 or Blokus. Our friends acquired a new game recently, Ticket to Ride. So we opted to play Ticket to Ride for a new experience.

Like some of the other Board Games, Ticket to Ride is a very fun strategy board game. Each person starts out with 48 individual train pieces. You are also given three destination cards. The destination cards list two cities that you must connect together with your trains. They also list a point value. Some of these cards are easy to connect and are only worth a few points. Others are more complicated and can get you 20 or more points. The catch is that if you do not connect your destinations then you receive negative points. You are allowed to discard one of these destinations but must make the other two.

Another component of the game is train cards. These cards can be one of eight different colors and then there are also wild cards. You need to collect these cards in order to place your trains on the board. Some routes on the board can be linked by any color and others indicate a specific color. Besides being various colors, these routes also vary in length; routes can be anywhere from one to six trains long.

Points are given according to the length of the routes you build. One train is worth one point whereas a train six long is worth 15 points. The person who has the longest continuous route receives and extra ten points.

We played two games Saturday night. The first game my husband and I were trying to figure out all the rules and strategies to the game. My husband still managed to win even though we had never played before. Part of the reason he won was due to our friends turning against each other at the end of the game causing one of them to lose a bunch of her points because she could not complete her destination cards. I did not feel too bad because she caused me to lose points by blocking my route and making me miss my destination as well. Ticket to Ride can get a little ruthless at the end when everyone is battling to make their destinations. The game gets pretty intense but very fun.

The second game we all understood how to play so it was every man for himself! I wound up kicking butt on the second game. I started out with three high scoring complicated destinations but managed to make them all without anyone getting in my way. I had the whole west coast of the US to myself for the first half of the game. This allowed me to get my destinations before everyone else. It got a little intense for me trying to make my last destination because it stretched all the way across the board from Vancouver to Montreal. Luckily I was able to get there before anyone had a chance to mess up my route. I also was able to continue my train route down the bottom as well giving me the longest route. My train stretched around most of the outer border of the US. No one else was even close to taking the longest train route away from me. I also managed to place trains in several places that were five or six trains long giving me more points.

Overall we really enjoyed playing Ticket to Ride. Of course it didn't hurt that my husband and I each one a game. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone looking for a little challenge and fun. Another great thing about Ticket to Ride is the length of time it takes to play the game. It is relatively fast paced and a game can be completed within 30-60 minutes. So it is not a board game that goes on and on like monopoly. I liked that we were able to play a couple games allowing more people to have a chance at winning. Ticket to Ride is a Board Game that can be quickly learned and the rules are very easy to understand. I highly recommend buying this game for some family fun or fun with friends!

Peter Jaystore is a partner at Variety Access, Your Online Hobby Store and More!! At http://www.VarietyAccess.com you can learn more about board games and other hobbies.

By Peter Jaystore