Recommended Game: Ticket to Ride – Europe

by Coltrane

Title:  Ticket to Ride – Europe

Game Type:  Set Collection – Acquire multiple cards of one color to build train routes in Europe.

Number of Players:  2-5

Complexity of Rules:  Low

Time to Play:  About an hour with 3 people, longer with more.

The concept:   The board is a map of Europe.  Each destination is connected to others by train routes of different lengths and colors.  For example, two destinations might have 4 red “tracks” in between them.  To connect them you would need to play 4 red cards from your hand, which would allow you to play your trains to claim that “track”.  The object of the game is to collect the correct cards to complete routes between selected destinations on the map, seen below (the grey routes are “wild”, any color can be played onto those).  The “strategy part” is managing your hand, the board, and the pace of the game.

Why I like it:  Ticket to Ride – Europe is a “gateway game” for non-gamers.  People who have only played old-school games like Monopoly will like it, and it’s a good introduction to the European-style games that don’t feature a “finish line.”  It’s simple enough that anyone can play but good strategy and game management still get rewarded.   Finally, the crowd doesn’t have to be super focused to play, though it does help the game go faster.

Available at Gary’s Games in Seattle and Amazon.com.  Note that there are many flavors in the Ticket to Ride series of games  — you want the just plain “Europe” version.  (Not “Europa”, not “1912”…)

The BoardGameGeek page.   Reviews are about 2/3 of the way down the page.