Board Game: Ticket to Ride

Hilde and I recently purchased a new board game called “Ticket to Ride”. I first heard about this board game while listening to Gaming Steve’s podcast, and it also won Game of the Year at Spiel des Jahres 2004, something that pretty much will guarantee a board games success.

The board game is really easy to play, but you’ll also discover some interesting strategies as you start to learn the rules of the game. You earn points by building railroad routes between connected cities, and you’ll get extra points if you have the longest route by the end of the game. When you start you also receive secret goals (Tickets) that you have to fulfill, which gives you the task of connecting two cities far apart. The longer apart the cities are, the more points are given upon successful completion, but likewise you will lose points if you have not completed your goals at the end of the game. You must have a minimum of two tickets, but you can also choose to draw more if you wish.

Since I only see Hilde at the weekends for a few more months while she is away, we’ve only gotten to play three rounds so far (I’ve won two of them!) and we really love this game. It is a very good risk vs reward game, many fun strategies to learn, and easy enough for non-elf&orc-lovers to get in to.

Hilde is completely in love with this game and wants to play it all the time. She does not see the value of sitting down and evaluating your previous moves and contemplating a new strategy. This is why she does not win more. I win more.

I am a winner.