If a true measure of success of a board game is the frequency with which one plays that game, Ticket to Ride Europe is, in our opinion, a very successful game, given that it has been played at least once each week over the past year. It is a board game for up to 5 players, and in it the players are required to plot a course round Europe, gathering train cards of various colours to allow them to do so. Each player chooses a colour (the available options are red, blue, yellow, black, and green), with 45 trains per colour. There are also a further 3 ‘extra’ in each colour, but from day one we put all 48 in each bag, and at times a player could do with more carriages beside.
Gameplay
At the start of gameplay, each player selects, at random, one of the 6 long route cards, which, if successfully constructed, will give that player either 20 or 21 points towards their final score. In addition to this long route, the shorter route cards, of which there are 40, are also dealt randomly at the beginning of gameplay, with each player receiving 3 short route cards. The long route cards have a blue background, whereas the short route cards are more a brownie-red background. The points for these range from 5 points up to 13, depending on the length of the route itself. The points total for each route corresponds with the minimum number of cards required to claim that route, although the long route from Edinburgh to Athens is worth 21 points, but it can be done with 20 carriages – sneaky wee shortcut for the player lucky enough to pick that route! Before play begins, players must decide if they are rejecting any of their proposed route cards. Nobody is obliged to keep their long route card, but it would be foolish in this blogger’s opinion to dispense with it. At the beginning of gameplay, players must keep at least two of their 4 cards, which they will then try to complete as quickly as possible.
In addition to the route cards, players also receive 4 coloured cards, the colours corresponding to the colours needed to claim a particular route around Europe. 5 further coloured cards are set face up on the table, with the remainder of the deck forming the blind draw pile. There are also locomotive cards, which can act as a wildcard for any colour. However, there will be routes that require 1 or 2 locomotive cards – these spaces are denoted by a train on a grey space. NB the locomotive spaces are only on these grey spaces, which means that the required number of any one colour of cards will enable the player to claim that space.
On a player’s go, he/she can do a number of things. Firstly, they can draw 2 cards, either both from the face-up draw pile, both from the blind draw pile, or a combination thereof. When any of the 5 face up cards is picked by a player, that space is immediately filled with the top card from the blind draw pile. However, if a player wishes to obtain a locomotive card from the face up pile, he/she is only entitled to that 1 card. When a player has amassed the correct number of cards for a given route, he/she can use their next go to claim it, by putting down the required number of cards in the discard pile and placing his/her trains on each space of that route. The length of each individual sub-route will determine the number of points the player earns for that turn. For example, if a player wishes to go from Riga to Wilno, he/she must play 4 green cards, which will move that player’s counter on a further 7 spaces round the outside. As the game progresses, the other move a player can make is to take a further 3 short route cards, and of those three, they must retain a minimum of 1 card, but they can keep all 3 if they so wish.
Some routes are characterised by thick outline marks round each space, which means that these are tunnels. This is definitely a lottery move, because the top 3 cards from the blind draw pile are also drawn, and if any of them matches the colour that the player is attempting to play, he/she must also trade in 1 card of that same colour for each one upturned. For example, if a player wishes to play a tunnel route requiring 3 black cards, and a further 2 are upturned from the draw pile, that player must actually play 5 black cards (3 + those 2) from their hand in order to obtain the route.
One of the most enjoyable/frustrating aspects of the game is that 1 player can block another player from a particular route, not to be cunning, but because it is also necessary for their own route. Should this happen, and inevitably it will, a player can bypass that ‘block’ by putting one of their three stations at either end of the individual blocked pathway. The only cost to the player is that the first station must be accompanied by 1 colour card, of any colour, the second station must be accompanied by 2 cards of the same colour, and the third station, 3 cards of the same colour.
Endgame
The endgame in Ticket to Ride Europe is triggered when one player is reduced to 2 train carriages or fewer. At this point, everyone will have 1 more go (including he/she who triggered the endgame, should they have any carriages remaining in play). Now that the game has concluded, points are tallied up to determine the winner – where’s the fun in playing if you don’t have a winner, right? The player(s) with the longest unbroken train will get a bonus of 10 points, which he/she will move immediately. If 2 or more players have a carriage of equal length, each of those players will receive the 10 points. If a player has completed one of the routes in their hand, he/she will move forward the specified number of points, but failure to complete a given route will result in the total points for that route being deducted from the player’s score – particularly punishing if you discover you have forgotten one leg of your long route card! Once every player’s scores have been worked out, the winner is the player who has progressed furthest round the track, undoubtedly going well over the 100-point mark.
