After graduation, I was a bum for around three months. With a lot of free time on my hands, and most probably out of sheer boredom, I accumulated a taste for various apps and games. Today, I'll be sharing my experience with one of my favorites: Ticket To Ride.
The rules are pretty easy, but they're hard to understand without actually playing the game. Doesn't mean I'm not gonna try! I taught my mom how to play this game, so I think I'm pretty capable of doing it again. But if you'd rather read a more direct version, there are in-game instructions you can follow to save you from all my hullabaloo. Haha! :)
The Ticket To Ride app features six variants - USA, Europe, Swiss, USA 1910 Classic, USA 1910 Mega (my favorite!), USA 1910 Big Cities and Legendary Asia. For this post, I'll be showing you the USA version, which is I find the easiest and most basic.
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| Extra large so y'all can see what I'm talking about! |
The main objective of the game is to score the highest points by claiming routes (connecting the blue dots between two cities) on destination tickets, which are the three cards at the bottom. Each destination ticket is equivalent to a certain amount of points, which can be found at the lower right corner of each ticket (in this case 20, 9 and 17). For the USA variant, players need to choose at least 2 destination tickets at the start of the game. From the tickets I've selected, I need to connect Montreal to Vancouver to get 20 points, and Portland to Nashville to get 17 points. Follow the blue circles (which turn green in-game) highlighted on the map to know where you're supposed to go.
To complete your destination tickets, players need to claim routes, those colored spaces on the map. Each player is given 45 trains that match the color of their character. You'll see mine at the lower right corner (I'll explain that zero later). Trains are placed on the map each time a player claims a route between two cities. These go hand in hand with train cards, those five cards above my character. Each player starts with four randomly selected train cards. These come in 8 colors that correspond to all the routes in the game . The grey routes are neutral and can be filled with any color train cards (but they have to match!). Locomotives (not pictured) are special train cards that can be played alone or in combination with standard train cards. To claim a route, players need the same number and color as the tiles/lines of that route. So if I plan to claim the route from Vancouver to Calgary, I'll need 3 trains and 3 train cards of any color. And if I want to claim the route between Calgary and Winnipeg, I'll need 6 trains and 6 white train cards. Am I coming through to you? :P
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| All tangled up and whatnot |
Here's a screenshot from a different game, and it's a mess, ain't it? Here you can see all the train card colors and there's the Locomotive - the rainbow colored train card at the very end of my deck (in between my destination tickets and character photo). Every turn, players can either choose train cards from the deck (two train cards or one locomotive) or claim a route. Players can also select more destination cards, found on top of the train cards - but this is advised only if you have either completed your routes and have trains to spare, or if your routes have been completely blocked and you want more points. Only take more tickets if you're sure because you can't cancel the action once you click "yes". Here, you can see at the bottom right next to the destination tickets are numbers that say I've selected three destination tickets and I have one left to complete. To do that, I have to claim the route from Denver to Phoenix. I'll need two more white train cards (or one if I plan to use the Locomotive) and five trains to complete the ticket.
And now to explain the zero! That zero, now replaced with 68 under my character, is the score you get for claiming routes. Since routes have varying lengths and require different numbers of trains and train cards, you can bet that they correspond to different scores. I'm not sure what those scores are though, sorry, haha! But the longer the routes, the higher the score. Trains turn into colored blocks on the map, and show which route has been claimed by a player. Those blue, purple, and green blocks belong to my AI opponents, found at the upper part of the map, and the yellow blocks are mine. Glad to say I'm not the lowest scorer this round. :)
The game ends when a player has two or less trains left. Each player takes a final turn and then points are scored. The player with the highest score wins! To do that, you need to complete all your tickets; not doing so will result in a score deduction for each incomplete ticket. Players also gain ten bonus points for having the longest continuous route on the map.
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| Personal best, USA 1910 Mega. Excuse the username! :) |
And those are the rules! Once you actually put those into action, the game is relatively easy to understand... and addictive, IMHO. It's one of those games that really challenged me, where I find myself cursing because my opponent took the card I needed or cut off my route. Haha! My mom and two sisters play the game too, and there were times that the four of us would play against each other all day - it is that much fun. You can do this by selecting the Pass and Play option if you're using just one device, or the Local option if you have several devices sharing the same WiFi connection. You can also play with others in the Online option. Although I've yet to try the actual board game, I think I'm sticking to the app just because it's more convenient. I believe the original USA is free for downloading and the other versions need to be purchased - go for the USA 1910 Mega because it's relatively easier to score higher in this version.
I hope you understood my explanation even a little, and somehow got encouraged to try the game. Till my next post. Take care everyone! :)
